Arizona’s bowl predictions: ESPN projects a trip to the College Football Playoff for the Wildcats

Week 0 of the college football season kicks off this weekend, and football is back, but with a twist. It’s the first year of the expanded College Football Playoff.

The new 12-team field will be composed of the five highest-ranked conference champions as well as the next seven highest-ranked schools (regardless of conference). The top four conference champions will receive byes into the quarterfinals, while the other eight teams will play on the campuses of the higher-ranked teams in their respective first-round games.

Even though all but two of the former Pac-12 schools left the conference, current and former Pac-12 football teams will still be part of the existing bowl selection process for the 2024 and 2025 football seasons.

Despite former coach Jedd Fisch departing for the University of Washington, Arizona returns much of its talent from last season that saw the Wildcats win the Alamo Bowl and finish No. 11 in the final AP poll.

Arizona comes in at No. 21 in this year’s preseason AP poll, and leading receiver Tetairoa McMillan is back for another year and was named to the preseason All-America first team.

In their preseason odds, FanDuel Sportsbook has the Wildcats at 7.5 wins.

Which bowl game is Arizona projected to play in?

In ESPN’s preseason bowl game predictions, Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach both see lots of success this season for the Wildcats. However, it’s fair to say the two project much different results in Brent Brennan’s first season at the helm in Tucson.

Schlabach sees the Wildcats playing in the DirecTV Holiday Bowl, meeting with the Virginia Tech Hokies at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego. The exact time and date of the 2024 game has yet to be announced.

With Bonagura’s bowl prediction, it’s safe to say he has much higher hopes for Arizona than Schlabach. Bonagura sees the Wildcats making it to the first round of the College Football Playoff as a No. 10 seed and meeting the Texas Longhorns in Austin.

In the transfer portal era, preseason projections in college football are becoming even more of a crapshoot than they already were. These will be comical to look back at in December. There shouldn’t be any major surprises here, it’s mostly the usual suspects. Arizona is the team that, by reputation, doesn’t belong, but the Wildcats have most of their key pieces coming back from a team that finished on a seven-game winning streak and was No. 11 in the final AP poll. This wasn’t by design, but my first-round projections have a regional feel to them, which would be a nice way to usher in the expanded playoff.

Here are some of the other bowl game predictions for Arizona:

Schlabach wasn’t the only expert to predict the Wildcats appearing in the Las Vegas Bowl. A handful of other outlets also see Arizona playing at Allegiant Stadium on Dec. 27.

Action Network’s Brett McMurphy likes the Wildcats to play in the Las Vegas Bowl against Tennessee.

College Football News also projects Arizona to land in the Las Vegas Bowl, but with a different opponent. After predicting an 8-4 season for the Wildcats, College Football News sees them matching up with the 6-6 Auburn Tigers.

247Sports also has the Wildcats in the Las Vegas Bowl, this time playing Texas A&M.

Ready for fireworks out West? This matchup between a couple borderline top 25 teams would surely bring the goods if it happens. Quarterback Noah Fifita is back for the Wildcats as they enter the Big 12 under first-year coach Brent Brennan while another new era commences in College Station with Mike Elko taking over.

In addition, CBS Sports slotted Arizona in the Las Vegas Bowl against Kentucky.

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