LSU Bowl Projections After Week 2 of the 2024 Season

Well, even though LSU got a 44-21 win in their Week 2 matchup with Nicholls State, the college football experts weren't impressed. Probably because LSU allowed Nicholls to remain competitive into the 3rd quarter, where the score was 23-21 at a point. That was until LSU scored 21 unanswered points. But it doesn't seem like it was enough to get LSU back into the good graces of the college football experts.

Because you have to remember, LSU lost their opening game to USC...so they're just 1-1 on the season, and let an FCS school hang around with a 21 point showing in Tiger Stadium.

This has led the college football bowl game predictors to drop LSU far away from the College Football Playoffs in their latest projections.

Now it is true that some of the projections never had LSU in the College Football Playoffs, but enough of them did that they seemed like it would be close. Some had them as the first team left out, others had them as the last team in. But no matter how it shook out, LSU was right there.

But not anymore.

Now predictions from CBS and ESPN have the Tigers playing in standard December bowl games. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I still LOVE December bowl games. No amount of players pulling out can stop me from getting down with a nice mid-December Wednesday night bowl game...those are my favorite.

Anyway, we're here for LSU.

Right now, CBS is projecting LSU to play against Nebraska in the Music City Bowl on December 30th. This would actually be an amazing Big Ten vs SEC matchup, and Nebraska would probably feature most of their stars in the game. Freshman star quarterback Dylan Raiola is a Patrick Mahomes clone on-and-off the field, and would likely be playing in the Cornhuskers bowl game no matter what it is.

ESPN has two experts, Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach, who predict their bowl game selections. Right now, Bonagura agrees with CBS' prediction and has LSU playing against Nebraska in the Music City Bowl. 

While ESPN's Mark Schlabach has LSU playing Iowa State in the Texas Bowl. That game is December 30th at NRG Stadium in Houston. While that geographically should excite LSU fans, the idea of playing in that game probably doesn't sit well with fans expecting a Playoff run.

Basically, these experts don't believe LSU is about to right the ship. But that is still a possibility. We're just 2 weeks into the season, and LSU is just now getting ready to start SEC play. If LSU goes into South Carolina and blows their doors off this weekend, all of this will change. If the LSU offense starts clicking and drops a 50-burger, suddenly the experts will call them "dangerous" and put them back into the Playoff mix.