Raise your hand if you think Alabama is going to run the table in the playoffs

As of today (Thursday), the college bowl season is well over half way over, and we’ve got 18 more bowl games to go between today and Monday, not to mention the National Championship Game on Mon., Jan. 8.

There are four bowl games on tap for later today. Virginia and Navy will play in the Military Bowl in Annapolis, Md. at 12:30 p.m. (ESPN), and No. 19 Oklahoma State will face No. 22 Virginia Tech in the Camping World Bowl in Orlando, Fla. at 4:15 p.m. (ESPN). Later tonight, No. 13 Stanford will play No. 15 TCU in the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio at 8 p.m. (ESPN), and No. 16 Michigan State will face No. 18 Washington State in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego at 8 p.m. (FS1).

I look for all four of those games to be very close. I look for Navy to edge past Virginia, and I expect Oklahoma State to get the better of the Hokies. I predict that TCU will beat Stanford, and I think that Michigan State will come out ahead against Washington State.

There are five games on tap for tomorrow (Friday), starting in Charlotte, N.C. at noon with the Belk Bowl, which will feature Texas A&M and Wake Forest (ESPN). No. 24-ranked North Carolina State will play Arizona State in the Sun Bowl in El Paso at 2 p.m. (CBS), and at 3:30 p.m. No. 21-ranked Northwestern will take on Kentucky in the Music City Bowl in Nashville (ESPN). New Mexico State and Utah State will play in the Arizona Bowl in Tucson at 4:30 p.m. (CBSSN), and the day will wrap up with fifth-ranked Ohio State and eighth-ranked USC in the Cotton Bowl in Arlington at 7:30 p.m. (ESPN).

Those games will also be very competitive. I look for Texas A&M to upset Wake Forest, and for N.C. State to beat Arizona State. Look for Northwestern to defeat Kentucky and for Utah State to beat New Mexico State. In the best game of the day, I predict that Ohio State will beat USC.

Four games are scheduled for Saturday, beginning in Jacksonville, Fla. at 11 a.m. with the Taxslayer Bowl, which will feature No. 23-ranked Mississippi State and Louisville (ESPN). The Liberty Bowl, which will feature Iowa State and No. 20-ranked Memphis, will kick off at 11:30 a.m. in Memphis (ABC). No. 9-ranked Penn State will play No. 11-ranked Washington at 3 p.m. in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Az. (ESPN), and sixth-ranked Wisconsin will take on tenth-ranked Miami at 7 p.m. in the Orange Bowl in Miami Gardens, Fla. (ESPN).

I look for Mississippi State to upset Louisville and for Memphis to beat Iowa State in a yawner. The Fiesta Bowl should be worth watching, and I look for the Nittany Lions to win that one. The Orange Bowl should be a great game, and I predict that Wisconsin to prove a point by beating Miami on their home turf.

Monday – New Year’s Day – will feature five outstanding games. Michigan and South Carolina will play at 11 a.m. in the Outback Bowl in Tampa (ESPN2), and seventh-ranked Auburn will play No. 12 Central Florida in the Peach Bowl at 11:30 a.m. in Atlanta (ESPN). No. 14-ranked Notre Dame and No. 17-ranked LSU will play at noon in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando (ABC).

In the first of two semi-final round playoff games, second-ranked Oklahoma and third-ranked Georgia will play at 4 p.m. in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena (ESPN). After that, in the second playoff game, No. 1-ranked Clemson will play fourth-ranked Alabama at 7:45 p.m. in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans (ESPN).I predict that Michigan will beat the Gamecocks, that Auburn will blast Central Florida and that Notre Dame will upset LSU.

In the Rose Bowl, I think that Georgia will beat Oklahoma in what should be a great game. Later, in the Sugar Bowl, I predict that Alabama will upset Clemson. If that comes to pass, it will set up a national championship game between Alabama and Georgia, and I look for Alabama to beat Georgia in that one.