Michigan Football’s bowl game, opponent is becoming more and more clear

The Ohio State Buckeyes came into Ann Arbor and finally knocked off the Wolverines in a 27-9 beatdown. That officially knocked Michigan out of the College Football Playoff race and will seemingly take on an SEC team in the Citrus Bowl.

The Citrus Bowl is decided after the CFP committee selects its participants, and the other New Year’s Six bowls have picked their teams. Once the remaining teams are officially available, the Citrus Bowl gets the first pick from the SEC and Big Ten.

Based on this metric, Michigan remains the “best” Big Ten team given that USC is still contractually obligated to compete in Pac-12 bowl games through the 2025 season due to current bowl tie-ins, which were established before the Pac-12’s collapse.

With all that in mind, here are some of the outlets projecting the Wolverines to compete against on New Year’s Eve.

• Sports Illustrated (Bryan Fischer): Cheez-It Citrus Bowl vs. Texas

• ESPN (Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach): Cheez-It Citrus Bowl vs. Texas

• On3 (Brett McMurphy) : Cheez-It Citrus Bowl vs. Texas

• CBS Sports (Jerry Palm): Cheez-It Citrus Bowl vs. Vanderbilt

• Athlon Sports (Steve Lassan): Cheez-It Citrus Bowl vs. Texas

• College Football News (Pete Fiutak): Cheez-It Citrus Bowl vs. Texas

As you can see, a majority of the outlets are projecting Michigan will play Texas in the Citrus Bowl at 3 p.m. ET on Dec. 31 in Orlando, Florida.

The reasoning for this is simple — Michigan is the best Big Ten team not in the CFP, and the Citrus Bowl chooses said team to be represented in the bowl game.

The opponent will be an SEC team, and that has been where the different predictions have come from. For a while, it was projected that Vanderbilt, Texas and Tennessee would all be vying for the SEC spot. After rivalry week, it became clear that Texas would be the pick.

Despite CBS Sports’ projection, Vanderbilt is expected to play in the Gator Bowl as the best SEC team not picked in the current CFP after its win over Tennessee. Unless the committee believes Texas’ win over Texas A&M was a better indicator of where the teams sit right now, the Commodores should remain as the higher-ranked team.

Speaking of the Longhorns, the win over former No. 3 Texas A&M was big for them, but their three losses will keep Texas out of the CFP. And finally, Tennessee’s loss to Vanderbilt has placed it out of the conversation for the Citrus Bowl, leaving a wide-range of possibilities for the Volunteers.

With that, the Wolverines can expect to face off against Arch Manning in Texas, giving us a rematch of last season’s one-sided affair where the Longhorns defeated Michigan, 31-12, in Ann Arbor.

With the potential to draw more viewers than any other non-playoff game, a Michigan-Texas battle could be the biggest bowl game of the season. Drop your thoughts below!