Stewart Mandel of CNNSI.com makes his annual predictions for my college tourney

(actually, Stewart makes picks for the real bowl games, and I annually transform them into predictions for my playoffs; i.e., if the games turn out like he says, this is how my tournament will play out, for the First Round and BCS Bowl Quarterfinals, at least)

As part of Stewart Mandel's predictions of all of the bowl games this season, here are his predictions for the tournament's first round and quarterfinals. Over the last two seasons, Stew (can I call ya Stew?) has been 10-2 in these games.  Two years ago, Stewart was 6-0, and 4-2 last year.


FIRST ROUND:

In Atlanta:
7 Florida State 17
10 Wisconsin 14

In Chicago:
8 Northern Illinois 16
9 Louisville 10


BCS BOWLS (Quarterfinals):

Fiesta: 
1 Notre Dame 28
8 Northern Illinois 15

Orange: 
4 Oregon 40
5 Kansas State 27

Sugar:
2 Alabama 46
7 Florida State 28

Rose: 
3 Florida 27
6 Stanford 35


Semi-finals in Arlington, Texas:
Notre Dame vs. Oregon
Alabama vs. Stanford

BCS Championship in Miami