Update: We published this just before the game—turns out we predicted Clemson’s big upset over Alabama, so now we’re 6 for 7! You can look up any company or university Textio Score for free here.
Tonight, one of the football teams at #1 Alabama and #2 Clemson is expected to win the football national championship. Both teams have worked hard all year to make it to this game. While Alabama and Clemson are playing in the final, 10 other teams made it to the major bowl games, which is a feat unto itself. University of Washington, Michigan, USC, all have storied football programs, even if they didn’t make it to the big game this time around.
Each of these top 12 schools not only has to recruit a great football team, but they also need to recruit a great faculty and staff — from professors, to coaches to groundskeepers. Within Textio we have ranked over 50,000+ companies and universities to see how their job listings perform in the Textio Index. We wanted to see these top schools go head to head to see if their bowl game outcomes were similar to their hiring outcomes and we found a fascinating pattern. First, here is how all the major college bowl universities stack up in hiring performance:
And here is the interesting bit: in five of six bowl games, the university with the higher Textio score won their game. With that in mind, our prediction for tonight — go Tigers!
Rose Bowl winner: USC
USC Textio Score: 35
Penn State Textio Score: 26
Sugar Bowl winner: Oklahoma
Oklahoma Textio Score: 35
Auburn Textio Score: 26
Orange Bowl winner: Florida State
Florida State Textio Score: 30
Michigan Textio Score: 22
Cotton Bowl winner: Wisconsin
Wisconsin Textio Score: 24
Western Michigan Textio Score: 19
Peach Bowl winner: Alabama
Alabama Textio Score: 16
Washington Textio Score: 15
Fiesta Bowl winner: Clemson
Clemson Textio Score: 25
Ohio State Textio Score: 27