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After the disastrous performance on Saturday night against the Utah Utes, we can now rule a trip to either the Orange Bowl or Cotton Bowl out for the Ducks, who no longer have a case for making it into the College Football Playoff.
Despite the 38-7 loss to Utah, the season isn’t over for Oregon, though, who still has a chance to make it into a New Year’s Six Bowl should they win the remaining games on their schedule.
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There is no guarantee that the Ducks can get back to the Rose Bowl, though. In fact, after seeing the way they played vs. Utah, you could even say it’s a stretch that they might be able to beat Oregon State, beat Utah in the Pac-12 title game, and make it back to Pasadena on January 1st. It’s not Rose Bowl or bust, though, for the Ducks. Should they miss out on a third-straight conference championship, they could still be invited to the Fiesta Bowl.
According to ESPN, that is currently where they are projected to go, with Mark Schlabach and Kyle Bonagura predicting that they will face either Notre Dame or Baylor in the bowl game that takes place on New Year’s Day.
However, things could get dark for Oregon pretty quickly as well. If there were to lose to the Oregon State Beavers next week and fail to make it back to the Pac-12 Championship game, there’s a real possibility that they could be slotted to play in either the Alamo Bowl or the Holiday Bowl.
If you go from aspirations of a College Football Playoff berth, all the way down to a potential appearance in the Alamo or Holiday Bowls in a matter of days, that’s a pretty tough pill to swallow.
Fortunately for Oregon fans, it’s pretty common to see teams bounce back with some real intensity the week after getting blown out and embarrassed. When you have Mario Cristobal as your coach, and your next game is a rivalry game, I’m sure that won’t be a problem.
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