| Bowl | Projected Matchup | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| New Mexico Bowl | UNLV vs. Louisiana Tech | Two teams with new coaches. Someone could get their tenure off to a great start with a bowl victory. |
| uDrove Humanitarian Bowl | Central Michigan vs. Fresno State | UCM and Fresno State have both tasted the sweet waters of mid-major success. This would actually be a very entertaining matchup between two very good offensive football teams. |
| R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl | Central Florida vs. Middle Tennessee | In a game that would likely be a defensive struggle, the Sun Belt champs might end up celebrating two straight New Orleans Bowl victories. |
| Beef ‘O’ Brady’s St. Petersburg Bowl | East Carolina vs. South Florida | Skip Holtz versus his old East Carolina squad would be nice drama. |
| MAACO Las Vegas Bowl | TCU vs. Arizona | Arizona (or whatever Pac-10 team ends up here) is hoping that TCU plays their way into the BCS again. |
| S.D. County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl | Utah vs. Navy | Navy will likely have enough wins to accept this bid in November. If this matchup occurs, the Poinsettia Bowl might be thrilled to know it has two ranked teams playing. |
| Sheraton Hawaii Bowl | Southern Miss vs. Hawaii | The Golden Eagles could be the team to beat in the Conference USA Eastern division. Hawaii’s best chance at a bowl game is in their home stadium…again. |
| Little Caesars Pizza Bowl | Temple vs. Washington | The Temple Owls are the favorites to win the MAC this year. Washington could get an at-large bid here, thus squeaking into the bowl picture. |
| AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl | Boston College vs. BYU | A great matchup between Catholics and the Mormons. Protestants would watch this game with a skeptical eye. |
| Champs Sports Bowl | North Carolina vs. Pittsburgh | While this would be a disappointing bowl appearance for both squads, it makes for an intriguing matchup. |
| Insight Bowl | Michigan vs. Oklahoma State | Obviously an Insight Bowl wouldn’t be the magic cure to get the steam off Rich Rod’s pants bottoms. However, it might deflect the smoke for one more year. |
| EagleBank Bowl | North Carolina State vs. Ohio | It would be interesting to see if the NC State defense could keep the Bobcats from dropping 40 or more points on them. |
| Texas Bowl | Purdue vs. Colorado | Anyone else think the traitors known as the Buffaloes would get a particularly cold reception in a Big XII state for a bowl game? |
| Valero Alamo Bowl | Texas Tech vs. Oregon State | These two teams both have something to prove this year. Oregon State wants to show they can take the steps to carry the Pac-10 mantle while Tech aims to prove there will be no drop off with the coaching change. |
| Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl | Tulsa vs. Air Force | The Golden Hurricanes like to attack via air raids. Air Force likes to spin defenders around with the option. Oh, the irony. |
| New Era Pinstripe Bowl | Notre Dame vs. Cincinnati | Could it happen? Really? Brian Kelly to face his old Bearcats? |
| Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl | Clemson vs. Ole Miss | Both teams will likely see a dip in their win totals and would love to use a bowl victory to propel their rebuilding efforts for the following year. |
| Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl | Missouri vs. Stanford | This potential faceoff would put two very talented quarterbacks head to head in the premier Pac-10 vs. Big XII bowl matchup. |
| Meineke Car Care Bowl | Miami vs. West Virginia. | While many think the Hurricanes are BCS bound, questions still are numerous. The Canes are in the second toughest division in college football. West Virginia may well continue to slip down the Big East hierarchy. |
| Hyundai Sun Bowl | Florida State vs. California | Sun Bowl executives would be thrilled to see this matchup in El Paso. |
| AutoZone Liberty Bowl | Houston vs. Kentucky | The Wildcats’ offense improved drastically from 2008 to 2009. If they face Houston, they better ratchet it up a little more. They’ll need lots of points to get it done against the Cougars. |
| Chick-fil-A Bowl | Georgia Tech vs. Auburn | This game would give defensive fans fits as the triple option of Tech and Auburn’s hurry-up no huddle offense would be pushing the ball up and down the field with ease. |
| Dallas Football Classic | Northwestern vs. SMU | SMU hasn’t played a game in Cotton Bowl stadium on New Year’s Day since the Pony Express was running roughshod in the Southwest Conference. Granted, this bowl doesn’t bring the prestige of the Cotton Bowl Classic, but it would bring back sweet memories. |
| Outback Bowl | Michigan State vs. Georgia | The pleasant surprise of the Big Ten versus the annual disappointment of the SEC. |
| Capital One Bowl | Iowa vs. Arkansas | Iowa could be the most overrated team in the Big Ten while Arkansas is set to prove they’ve arrived as contenders in football’s toughest conference. |
| Gator Bowl | Penn State vs. South Carolina | Two of the all-time great college coaches could meet up in this one. |
| Rose Bowl Game | Oregon vs. Ohio State | The Ducks wouldn’t mind getting another crack at the Buckeyes in a rematch from last year’s Rose Bowl game. |
| Tostitos Fiesta Bowl | Texas vs. Boise State | Boise State would love to have the opportunity to knock off a top five program on a stage as big as the Fiesta Bowl. |
| Orange Bowl | Virginia Tech vs. UConn | Will the Orange Bowl suits grimace if they are forced to select UConn from the eligible candidates because Boise State would be a rematch of week one for Virginia Tech? |
| Allstate Sugar Bowl | Florida vs. Wisconsin | The SEC has won almost 80% of their BCS bowl games while the Big Ten has lost more than half of theirs. Get the picture? |
| GMAC Bowl | Northern Illinois vs. Troy State | This potential matchup underscores why only the biggest bowl games of the year should be held on New Year’s Day or after. |
| AT&T Cotton | Oklahoma vs. LSU | The Cotton Bowl Classic hasn’t hosted LSU since 2003 or Oklahoma since 2002. This is a Cotton Bowl matchup that is long overdue. |
| Birmingham Bowl | Rutgers vs. Tennessee | Vol fans should be ecstatic if Derek Dooley can get Tennessee into a bowl game after the mess left by Lane Kiffin. |
| Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl | UCLA vs. Nevada | This is the game that leaves people wondering why it is the next to last game of the year. |
| Tostitos BCS National Championship Game | Nebraska vs. Alabama | Power football. Great defensive head coaches. Ah, just like the good ol’ days. Defense wins championships, right? |
Note: Predictions were made based on presumption of bowl eligibility, predicted standings, and bowl tie-ins for each conference. If the assumption was made that a conference would not have enough bowl eligible teams to fill the required number of positions, alternate conference options were used when available. If no predicted alternate was available, an at-large option was selected that was assumed to be bowl eligible.
