CBS Sports predicts Texas A&M’s bowl matchup vs Big Ten foe on New Year’s Day
It’s nearly time to block off your Saturday afternoons as the 2023 college football season draws near. Fall camp is underway, the pads are on, and last but not least we have another round of preseason predictions to dissect.
The latest is CBS Sports’ preseason bowl projections for 2023, courtesy of Jerry Palm. From the Bahamas Bowl all the way through the College Football Playoff Semifinals, Palm does his best impression of clairvoyance in predicting the matchups we’ll most likely see in December and January.
As it pertains to Texas A&M, which enters a pivotal 2023 campaign, Palm foresees the Maroon and White facing the Iowa Hawkeyes in the ReliaQuest Bowl on New Year’s Day 2024. The bowl game will take place at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, and last year’s matchup saw Mississippi State fend off Illinois to the tune of a 19-10 final score.
The ReliaQuest Bowl, which was rebranded in 2022 after previously being known as the Outback Bowl, historically features teams from the ACC, the Big Ten, or the SEC. The Aggies have faced the Hawkeyes just once in program history, which resulted in a 29-0 blowout victory way back on Oct. 10, 1931.
Using last year’s matchup as a proxy, both Mississippi State and Illinois finished with respective 8-4 records to punch their ticket to the ReliaQuest Bowl. What are the chances that the Aggies could match that 8-4 mark, or possibly even surpass it in 2023?
The SEC is of course a gauntlet when compared to the other power conferences, but when looking ahead to Texas A&M’s schedule there are a few notable opponents that stick out in Alabama, LSU, and Tennessee. Of course, Arkansas and Ole Miss on the road won’t be a walk in the park either.
But with the Aggies having the Razorbacks’ number over the last few years, coupled with the fact that this team upset LSU in 2022 and will play host to the Crimson Tide this season, it’s not a stretch to say that one of those daunting matchups could fall in Texas A&M’s favor. So while the Maroon and White should be encouraged in CBS Sports’ faith in the program going bowling this year, this roster by all means should not be satisfied with a ReliaQuest Bowl appearance.
A New Year’s Six or College Football Playoff appearance should always be the target goal for a program of this caliber, no matter whether the outsiders believe it to be a long shot.
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