Bowl projections: North Carolina moves up to the Orange Bowl
Welcome to the final week of the college football season.
North Carolina’s convincing win over Miami pushed the Tar Heels ahead of the Hurricanes in Tuesday’s College Football Playoff rankings and in line for the Orange Bowl if the ACC gets two teams in the playoff.
The Orange Bowl is set to take the top non-playoff team from the ACC and that will be North Carolina as long as both Clemson and Notre Dame make the playoff. As of now, the Tar Heels and former Texas coach Mack Brown will be matched up against Texas A&M. The Aggies are positioned to be the top non-playoff SEC team.
This week saw the cancellation of another bowl game as Saturday’s Frisco Bowl was canceled because of SMU’s COVID-19 cases. That cancellation pushed UTSA into the First Responder Bowl and trimmed the number of bowl games this season to 33.
Our final set of bowl projections also doesn’t include the myriad teams that have said they won’t be going to bowl games this season. At this point, most of those teams are in the ACC. Without numerous teams from the ACC heading to bowl games, the conference’s bowl lineup is going to look a little different.
The games that have confirmed their teams are listed first, followed by our projections for how everything else will shake out on Sunday. As a reminder, the playoff show begins at Noon ET on Dec. 20 and the New Year’s Six bowl games will be revealed shortly after the top four is chosen. The rest of the bowl lineup will fall into place over the course of Sunday afternoon.
Confirmed bowl matchups
Dec. 21
Myrtle Beach Bowl
North Texas vs. Appalachian State
Dec. 22
Potato Bowl
Tulane vs. Nevada
Boca Raton Bowl
UCF vs. BYU
Dec. 23
New Orleans Bowl
Louisiana Tech vs. Georgia Southern
Montgomery Bowl
Memphis vs. Florida Atlantic
Dec. 24
New Mexico Bowl
Hawaii vs. Houston
Dec. 26
LendingTree Bowl
Western Kentucky vs. Georgia State
Projected bowl games
*team already confirmed
Dec. 25
Camellia Bowl
Western Michigan vs. UAB
Dec. 26
Gasparilla Bowl
Liberty vs. Louisiana
Cure Bowl
Georgia Southern vs. Ball State
First Responder Bowl
UTSA* vs. TCU
Independence Bowl
Arizona State vs. Army
Guaranteed Rate Bowl
Wisconsin vs. Washington
Dec. 28
Military Bowl
Boise State vs. Tulsa
Dec. 29
Cheez-It Bowl
Miami vs. Texas
Alamo Bowl
Oklahoma vs. Oregon
Dec. 30
Duke’s Mayo Bowl
Wake Forest vs. Penn State
Music City Bowl
Minnesota vs. Tennessee
Cotton Bowl (New Year’s Six)
Georgia vs. Iowa State
Dec. 31
Armed Forces Bowl
Colorado vs. Arkansas
Liberty Bowl
West Virginia vs. Mississippi State
Arizona Bowl
Buffalo vs. San Jose State
Texas Bowl
Oklahoma State vs. Kentucky
Jan. 1
Birmingham Bowl
Coastal Carolina vs. Marshall
Peach Bowl (New Year’s Six)
Florida vs. Cincinnati
Citrus Bowl
Northwestern vs. Auburn
Rose Bowl (CFP semifinal)
Clemson vs. Ohio State
Sugar Bowl (CFP semifinal)
Alabama vs. Notre Dame
Jan. 2
Gator Bowl
North Carolina State vs. Ole Miss
Outback Bowl
Iowa vs. Missouri
Fiesta Bowl (New Year’s Six)
USC vs. Indiana
Orange Bowl (New Year’s Six)
Texas A&M vs. North Carolina
More from Yahoo Sports: