College football once again felt a massive shakeup in the standings following another wild weekend. USA TODAY Sports’ Erick Smith reflected this shakeup, emphasizing how the College Football Playoff changed yet again just like that in his latest projections. Ironically, despite these changes, he returns Nebraska to Tampa Bay, projecting it to face Texas in the ReliaQuest Bowl.
This is the third straight week Nebraska shifted in the projections after being deadlocked with Oklahoma in the ReliaQuest Bowl for most of September. Last week, Smith foresaw the Huskers taking on USC in the Las Vegas Bowl and Missouri in the Music City Bowl the week before that.
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Now, he’s projecting the Huskers (5-1) to battle the Longhorns (4-2), who are coming off a big win over Oklahoma. This is the second week in a row Texas finds itself in the ReliaQuest Bowl, but welcomes Nebraska after being set to face Penn State.
The Longhorns dropped down to the ReliaQuest Bowl in the projections after spending weeks sitting in the first round of the College Football Playoff. But an unbalanced offense resulted in uneven games, and with losses to Ohio State and Florida, Texas fell out of the playoff run in Erick Smith’s eyes.
The Longhorns did bounce back from their loss to the Gators, taking down No. 6 Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry Showdown this past weekend. But with three ranked opponents left on their schedule, there is no room for error if Texas wants to find itself in the playoffs.
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This article originally appeared on Cornhuskers Wire: USA TODAY Sports projects Nebraska to face Texas in ReliaQuest Bowl
