College Football News published its first bowl projections

Bowl projections are a waste of time. Bowl projections are nothing more than something to get people clicking and talking, as there is virtually no way to know who will be good, which bowls will want which schools etc. Bowl projections are a largely fruitless exercise in October, let alone June. Most of all, nobody knows where they're going until the playoff is set in December. What I'm telling you is that bowl projections are meaningless. And yet, I click every damn time.

This time was no different. It's almost July, and like I mentioned last week, there is hardly anything going on. So as I scoured the interwebs in search of WSU-related material, collegefootballnews.com provided a nice, soft landing spot. They project the Cougs to head to Santa Clara and face Pat Fitzgerald's Northwestern Wildcats in the Foster Farms Bowl. Facing a middling Big Ten team in California in December? What could go wrong?!

As fruitless an endeavor as these projections are, that seems about right to me. I think Cougar Football and its fans are settling right into the Leach zone, rotating between the middling bowls to which the Pac-12 is tied for the foreseeable future. First it was the Sun, then the Holiday, now possibly Foster Farms or Vegas. Heck, maybe even good ol' San Antone.

As for the rest of the Pac-12, CFN is quite bullish on the prospects. Though it's great news from a monetary standpoint, it's bad news for those of us who harbor a strong dislike for Washington.

The Huskies are projected to once again make a playoff run, this time facing Florida State in the Rose Bowl. Additionally, both Stanford (Cotton) and USC (Fiesta) are forecast to play in New Year's Six bowls, giving the conference a very nice chunk of change.

The other projections are Oregon to the Alamo, UCLA to the Holiday, Utah to the Sun, Arizona to the Vegas Bowl and ASU to the Cactus. I'm sure that's exactly how it'll play out.

Not only do they have bowl projections up, they also have their preseason rankings, from 1-130. WSU comes in at #26, sandwiched between Notre Dame and Oregon. Somewhere between 24 and 30 seems about right to me. As for WSU's opponents, here are their preseason rankings (Montana State excluded of course):

• Boise State - 54
• Oregon State - 64
• Nevada - 91
• USC - 10
• Oregon - 25
• Cal - 55
• Colorado - 52
• Arizona - 62
• Stanford - 14
• Utah - 33
• Washington - 6

Seems to be a somewhat balanced slate, but that closing stretch of Stanford, Utah and Washington is gonna be a bear, especially since the bye week isn't until after Utah.

So once again, I succumbed to the evil mistress that is bowl projections. I just can't help myself. I get the feeling that many of you are in the same boat.

Football

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