West Virginia is still in the bowl mix after coming up just short against Texas Tech, and the latest round of projections keeps the Mountaineers headed somewhere in December.
Rich Rod’s team sits at five wins and will try to lock up No. 6 this weekend back home against Kansas. That trip back to Morgantown matters for more than just the record. It’s the cleaner path, and it comes against a Jayhawks team that has dropped four of its last five and is 0-3 in true road games this season.
Even after the loss to Texas Tech, the postseason picture remains steady across the board. Nearly every major outlet has West Virginia bowling, though the destination varies quite a bit.
Athlon Sports has the Mountaineers in the Liberty Bowl against Auburn. CBS Sports sends them to the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl against Army.
College Football News projects the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl against Arizona State. ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura has West Virginia in the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl against Washington, while ESPN’s Mark Schlabach slots them into the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl against Nebraska.
Sports Illustrated sees a Cactus Bowl matchup with Penn State, The Athletic pairs West Virginia with Missouri in the Liberty Bowl, and West Virginia On SI has the Cactus Bowl against Illinois.
The wildest name in the bunch is Arizona State. A bowl game against another Big 12 team would be a strange one, and the source of that possibility comes down to the Independence Bowl’s tie-ins, which include PAC-12 legacy teams. That setup leaves the door open for a matchup like that to happen.
The Cactus Bowl was the one spot that got a little reshuffled here. Penn State was the original pick, but with that already on the board from another projection, Illinois was used instead to give the matchup a different look.
The current bowl slate listed in the projections includes the Valero Alamo Bowl on Tuesday, December 29, 2026, the Pop-Tarts Bowl on Tuesday, December 29, 2026, the Kinder’s Texas Bowl on Thursday, December 31, 2026, the AutoZone Liberty Bowl on Saturday, January 2, 2027, the Cactus Bowl on Saturday, December 26, 2026, and the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl on Tuesday, December 22, 2026.
In Other News...
West Virginia Has A Bigger Problem Than The Texas Tech Loss
The Texas Tech loss stung because it looked like the kind of game West Virginia needed to turn a corner, but the bigger issue is still hanging over the program. The offense has taken a step forward from last season, giving the Mountaineers something to build on, yet the defense remains the worst in college football and continues to overshadow any progress on the other side of the ball.
So even as the staff tries to sort out the present, there is plenty going on behind the scenes. West Virginia is in ongoing contract discussions with Mike Hawkins, while also keeping an eye on the development of his brother, Maliek, and trying to add more help through the transfer portal. The loss to Texas Tech may fade, but the roster questions and defensive fixes are the real test now. [Read more 🡒]
Michael Hawkins Jr. Just Took WVUs Offense To Another Level
West Virginias trip to Texas Tech turned into the kind of offensive track meet that can make a box score look almost fictional. In the 16th meeting between the programs, the Mountaineers saw a game built on big plays and even bigger numbers, with 101 total points and 892 yards of offense in the first half alone, the most in a half since 2004. Michael Hawkins Jr. was at the center of it all, scoring three rushing touchdowns while Cam Cook piled up 149 yards on the ground and Taron Francis added 169 receiving yards.
For West Virginia, the result was more than just another wild Big 12 shootout. Hawkins night pushed the offense into a different gear and came with program-record production, a sign that the Mountaineers may have found a new level of explosiveness at the right time. The only question now is whether this was a one-night eruption or the start of something more sustainable as the season moves forward. [Read more 🡒]
West Virginia Suddenly Has A Real Playoff Path If One Thing Changes
The College Football Playoff is headed for another major reset, and for West Virginia, the timing matters. The CFP Management Committee announced that the field will expand from 12 to 24 teams starting in 2027, with conference champions from the major leagues and the highest-ranked teams filling out the bracket as determined by the selection committee. For programs like the Mountaineers, that kind of expansion changes the conversation from hoping for a perfect season to building a roster that can stay in the race longer.
West Virginias path, though, still comes back to the same basics: keep a top dual-threat quarterback in place and get the defense to a better level. Those are the kinds of internal fixes that can turn a theoretical opening into something real, especially in a format that will reward teams with both quality wins and staying power. The bracket may be getting bigger, but for the Mountaineers, the next step is still about making sure they are good enough to matter when the new era arrives. [Read more 🡒]