There is nothing in sports quite like a college football bowl game. Aside from the BCS National Championship Game, the bowls do not have any significant value, yet everyone loves to watch to favorite teams compete one last time during the holiday season.
The Pac-12 is affiliated with seven separate bowl games, but will likely have two teams in BCS Bowls, which would leave the New Mexico Bowl without a Pac-12 representative. The other six conference bowl games will likely be filled as follows:
1. Rose Bowl Game presented by VIZIO (Pac-12 vs. Big Ten) — No. 9 Oregon (10-2, 8-1 Pac-12) vs. Wisconsin (10-2) or Michigan State (10-2)
If the Ducks beat the UCLA Bruins in Friday night’s inaugural Pac-12 Championship Game they will head to their third BCS Bowl Game, and second Rose Bowl, in the past three seasons.
Oregon is currently favored by 31.5 points over the Bruins and would play the winner of the Big 10 Conference Championship game, which features the Spartans and the Badgers. Michigan State edged Wisconsin on a last-second play in their regular season matchup.
2. Tostitos Fiesta Bowl (Pac-12 vs. Big 12) — No. 4 Stanford (11-1, 8-1) vs. Oklahoma State (10-1)
Unless there is a drastic shakeup in the final BCS rankings, the Cardinal will finish the regular season as the fourth best team in the country. The No. 4 team is guaranteed a BCS spot and the Cardinal, led by senior quarterback Andrew Luck, will likely be selected to play in the Fiesta Bowl. This will be Stanford’s second straight trip to a BCS game as they defeated then No. 13 Virginia Tech 40-12 in last year’s Orange Bowl.
The Cardinal is projected to play the Cowboys, but if OSU falls to Oklahoma in the Big-12 title game, the Sooners will likely head to Glendale.
3. Valero Alamo Bowl (Pac-12 vs. Big 12) — Washington (7-5, 5-4) vs. Oklahoma (9-2)
After teams are placed in the BCS Bowls, the Alamo bowl gets the first pick of all the Pac-12’s bowl games. Outside of Stanford and Oregon, Washington is the only Pac-12 team with both an overall winning record and a conference winning record. This will be Washington’s second straight trip to a bowl game as the defeated Nebraska in last year’s Holiday Bowl.
If Oklahoma can pull off an upset in the Big-12 Championship game, Washington will likely face OSU instead. Either team is a tall order for the Huskies.
4. Bridgeport Education Holiday Bowl (Pac-12 vs. Big 12) — California (7-5, 4-5) vs. Baylor (8-3)
The Golden Bears will continue the trend of teams from the North Division being selected to the more “prestigious” bowl games. Cal is coming off its ninth winning season in the past 10 years. The Golden Bears will be returning to a bowl game for the first time since 2009. Prior to the bowless 2010 season, Cal had been to a school-record seven straight bowl games.
Baylor has been impressive all season, and reached eight wins for the first time since 1991.
5. Hyundai Sun Bowl (Pac-12 vs. ACC) — Utah (7-5, 4-5) vs. Georgia Tech (8-4)
Utah came within inches of reaching the Pac-12 Championship Game in its first season in the conference. Instead, the Utes fell in less-than spectacular fashion to lowly Colorado and head to El Paso.
Utah made it to the Las Vegas Bowl last season but got hammered by a vengeful Boise State team.
The Yellow Jackets got off to a 6-0 start before running into the tough part of their season. Georgia Tech is making their 15th straight bowl appearance.
6. MAACO Bowl Las Vegas(Pac-12 vs. MWC) — ASU (6-6, 4-5) vs. TCU (8-2)
The MAACO Bowl has to be licking its chops with this matchup.
Unfortunately, neither team wanted to end up in Sin City. At 8-2, the Horned Frogs deserve better, especially since their only two losses came in extremely close games against Baylor and SMU. Last year TCU took home the Rose Bowl, upsetting Wisconsin in Pasadena.
ASU, on the other hand, had its own visions of the Rose Bowl up until a few weeks ago.
It is the Sun Devils’ first bowl game in four years, and it’ll be nice to see the maroon and gold playing in December again.
7. Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl (Pac-12 vs. Army) — UCLA (6-6, 5-4) vs. Illinois (6-6)
On Monday UCLA was granted a waiver by the NCAA to play in a bowl game. Technically, all bowl teams must have six wins and a .500 record or better. With Oregon in the Pac-12 title game, chances are the Bruins will end the season with a 6-7 record.
UCLA’s problems pale in comparison to the ones faced by the Fighting Illini, who started off the year 6-0. Incredibly, Illinois managed to drop six straight games to finish 6-6. This was a team that in mid-October was dreaming about a BCS bowl.
The Bruins have been inconsistent this season, but at least avoided a meltdown of epic proportions.
Reach the reporters at william.boor@asu.edu and egrasser@asu.edu
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