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College Football Bowl Projections: Week 9 Edition

With Week 9 of college football here, it's time for a roundup of the latest bowl projections.

By Jason Marcum

The Kentucky Wildcats are still very much in the running for a bowl game, but it is no longer a certainty UK gets to six wins after this past weekend.

As if a 42-16 loss at Mississippi State wasn't disheartening enough, one of the Cats' likeliest wins going forward was Vanderbilt, but they just scored a 10-3 win over Missouri, which was also UK's best win to this point. Louisville also won and improved to 3-4, and it's now looking like that regular-season finale between the two bluegrass rivals could be for bowl eligibility for at least one of them.

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For now, SB Nation's Jason Kirk still has Kentucky facing Penn State in the TaxSlayer Bowl in Jacksonville. He's had that projection for three straight weeks now for the game that hosts the ACC 3-6 or Big Ten 5-7th-placed team vs the SEC 3-8th-placed team.

ESPN SEC writer David Ching has UK making the Music City Bowl, though he doesn't list opponents in his projections. The Cats made that bowl game three times between 2006-09 under Rich Brooks, and that '06 game was the first of five straight postseason appearances for the Cats. Could we see another streak being with a trip to the Music City this season?

For what it's worth, ESPN Big Ten writer Brian Bennett has Penn State in that bowl, so there's another potential UK vs PSU matchup.

CBS Sports' Jerry Palm has Kentucky facing west Virginia in the Texas Bowl. That's not really ideal for either school giving they'd have to make a long trip to make it to Houston, though WVU fans are used to it being that they play in the Big 12. UK fans are no strangers to Texas either, though more so because the basketball Cats have played there several times in recent years.

If you're interested in who could be playing in this year's College Football Playoff fighting for the national title, Kirk has Ohio State vs Clemson and Alabama vs Stanford. Palm's projection have TCU vs Alabama and Ohio State vs Clemson. Bleacher Report's Ryan McCrystal has Baylor vs. LSU and Ohio State vs. Clemson for his CFP matchups.

Which of these matchups intrigues you the most?

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