Let's predict every college football bowl game and Playoff matchup for 2018-19

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The 2018 college football schedule features 40 bowl games between FBS teams, culminating with the College Football Playoff Championship on Jan. 7 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. This year’s semifinals will be played on Dec. 29 at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic and Capital One Orange Bowl.

So, who makes the 2018 College Football Playoff? The safest bet involves some combination of Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Clemson, Oklahoma or Washington: a group of teams that includes all four Playoff teams from last season. They'll most likely decide the fifth national championship in the College Football Playoff era.

MORE: Sporting News' 2018 season preview

Sporting News has preseason projections for every bowl game, and a few familiar teams are back in the semifinals ... with a throwback in the national championship game.

College football bowl projections

Date Bowl Projected teams
Dec. 15 Gildan New Mexico Bowl Wyoming vs. Southern Miss
Dec. 15 AutoNation Cure Bowl Appalachian State vs. USF
Dec. 15 Las Vegas Bowl Boise State vs. Washington State
Dec. 15 Raycom Media Camellia Bowl Georgia Southern vs. Northern Illinois
Dec. 15 New Orleans Bowl Louisiana-Monroe vs. Louisiana Tech
Dec. 18 Cheribundi Tart Boca Raton Bowl Toledo vs. FIU
Dec. 19 Frisco Bowl Ohio vs. SMU
Dec. 20 Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl FAU vs. Houston
Dec. 21 Bahamas Bowl Marshall vs. Temple
Dec. 21 Potato Bowl Western Michigan vs. Utah State
Dec. 22 Birmingham Bowl Memphis vs. Tennessee
Dec. 22 Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl Navy vs. BYU
Dec. 22 Dollar General Bowl Arkansas State vs. Miami
Dec. 22 Hawai'i Bowl San Diego State vs. North Texas
Dec. 26 First Responder Bowl UAB vs. Iowa
Dec. 26 Quick Lane Bowl Wake Forest vs. Minnesota
Dec. 26 Cheez-It Bowl Iowa State vs. Utah
Dec. 27 Walk-On's Independence Bowl  Pittsburgh vs. Florida
Dec. 27 New Era Pinstripe Bowl Louisville vs. Purdue
Dec. 27 Foster Farms Bowl Nebraska vs. Arizona
Dec. 27 Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl Oklahoma State vs. Texas A&M
Dec. 28 Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl N.C. State vs. Missouri
Dec. 28 Camping World Bowl West Virginia vs. Virginia Tech
Dec. 28 Arizona Bowl Troy vs. Fresno State
Dec. 28 Valero Alamo Bowl Texas vs. Oregon
Dec. 29 Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl Miami, Fla. vs. Michigan
Dec. 29 Belk Bowl Florida State vs. LSU
Dec. 31 Military Bowl  Army vs. Georgia Tech
Dec. 31 Hyundai Sun Bowl Boston College vs. UCLA
Dec. 31 San Francisco Bowl Maryland vs. Arizona State
Dec. 31 AutoZone Liberty Bowl Kansas State vs. Kentucky
Dec. 31 Holiday Bowl Northwestern vs. USC
Dec. 31 TaxSlayer Gator Bowl Notre Dame vs. South Carolina
Jan. 1 Outback Bowl Michigan State vs. Mississippi State
Jan. 1 Citrus Bowl Penn State vs. Auburn
Jan. 1 PlayStation Fiesta Bowl UCF vs. Stanford
Jan. 1 Rose Bowl Game Wisconsin vs. Washington
Jan. 1 AllState Sugar Bowl TCU vs. Georgia

College Football Playoff predictions 

Dec. 29 Capital One Orange Bowl Oklahoma vs. Alabama
Dec. 29 Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic Clemson vs. Ohio State
Jan. 7 College Football Playoff championship Alabama vs. Clemson
Author(s)
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Bill Bender is a national college football writer for The Sporting News.
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