2010 BCS Bowl Predictions and Projections About to Be Answered

2010 BCS bowl predictions and projections can finally be made with facts at hand. The 2010 BCS bowl projections and predictions will finally find all of their answers on Sunday night, as the Bowl Championship Series reveals all of the teams that will be invited to play in the five BCS bowl games. Until the final week 15 BCS rankings come out a bit later in the day, we also won't know for certain which teams will end up in the elite level bowl games, but now that we know more of the teams that will be playing in them, it becomes much easier to figure out which bowl game they might be playing in.

The BCS Automatic Qualifiers

Alabama (13-0) -- SEC Champion

Texas (13-0) -- Big 12 Champion

Cincinnati (12-0) -- Big East Champion

Oregon (10-2) -- Pac-10 Champion

Ohio State (10-2) -- Big Ten Champion

Georgia Tech (11-2) -- ACC Champion

With the six automatic slots taken by the winners of the six BCS conferences, it means that 60% of the slots are now taken up for the BCS picture. That still leaves four at-large bids left for the BCS projections, which will be the teams that the Bowl Championship Series decides to invite to the big dances to be held in January. We already know that the two teams playing in the 2010 Rose Bowl are Oregon and Ohio State, and if we assume that the National Championship game will be Alabama vs. Texas that also takes care of that bowl game.

The BCS Bowl Schedule

Jan. 1, 2010 - Sugar Bowl
Jan. 1, 2010 - Rose Bowl
Jan. 4, 2010 - Fiesta Bowl
Jan. 5, 2010 - Orange Bowl
Jan. 7, 2010 - BCS National Championship Game (Pasadena)

With the Rose Bowl and BCS Championship Game decided, it comes down to figuring out which six teams will be heading to the other three bowl games. It is thought that Georgia Tech would go to the Orange Bowl against an as yet unnamed opponent, but it makes sense that Florida would be the team invited to play them with one of the at-large bids. The Sugar Bowl will probably have Cincinnati as its automatic bid, and that covers all of the automatic teams.

This is where things get tricky, because the BCS will then have to decide if they want to match Cincinnati up against one of the two remaining undefeated teams (Boise State and TCU) which will likely get an at-large bid, or Iowa, which could also get an at-large bid. The hope would be that Iowa has time to recover from their injuries, but that could also lead to them not receiving an invite from a BCS committee that wants both a competitive game and a large television audience. This would leave it open to LSU (9-3), Penn State (10-2), BYU (10-2), or even Pittsburgh (9-3). Our hope is that Iowa gets that last invite because they deserve it.

The match-up with Cincinnati needs to be TCU to give them a chance to prove themselves as undefeated teams, and that leaves Iowa playing Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl. A more likely match-up would be Cincinnati against Florida though, leaving TCU and Boise State to play their own game. That would be yet another way for the BCS to push aside undefeated teams not in the BCS conferences, and it would be a shame if it happened again. The one thing we can guarantee that the BCS won't do is split up the undefeated teams into four bowl games that could lead to four undefeated teams at the end of the season. No matter how the projections go, we all won't know the final result until the bowl selection meeting broadcast at 5:00 P.M. PST on Fox and ESPN.

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College Football Standings