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LSU football bowl projections: Is LSU projected to make College Football Playoff?

cory diaz, lafayette daily advertiser
·4 min read

BATON ROUGE — Don't look now, but LSU football is perched near the top of the Southeastern Conference standings.

A team picked to finish fifth in the SEC in the preseason, the No. 7 Tigers (6-1, 3-0 SEC) are undefeated in conference play and sit second in the standings behind No. 14 Texas A&M (6-1, 4-0), another team that the media did not see as a factor in the preseason and also who LSU will battle for the top spot in College Station on Saturday (6:30 p.m., ABC).

As the rest of the SEC has torn each other apart, with Georgia beating then top-ranked Texas last weekend, Alabama with two losses in conference play before November, but also has a win over Georgia to start. And Tennessee losing at Arkansas a couple of weeks ago, Brian Kelly and the Tigers have remained steady.

LSU opened the season a fringe College Football Playoff contender. After eight weeks and a 6-1 start, have the Tigers pushed their way into the CFP picture? Let's see what analysts think with bowl games projections.

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LSU football bowl game projections

Is LSU projected to make College Football Playoff?

The Tigers have won six straight games and are vying for a spot in the SEC Championship Game. But the vast majority of bowl projections do not have LSU making the 12-team CFP field.

Athlon Sports, USA Today and the Action Network's Brett McMurphy see LSU locking up one of the at-large spots in the playoff but those are the only three outlets that have the Tigers in. Athlon Sports has LSU as the 10-seed going to No. 7 Penn State in the opening round. McMurphy predicts LSU as a No. 9 seed playing at No. 8 Clemson.

Only USA Today projects LSU to the quarterfinals for the College Football Playoff. USA Today has LSU upsetting Miami in the first round before meeting Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1.

Music City Bowl, Citrus Bowl most popular LSU bowl game projections

The rest of the nine projections we looked at have different destinations the Tigers could find themselves playing at this bowl season.

But, the two most popular potential sites also feature intriguing matchups for LSU.

Both ESPN's Kyle Bonagura and Bleacher Report have LSU facing Wisconsin in the Music City Bowl (Dec. 30, 2:30 p.m., ESPN) in a rematch of last season's ReliaQuest Bowl.

The Citrus Bowl (Dec. 31, 3 p.m., ABC) is the other most common projection as ESPN's Mark Schlabach and 247Sports both see the Tigers against Illinois.

Full list of LSU bowl projections

All possible LSU bowl game destinations

Outside of landing in the College Football Playoff, which would include semifinal games at the Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl this season, there are as many as nine possible bowl game destinations for the Tigers.

The SEC has seven primary tie-ins with bowl games while there are two other locations that the league could help fill if needed.

Primary tie-ins include the Liberty Bowl vs. the Big 12, the Las Vegas Bowl vs. to be determined (it was supposed to be PAC-12), the ReliaQuest Bowl vs. the Big Ten/ACC, the Texas Bowl vs. the Big 12, the Gator Bowl vs. the ACC and the Music City Bowl vs. the Big Ten.

LSU could also fill a spot at the Birmingham Bowl vs. the American Athletic Conference or the Gasparilla Bowl vs. the ACC/American, both those bowl games are secondary tie-ins.

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Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU football bowl projections: Where the Tigers are predicted to play after Week 8