Independence Bowl Projections Before Rivalry Week Games

This year's Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl is shaping up to be one of the most memorable matchups in a long time. The game is scheduled for Saturday, December 28th, 2024 at Independence Stadium in Shreveport. The game will kick off at 8:15pm local time, and will be broadcast nationwide on ESPN.

The fact that the game is on a Saturday is a huge plus. Getting a game after Christmas is also a big deal. Being a prime-time kickoff is pretty exciting, in addition to the fact it will be on ESPN. All of these elements give this year's Independence Bowl a huge boost, before we even see who will be playing.

Currently, the main tie-ins for the 2024 Independence Bowl are the Pac-12 and the American Athletic Conference.

If you're a big fan of college football, you will automatically know why half of that pair is problematic. If you're not, let's talk about the Pac-12 for a second.

While in previous years, the Pac-12 was home to powerhouse college football programs, and National Champion programs, that's pretty far from where they are now. Currently, the Pac-12 is actually the "Pac-2", with just Oregon State and Washington State making up the whole conference.

How will the Pac-12 tie-in work for the Independence Bowl in 2024?

The teams who were part of the Pac-12 when their agreement with the Independence Bowl was put together will still be eligible this year. Those teams will include the Oregon Ducks, Arizona State Sun Devils, Colorado Buffaloes, Washington Huskies, USC Trojans, and Cal Golden Bears. Even though these teams are scattered across other conferences now.

But will those teams make the Independence Bowl this year, or will it be too complicated to get them out of their new conferences? That creates another issue.

Another intriguing factor for the Independence Bowl is their long running attempt to have Army Football come to Shreveport. This is an effort that started in 2019, when the Indy Bowl and Army came to an agreement for multiple years. That deal put Army in line for Shreveport appearances in 2020, 2022, and 2024.

This was perfect for the 2020 game, where Army had the wins and was ready to play. It was the pandemic, but Independence Stadium is outside, in the open air. By this point in 2020, many were getting back to outdoor events. Army had 9 wins and gladly accepted their Indy Bowl invite.

But the Pac-12 wasn't feeling it. Team after team in the Pac-12 weaseled out of the game, and left both Army and Shreveport hanging. For their part, Army still wanted to play, and kept trying to find a game that would let them. Eventually, they ended up win the 2020 Liberty Bowl.

So here we are, one of the original Army agreement years (2024 was one of the original 3 years) and we have an Army team that is really good. Not to mention, Army is now a part of the American Athletic Conference...who is also tied into the Independence Bowl.

Unless Army somehow manages to improve their College Football Playoff rankings by a ton, and wins the American Athletic Conference Championship Game again Tulane, they should be perfect for a trip to Shreveport.

This is something that should happen, based on all of the things that have taken place before. Army and the Independence Bowl and stuck by each other through the think-and-thin of 2020, and that should be recognized in 2024. With all the upheaval and unrest in the college football conference realignment landscape, for all the chips to fall where they have for this matchup, all involved should pull out every stop to get Army into the Independence Bowl this year.

But we don't know what's actually going on. Best way to try and figure that out right now is by looking at what the experts are predicting. Here are the latest projections the week of Rivalry Week in college football:

Athlon Sports: West Virginia vs. Tulane

Tulane would be great for Shreveport as well. A Louisiana-based school would be fun, and West Virginia would be a pretty interesting matchup as well. Even though this pair is far away from the west coast vibe the kickoff time is aiming for.

CBS Sports: Army vs. Boston College

Here we go, Army getting their love. The Boston College pull from the ACC is an interesting one. The ACC tie doesn't fit this year, which means it would be an at-large pick...and it feels like not putting two teams from the northeast together in Shreveport would make more sense.

ESPN
Bonagura: Kansas vs. Louisiana
Schlabach: West Virginia vs. Oklahoma

With all do respect, the ESPN predictions feel like a dart throw every year. All of these teams are from conferences that would feel like a stretch. That doesn't mean seeing any of these four in Shreveport would be bad, just that its hard to follow some of this. But These teams would all be fun.

Sporting News: Memphis vs. Washington

Washington makes sense from the Pac-12 fallout, and kick off time, and Memphis does check the American Athletic Conference box. Only issue here is we just want to see Army get their spot.

USA Today: Tulane vs James Madison

Same as we said before about Tulane, great idea. But James Madison isn't an American Athletic team, or a former Pac-12 team. Seems a little odd.

Action Sports: Army vs. West Virginia

Before I say anything here, Brett McMurphy is a witch. Somehow he has info before anyone else, and when he breaks a story (or bowl matchup) its pretty locked down. I don't think I've ever seen his report fall flat. But these are still predictions, and not reports. But I still take what he says as the closest thing to a lock we can get right now.

When McMurphy tells me that Army is the prediction, I feel like the stars are aligning to right some wrongs.

The only true way to know the matchup with this year's game is to wait until after the Conference Championship games are done and the dust settles. When the Indy Bowl tells us who is coming to Shreveport, we will know. But lets hope its Army.