Our 2019 Citrus Bowl Prediction

It’s that time of year for our 2019 Citrus Bowl prediction from the 2018 college football season! This is one of our vacation home visitors favorite events of the year.

Not that we’ve been very good at it, but once again we’re taking our best shot at making some predictions for this season’s 2019 Citrus Bowl presented by Overton’s – America’s marine and watersports superstore. 

First, we predict everyone who makes the trip to Orlando for the game will have fun and enjoy a vacation rental provided by OVH 360! That’s a given. New Year’s Day in the Sunshine State. Tailgating, great football, festivities, cold beer. How could you not?

Camping World Stadium Orlando

Second, we predict that the game will once again be played on New Year’s Day at Camping World Stadium in Orlando and will be televised on ABC at 1:00 EST.

Third, given the Bowl’s new name sponsor (Overton’s), we predict there will no longer be Buffalo Wild Wings commercial breaks. How can this be?

So we’re 3 for 3 so far ! Great! Now for the hard one – a 100% correct 2019 Citrus Bowl Prediction.

As a refresher, the Citrus Bowl is usually a matchup between two of the top teams from the SEC and the Big Ten. In some years, there’s also a scenario where it could be the SEC versus an ACC team, but that won’t be the case this year because of the fact that the Orange Bowl is part of the CFP (college football playoff) semifinals picture.

Clear as mud? As set forth per the bowl guidelines, “an ACC team can be invited in the event a Big Ten team is assigned to play in a “non-semifinal” Orange Bowl. In that scenario, the Citrus Bowl would play host to “the top non-CFP selection from the Atlantic Coast Conference against the top non-CFP selection from the SEC.”

Based on that, we should be able to eliminate ACC teams from contention and focus on just the SEC and Big Ten, which should make it a bit simpler. However, the Citrus Bowl committee threw a new wrinkle at us last year when it extended an invitation to an Independent. Just goes to show … if Notre Dame is available, they will receive an invite.

LSU Citrus Bowl

Of note, we have been pretty good at prognosticating LSU into the bowl in years past. Orlando loves the Bayou Bengals, which have played in the Citrus Bowl three times since 2010. You may recall last year’s game when it appeared they had Notre Dame beat, but gave up a long touchdown pass to Fighting Irish receiver Miles Boykin with just over a minute left in the game and lost a heartbreaker 21-17.

The first order of business is to predict the “final four” teams that will make up the CFP series. This is the first part of our 2019 Citrus Bowl prediction. Since there’s a good chance both the SEC and the Big Ten will be represented there, it certainly impacts who will be selected to play in the Citrus Bowl.

Capital One Orange Bowl

Besides the Capital One Orange Bowl, the other bowl to take its place in the CFP rotation this year is the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic. However, we don’t have to concern ourselves with “which teams go where.” We just need to predict which teams from either the SEC or Big Ten will make it.

To nobody’s surprise, we think Alabama will once again be there. That’s not to sell the rest of the SEC short. Georgia will certainly have a say in that, as well as Auburn, LSU, Florida, and perhaps Jimbo Fisher’s Aggies and the rest of the SEC crew.

SEC Final 4 

We are going to stick with just one SEC team in the “final 4” this year. Last year’s Bama-Georgia finale was one for the ages, but there’s just too many talented teams across the country this year for it to happen again. There’s the usual suspects such as Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, and Oklahoma, but this year we could see some newcomers in Washington, Wisconsin, or Penn State among others.

As suggested above, we’re going to place Ohio State as a CFP representative from the Big Ten. After a tumultuous off season resulting in a 3-game suspension of coach Urban Meyer, if they get by TCU in non-conference play and follow that up with a winning conference slate against the likes of Michigan, Penn State, and Wisconsin, they will have surely earned it.

That being said, let’s get down to our 2019 Citrus Bowl prediction, starting with the Big Ten representative. The conference appears to be loaded again this year and should be competitive from top to bottom. After placing the Buckeyes in the CFP, we’re going to put Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl. Many feel the Badgers are good enough to win it all this year.

If that happens, the Citrus Bowl should get the third best Big Ten team available. We feel this could be either Penn State or Michigan. James Franklin has made Penn State a national contender again, and Jim Harbaugh should have the Wolverines knocking at the door. Either team would be great to have but we’re going with the Maize and Blue for the first half of our 2019 Citrus Bowl prediction!

SEC

Now on to the SEC representative. After sending Alabama to the CFP again, we’re going to place Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. If that transpires, the Citrus Bowl should get the third best SEC team available as well, which we feel will be Auburn. Gus Malzahn’s Tigers open at home against Washington and close the season on the road against Georgia and Alabama. Now that’s brutal. After those games, they’ll be ready for Disney.

So there you have it! The Michigan Wolverines against the Auburn Tigers in Orlando at the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Day for our 2019 Citrus Bowl prediction… Book it!

This article is brought to you courtesy of Orlando Vacation Homes 360. Thanks for reading and enjoy your visit to Orlando!

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