2013 bowl projections: Wyoming going bowling, USU maybe to Las Vegas

Just about every week we will take a look at various bowl projections from around the Internet, plus make our own predictions. As of right now there are no Mountain West teams going to earn any consideration for a BCS bowl game, that could easily change once a team enters the rankings. So, I don't want to hear complaints from Fresno State, Utah State, Boise State, San Jose State or Wyoming fans for not being considered.

For a quick refresher here are the Mountain West bowl tie-ins with their opponent, and the Mountain West has a bowl order and is not required to have say the champion go to Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Bowl gets the first pick of teams.

Las Vegas Bowl

MWC No. 1 vs. Pac-12 No. 5

Poinsettia Bowl

MWC No. 2 vs. Army/at-large

Armed Forces Bowl

MWC No. 3 vs. C-USA No. 3/Navy

New Mexico Bowl

MWC No. 4 vs. Pac-12 No. 7

Hawaii Bowl

MWC No. 5/Hawaii vs. C-USA No. 2

Idaho Bowl

MWC No. 6 vs. MAC No. 3

First set of predictions come from SB Nation:

• Armed Forces Bowl: Fresno State vs. Navy
• Poinsettia Bowl: Boise State vs. Buffalo (at-large)
• Hawaii Bowl: Wyoming vs. Marshall
• Las Vegas Bowl: Utah State vs. Arizona
• New Mexico Bowl: San Jose State vs. USC

They are predicting that there will not be six Mountain West bowl teams, and that is possible since San Diego State looks just awful, New Mexico was unable to get a win over UTSA in Week 1 and Air Force is just meh so far.. The big shock is that according to Jason Kirk's projections, he has Utah State winning the Mountain West -- have fun with high expectation's Aggie fans.

A very cool matchup is San Jose State playing USC, because there is no way that is happening in the regular season. Cowboy fans need to grab some sun screen and sunglasses to head to Hawaii about 10 months earlier than expected.

Here are projections by ESPN's Mark Schlabach and Brad Edwards:

• Armed Forces Bowl: Wyoming vs. Navy and San Jose State vs. Navy
• Poinsettia Bowl: Boise State vs. Notre Dame and Boise State vs. Ohio
• Hawaii Bowl: Utah State vs. Marshall and Utah State vs. Rice
• Idaho Bowl: Wyoming vs. Bowling Green (Brad Edwards)
• Las Vegas Bowl: Fresno State vs. Arizona and Fresno State vs. Arizona
• New Mexico Bowl: San Jose State vs. Oregon State and Air Force vs. Oregon State

Two first impressions: Brad Edwards has Air Force in a bowl game giving the Mountain West six teams, and then Notre Dame in the Poinsettia Bowl against Boise State. Not sure how Notre Dame falls that far. The first thing that needs to happen is Army to not be bowl eligible, most other bowl games get their conference tie-in and it probably requires Notre Dame going 7-5 or worse. Seeing Notre Dame take on Boise State would be a pretty cool site.

Here are my projections:

• Armed Forces Bowl: Boise State vs. Navy
• Poinsettia Bowl: Fresno State vs. Kent State
• Hawaii Bowl: Wyoming vs. Rice
• Idaho Bowl: San Diego State vs. Ohio
• Las Vegas Bowl: Utah State vs. Utah
• New Mexico Bowl: San Jose State vs. USC

The Las Vegas Bowl rematch might not happen, but after that first contest it would be a doozy of a game. Also, the Las Vegas Bowl would love to have a pair of fan bases reasonably close. Could not resist a San Jose State vs. USC matchup, because the Trojans are on the decline, and fast. Even though I think San Diego State is a mess I am placing them in the No. 6 spot, this week. That could easily change to Air Force or no one in the next week or to. Fresno State's reward for finishing second in the Mountain West is a nice trip to San Diego but to play Kent State. That spot should go to Army but they are not likely to get to six wins, so I choose Kent State. Other options could be a Sun Belt school as well.

So, let me know what everyone thinks about your team's bowl positioning.