Bowl projections confirm Texas, Penn State, LSU fans' worst fears

Bowl projections confirm Texas, Penn State, LSU fans' worst fears originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Nearly halfway through the college football season, and every football team is beginning to shed any preseason expectations in favor of reality. No matter how much the nation thinks they know about a football program, nothing is certain until those teams take the field. Now, they have, and for some of the squads with the strongest push to breach the College Football Playoffs, their postseason hopes could be on life alert.

Brett McMurphy with On3 Sports was quick to add his take to the 2025 season's early returns, as he dropped his bowl season projections for some of the marquee events of the postseason.

Pop-Tarts Bowl: Notre Dame (Independent) vs. Brigham Young (Big 12)
Kinder's Texas Bowl: South Carolina (SEC) vs. Iowa State (Big 12)
Transperfect Music City Bowl: LSU (SEC) vs. Illinois (Big 10)
Cheez-It Citrus Bowl: Texas (SEC) vs. Michigan (Big 10)
SRS Las Vegas Bowl: Washington (Big 10) vs. Penn State (Big 10)
Duke's Mayo Bowl: Missouri (SEC) vs. Florida State (ACC)

For some, like BYU, Iowa State, Washington, or Illinois, these projections may appear as a welcome consolation prize, should their teams whiff on the final 12-team bracket. But for the blue bloods, the historic powerhouses, and the preseason top-10 squads, seeing these lineups are a death knoll -- a final warning that mortality is far closer than these squads might care to admit.

Namely, the appearance of Texas, Penn State, LSU, and Notre Dame -- all preseason top-10 teams -- is a crushing blow to teams who entered the season with national championship aspirations.

The Longhorns and Nittany Lions have both failed to win a power four game this season. With Texas losing to Florida and Ohio State, there's little good that wins over San Jose State, UTEP, or Sam Houston State can do for the Longhorns. Penn State lost to Oregon and previously zero-loss UCLA in back-to-back weeks. Neither team is ranked in the current AP Poll.

LSU, Notre Dame, and even Florida State felt on top of the world before the season began, but only LSU remains without a second loss among this group. The order has been jostled, and this is the final wake-up call for some of these prestigious names.

MORE COLLEGE FOOTBALL NEWS:

• Texas Tech, BYU sit atop 'a guess' of a Big 12 Conference championship race

• Penn State, James Franklin in full panic after massive upset to UCLA

• Dabo Swinney drops brutal ‘coaching failure’ admission on Clemson’s record-worst start

• Texas Longhorns could miss College Football Playoff entirely, 'have work to do' on season resume

• Penn State’s playoff hopes have no room for error after crushing loss to Oregon