Week Fourteen Bowl Projections
Mark Schlabach (ESPN) – Wisconsin vs. South Carolina
Brad Edwards (ESPN) – Wisconsin vs. South Carolina
Scout.com/CollegeFootballNews.com – Wisconsin vs. Auburn
Jerry Palm – Wisconsin vs. Missouri
ESPN Big Ten & SEC Blogs – Wisconsin vs. Missouri
Big Ten Network– Wisconsin vs. Missouri
SB Nation– Wisconsin vs. Auburn
Athlon Sports– Michigan State vs. Texas A&M
Sporting News– Wisconsin vs. Missouri
Off Tackle Empire– Wisconsin vs. Missouri
Orlando Sentinel– Wisconsin vs. Missouri
Stewart Mandel/SI– Wisconsin vs. Missouri
USA Today– Wisconsin vs. South Carolina
With the final week of bowl projections arriving, Wisconsin and Missouri are the experts most common picks to head to Orlando for this season’s Capital One Bowl. Michigan State remains in one projection out of the Big Ten with South Carolina, Auburn and Texas A&M as other SEC teams to appear in at least one projection.
Wisconsin (9-3, 6-2 Big Ten) fell in its regular season finale, 31-24, to Penn State. Freshman Christian Hackenberg led the Nittany Lions with 339 passing yards and four touchdowns in the upset win. Penn State was able to hold Wisconsin scoreless for 29:27 in the middle of the game and while scoring 24 unanswered of their own.
Michigan State (11-1, 8-0 Big Ten) remains in this week’s projections as the Athlon Sports pick to head to Orlando. The Spartans wrapped up a perfect Big Ten regular season with a 14-3 win over Minnesota last weekend. Michigan State’s fourth ranked scoring defense limited the Gophers to just 249 total yards including just 87 yards in the second half. The Spartans advance to the Big Ten Championship game in Indianapolis this weekend where they will take on Ohio State (12-0, 8-0 Big Ten).
Missouri (11-1, 7-1 SEC) leads the way for the SEC in this week’s bowl projections. The Tigers clinched a berth in the SEC Championship game thanks to a 28-21 win over Texas A&M last weekend. L’Damian Washington and Dorial Green-Beckham each had more than 90 yards receiving and a touchdown grab in the win. Win a win in the SEC Championship game on Saturday against Auburn (11-1, 7-1 SEC), Missouri would clinch its first BCS bowl appearance.
South Carolina (10-2, 6-2 SEC) won its fifth straight Battle of the Palmetto State with a 31-17 win over Clemson. Connor Shaw threw for 152 yards and a touchdown and added 94 yards and a touchdown on the ground. The Gamecocks narrowly missed out on a trip to the SEC Championship game due to the Missouri win.
Auburn (11-1, 7-1 SEC) pulled out an improbable34-28 victory over Alabama in the Iron Bowl thanks to a 109 yard missed field goal return for a touchdown by Chris Davis on the game’s final play. With the win the Tigers advanced to the SEC Championship game for the first time since 2010.
Texas A&M (8-4, 4-4 SEC) remains in the projections as Athon Sports’ pick to head to Orlando. The Tiger defense limited reigning Heisman winner Johnny Manziel to just 195 yards and a touchdown and only 21 rushing yards. The Aggies dropped their second straight game for the first time since 2011.
Looking back at the last 14 weeks of projections shows just how crazy a year it has been in the SEC and Big Ten alike. This season we have looked at 152 total projections for each conference, Wisconsin leads the way out of the Big Ten appearing in 57 projections and South Carolina leading the SEC with 38 projections. Wisconsin is the only team out of either conference to appear in at least one projection each week during the season. There were 26 different matchups projected by the experts during the season with Wisconsin vs. South Carolina being the single most projected game having been projected 18 times. The next closest projection was Michigan State vs. South Carolina which appeared 14 times. In addition, Wisconsin is the only team to appear in projections against every one of the projected SEC opponents: Missouri, Texas A&M, South Carolina, LSU, Auburn, Florida and Georgia.