One early bowl prognosticator has the Golden Band From Tigerland accompanying the LSU football team into the Mercedes-Benz Superdome for the second-straight postseason (Photo: Parker Waters).

In eight weeks, the college football season will kick off, and six months from Saturday, we'll crown another national champion. So what else to do in the weeks leading up to the start of fall practice?

Make bowl projections, of course!

Phil Steele, whose preseason magazine is one of the most in-depth publications you will ever read, has projected the slate of bowl games for the holiday season, and while many expect LSU to be the preseason No. 1 team in America, Steele doesn't have the Tigers in the BCS national championship game.

Steele projects Oklahoma and Florida State to meet in the title game, scheduled for Jan. 7 in south Florida. LSU, says Steele, will play Michigan State in the Allstate Sugar Bowl on Jan. 2.

The other local bowl game, the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl on Dec. 22, will match FIU and East Carolina, according to Steele. Neither team has played in the 11-year-old game.

Steele projects Louisiana Tech to go to the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise against Bowling Green. He does not have Tulane, Louisiana-Lafayette or Louisiana-Monroe included in his bowl picks.