They’ve been up for a few days, at the usual place. I was just holding off on posting for two reasons. First, I was hoping to hear what the NCAA might say about their 5-7 eligibility policy, considering that I’m four teams short this week. The mainstream media has started to pick up on there not being enough teams this year, so it was in the news, but I haven’t heard an update. Second, I wanted to look for some bowl news but I hadn’t had the chance. I finally checked earlier tonight, and it was not exactly a bumper crop of updates. Hopefully, we’ll get more information after most teams wrap up their regular seasons this weekend.

At this point, most of the non-CFP bowls are still pretty much somewhat educated guesses, but the CFP picture is hardly clearer. These are the teams I view as contenders, based on my projections through the end of the season:

The top two are obvious in these projections: Clemson and Alabama. After that? I have no idea. My gut is to go with Oklahoma and Michigan State in this scenario, but they each have flaws. Here are the arguments for and against Oklahoma, Michigan State, and Notre Dame:

• Notre Dame
• For: Tough schedule
• Against: Lost to Clemson already, no “signature” win (with a loss to Notre Dame, Stanford might well still be Pac-12 champs but also have 3 losses)
• Oklahoma
• For: Tough schedule, wins over all the other Big 12 contenders (true champion), came on strong the past few weeks
• Against: By far the worst loss in the table
• Michigan State
• For: Defeated two previously unbeaten teams (again: my projections), Big Ten Champs
• Against: Not exactly dominant (led zero minutes in wins against Ohio State and Michigan), Nebraska isn’t the worst loss here but it’s not good

Of course, this is all off the table if any of these teams lose this weekend or next, but hey, that’s the fun part of all this. Stay tuned!

They’re late but they’re here.

First, let’s start with the “Not Enough Teams” watch. This time around, I’ve got 78 teams for 80 slots. I will say that I tried to be a bit more optimistic this time around, and well having more data always helps. I’m naturally not a very optimistic person, but if I had to guess, I think we’re going to make it.

I’ll do my first breakdown of the year.

Playoff
I went with Clemson, Baylor, Alabama, and Ohio State in that order. I would say my jilted team in this case would the winner of the Notre Dame/Stanford game, assuming they win out otherwise. We’ve still got plenty of season to go, though. It’s entirely possible the Big 12’s round-robin schedule will eat its own children again, or Ohio State losing to Michigan State.

The last slot of the playoff controlled bowls was probably the toughest, though. I went back and modified my predictions so that I had Utah beating UCLA and wining the Pac-12 South, which allowed me to slot them into the Fiesta Bowl. The winner of the American is probably still on the fast-track to the Group of Five slot, though the question is if it’ll be Houston or Navy, I’d think. Otherwise, I don’t think my picks are controversial at this point.

ACC
I have North Carolina winning the Coastal, but I don’t think a two-loss UNC (one current loss plus a loss to Clemson in the ACC championship game) is going to get into a CFP-controlled bowl. Otherwise, the picks proceed apace. I have Virginia Tech edging into a bowl on the back of a Frank Beamer farewell tour, even if that means a return to the Military Bowl for a second straight year. Coach-less and 7-5 Miami get sent to Detroit.

Big 12
With TCU’s loss to Oklahoma State, I have them taking a loss to Baylor. I’m not sure a two loss TCU makes it into the CFP-controlled bowls. I don’t think Oklahoma is going to fare well in their backloaded schedule, either. I have Texas, Texas Tech, and West Virginia finishing 6-6. Kansas State figures to just miss out.

Big Ten
Michigan State’s shock loss to Nebraska removes them from CFP-bowl contention, while not really doing much for Nebraska’s own bowl prospects, so that has to be a bummer for the Big Ten. In fact, I don’t have the Big Ten west faring well as a whole, with that sixth win likely eluding Illinois as well as Nebraska and Minnesota.

Pac-12
The Pac-12 is doing its part, especially with probably the best ever team to lose to a FCS team, Washington State, likely to finish 8-4 at this point. (Seriously, who saw that coming back in September?)

SEC
The SEC figures to be the only conference to get three teams into the CFP-controlled bowls, but the drop off does seem pretty stark after Alabama, LSU, and Florida. The best of the bunch seems to be a 9-3 Georgia. (Yeah.) But hey, I did manage to set up a Texas-Texas A&M matchup in the Texas Bowl. (Seriously, it’s just too perfect, which is probably why it won’t happen. But seriously, the Texas Bowl! Come on!)

Group of Five
As I said earlier, the winner of Houston-Navy figures to have the best shot at the Group of Five slot, followed by Temple probably. Undefeated Toledo may have had a shot, but that likely slipped away.

The latest predictions are up, for what that’s worth. Why so glum?

I still have an unprecedented seven open bowl slots. I’m pretty sure I’ve never gotten into November hurting for teams, but this year looks particularly dire. It may be worth noting some regulars that do not appear in this week’s edition:

• Virginia Tech (2nd longest active bowl streak at 22 years)
• Georgia Tech (tied-3rd longest active bowl streak at 18 years)
• Nebraska (perennial power)
• South Carolina (consistently made bowls under Spurrier)
• Kansas State (is the magic running out?)

And those are power five teams that have been to a bowl at least the past five years in a row.

Part of the problem are also the smaller teams. After usually getting an automatic loss or two in the early part of the season, these teams are behind the eight-ball in getting to six wins. Here’s how many I have getting in from each of the minor conferences:

• American: 7/13
• Conference USA: 7/12
• Mid-American: 6/14
• Mountain West: 6/12
• Sun Belt: 5/11

The Power 5 aren’t much better. I have half the ACC Atlantic missing on a bowl game, for instance.

Hopefully, it’s a situation that improves in the next couple of weeks, or else this is going to start getting tough.

They’re late but they’re up. I’m three teams short again, huzzah!

Just in case, I looked up the top 5 in the most recent APR scores in case I need some 5-7 teams. Problem is, it has to be one of the top five in the APR, and no in that group is looking likely to finish 5-7. (Indeed, they’ll all probably finish with much better records.) Again, there is no need to panic just yet, because as upsets happen things will shake out. That said, also for that reason I’m not comfortable doing a full analysis just yet. Look for that after Week 10 of the season, I’d say.

It’s that time once again. In the interest of not burying the lead, here’s a direct link to the first edition of the 2015 bowl predictions.

Again, the process is the same that I’ve been using in the past few years, though without the BCS part. The key thing to realize is that I go through every team, look at their remaining schedule, and then try to figure out how many more games they will win. This early, this tends to not be a very exact science, as since this is college football we’re talking about, wacky upsets happen.

This time around, for the time in a long time (if ever), I’m actually short three teams. Of course, we have 80 possible bids this year, so the fact I’m predicting 77 of the sport’s 127 teams at this level will have .500 records or better is still pretty astounding. This is where the previous paragraph comes in: since upsets will happen and some teams will improve while others get worse, you’ll have a team that really closes out the year and rallies to a 8-4 record while another might slump to 7-5 after starting 5-2. It’s hard to call these things, sometimes. Nonetheless, I probably do need to see which teams would be eligible at 5-7, if it comes to that.

In previous years, I released the picks this week because this is usually when the first BCS standings came out. Without the BCS I’m now trying to guess what a group of thirteen people will vote on in a conference room in Dallas in a couple of weeks. To give an idea of what I mean by my not predicting a lot of upsets, though, the teams in the playoffs and the committee-controlled bowls all have two losses or less by my current predictions, which will probably not wind up being the case by the time December rolls around.

So, to reiterate: it’s early. If I have your team in the Boca Raton Bowl instead of the Orange Bowl, don’t panic. I’m probably wrong.