Updated Bowl Projections - through Week 12

The first piece to the BCS puzzle was set into place this past Saturday as Ohio State continued their perfect season with a 42-39 victory over Michigan. Of course, now, the media slant is on to try and manufacture a possible rematch between the Wolverines and the Buckeyes in the BCS Title Game. For some reason, these so-called 'experts' think that a game involving two teams from a mediocre conference (only 3 ranked teams!) deserve to play again. As Florida head coach Urban Meyer stated this weekend, the BCS needs to be blown up if the college football world is forced to deal with a rematch between these two teams. This weekend not only shook up the BCS picture, but several teams (Minnesota, South Carolina, UCLA, Arizona, and Kansas) moved closer to finding a bowl game for the holiday season.

So here are this week's updated bowl projections...and remember, these projections are not the kind of projections based 'if the season ended today'. Rather, the Total System Failure bowl projections are based on how I see the rest of the year playing out.

Notes:

Teams labeled with a '*' indicate teams being selected for a bowl game due to a conference not having enough bowl eligible teams.

Teams labeled with a '^' indicates a team that has already accepted a bowl bid.

Poinsetta Bowl (MWC #2/3 vs. At-Large): Utah vs. UCLA
Las Vegas Bowl (Pac-10 #4 vs. MWC #1): Arizona State vs. Brigham Young
New Orleans Bowl (Sun Belt #1 vs. C-USA): Middle Tennessee State vs. Rice
New Mexico Bowl (MWC #4 vs. WAC): New Mexico vs. Nevada
Birmingham Bowl (MAC/Big East vs. C-USA): Cincinnati vs. East Carolina
Armed Forces Bowl (MWC #2/3 vs. C-USA #4): Texas Christian vs. Tulsa
Hawaii Bowl (Pac-10 #6 vs WAC): Washington State vs. Hawaii^
Motor City Bowl (MAC vs. Big 10 #7): Central Michigan vs. Kansas*
Emerald Bowl (ACC #4/5 vs. Pac-10 #4/5): Florida State vs. Oregon State
Independence Bowl (Big 12 #7/8 vs. SEC #8): Kansas State vs. Alabama
Texas Bowl (Big 12 vs. Big East/C-USA): Texas Tech vs. South Florida
Holiday Bowl (Pac-10 #2 vs. Big 12 #3): California vs. Nebraska
Champs Sports Bowl (Big 10 #4/5 vs. ACC #4): Iowa vs. Boston College
Music City Bowl (SEC #6 vs. ACC #5/6): Kentucky vs. Maryland
Sun Bowl (Big 12/Big East vs. Pac-10 #3): Rutgers vs. Oregon
Insight Bowl (Big 12 #4/5 vs. Big 10 #6): Missouri vs. Minnesota
Alamo Bowl (Big 12 #4/5 vs. Big 10 #4/5): Texas A&M vs. Purdue
Liberty Bowl (C-USA #1 vs. SEC): Houston vs. South Carolina
Meineke Car Care Bowl (Big East/Navy vs. ACC #5/6): Navy^ vs. Wake Forest
Chik-Fil-A Bowl (ACC #2 vs. SEC #5): Virginia Tech vs. Georgia
MPC Computers Bowl (WAC vs. ACC #8): San Jose State vs. Arizona*
Gator Bowl (ACC #3 vs. Big 12/Big East): Clemson vs. West Virginia
Cotton Bowl (SEC vs. Big 12 #2): Auburn vs. Oklahoma
Outback Bowl (SEC vs. Big 10 #3): Tennessee vs. Penn State
Capital One Bowl (SEC vs. Big 10 #2): LSU vs. Wisconsin
International Bowl (MAC #3 vs. Big East #4/5): Western Michigan vs. Pittsburgh
GMAC Bowl (C-USA #2 vs. MAC): Southern Miss vs. Ohio

Rose Bowl: Notre Dame vs. Michigan
Fiesta Bowl: Texas vs. Boise State
Orange Bowl: Georgia Tech vs. Florida
Sugar Bowl: Louisville vs. Arkansas
BCS Title Game: Southern Cal vs. Ohio State