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Now that the regular season is over, the nine Pac-12 bowl teams are officially official with UCLA knocking out Cal and Utah knocking out Colorado. Obviously USC and Stanford still have a game to play to truly decide the standings, but I think it’s safe to say we can look at the bowl slate right now.
So, once again, I compared myself to SBNation’s Jason Kirk in projecting the bowls.
Pac-12 Bowls
| Bowl Game | Jason Kirk | Matthew Tonis |
|---|---|---|
| Bowl Game | Jason Kirk | Matthew Tonis |
| New Year's 6 | USC | USC |
| Alamo Bowl | Washington | Washington |
| Holiday Bowl | Stanford | Stanford |
| Foster Farms Bowl | Washington State | Washington State |
| Sun Bowl | ASU | ASU |
| Las Vegas Bowl | Arizona | Oregon |
| Cactus Bowl | Oregon | Arizona |
Sorry Demario, but I think you and the Sun Devils will be playing in El Paso, once again. Ironically, the last time ASU went there was after arguably the best season of the Todd Graham era. This time, it will be his final game.
As for the one difference between Jason and me at the bottom of the conference slate, I think Oregon’s head-to-head win over Arizona and back-to-back big wins to close the season will eclipse a banged up Khalil Tate and a Wildcat team that lost their final two games.
As for UCLA and Utah, it’s to the free agent pool for them. There are 79 teams for 78 slots, so one six-plus win team won’t be playing another game, but I don’t think it will be either of the excess Pac-12 teams. Open slots will likely be for the Cure Bowl, Quick Lane Bowl, Heart of Dallas Bowl and more. It’s hard to know the thinking of bowl officials across the country, so it’s not easy to project where they’re headed, but I would expect those teams to be as far west as possible to attempt to draw in traveling fans.