Bowl Projection Round-Up: Where each Pac-12 team is slotted to play after Week 9

After this week, the Pac-12 is about to get crazy with some major matchups coming up. Let’s take a look at the bowl projections before all hell breaks loose.

It’s starting to feel like this is the last relatively “down” week in the Pac-12 conference before things start to get pretty crazy once again. A few weeks ago we had some major shakeups, with Oregon playing UCLA, and USC playing Utah, but the past week or two have been calm in terms of high-profile matchups. This week the No. 8 Ducks face Colorado, the No. 9 Trojans take on Cal, the No. 12 Bruins play Arizona State, and the No. 14 Utes play Arizona.

The most interesting game on the entire slate may be No. 23 Oregon State traveling up to Seattle to take on Washington Friday night.

Don’t get used to this. Starting next week, things are about to get crazy, with Oregon starting a stretch of games against Washington, Utah, and Oregon State, while USC and UCLA prepare for their big-time LA showdown.

Before all hell breaks loose on the west coast, we wanted to get a sense of where things stand when it comes to bowl game projections. After the first College Football Playoff rankings of the year were released earlier this week, we’ve got a good feel for where the top of the Pac-12 stands in the national picture, but it’s going to be interesting to see where the bowl projections stand right now, compared to where they might stand three weeks from now.

As is the case every week, we’ve done the leg work for you and tried to gather an array of predictions from different sites. Take a look:

Bowl Projection Round-Up: Where each Pac-12 team is slotted to play after Week 8

A look at the Pac-12 bowl game projections after Oregon shook things up with the win over UCLA.

There have certainly been some shake-ups in the Pac-12 bowl game picture over the past few weeks.

At first, it was the UCLA Bruins that stirred things up out west, taking down the Washington Huskies and Utah Utes in consecutive weeks. Then, after Utah upset USC a couple of weeks ago, it was the Bruins who stepped into the perceived top spot in the conference. However, Oregon’s dominant win over UCLA this past week now has the Ducks sitting pretty with an inside track to the Pac-12 championship, and a potential Rose Bowl berth or a trip to the College Football Playoff should they win out.

So how have the recent happenings in the conference shaped the bowl picture going forward? We’ve done the leg work for you and tried to gather an array of predictions from different sites. Take a look:

Bowl Projection Round-Up: Where each Pac-12 team is slotted to play after Week 6

Utah’s loss knocked them out of the Rose Bowl picture. Which Pac-12 team replaced them? Where do the Ducks stand ahead of UCLA matchup?

At the halfway point of the 2022 college football season, we’ve got a pretty good idea of the power balance out west in the Pac-12 conference. There is a clear tier of contenders for the conference championship — USC, UCLA, Oregon — and a tier of teams that could potentially sneak their way into Las Vegas — Utah, Washington State, and Washington. Then there are the others, who may not be ready to contend for a title just yet, but can still play giant-killer if they want to this season.

Whether you’re at the top of the Pac-12 conference and getting some buzz when it comes to the College Football Playoff, or you’re a middling team who is going to be fighting hard to get to six wins and become bowl eligible, we’ve got you covered. If you’re the Colorado Buffaloes, though, this article might now be for you. After the start to the season in Boulder, I can’t say I’m confident they will be seeing a bowl game this year.

Do you want to see where the other teams are predicted to land, though? We’ve done the leg work for you and tried to gather an array of predictions from different sites. Take a look:

Bowl projections: 7 different analysts all have USC going to a New Year’s Six bowl

The current bowl projection consensus for #USC: the Rose Bowl vs. Michigan. After the win over Oregon State, USC’s odds of making a NY6 bowl are very, very high.

The USC Trojans are 4-0. Barely, one could argue, but winning by a whisker counts just as much as winning by 30. In many ways, it means more, because it showed the toughness of this team.

It took a gritty, hard-fought win with plenty of storylines against the Oregon State Beavers in Corvallis, but USC’s undefeated season continues for at least one more week.

With the first month of the college football season officially behind us, the USC Trojans should be right in the center of the College Football Playoff discussion. Of course, a lot can change over the next few weeks, but it is a strong sign that Lincoln Riley’s team is already being considered for a big bowl game.

Here are the latest bowl projections from some media outlets and pundits.

Pac-12 Bowl Projections: 2020-2021 Spring Version

CollegeFootballNews.com Pac-12 bowl projections: 2020 spring version

CollegeFootballNews.com Pac-12 bowl projections: 2020 spring version


2020-2021 Pac-12 Bowl Projections

Future College Football Playoff Sites & Dates
All of the 2020-2021 bowl tie-ins

Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Games listed alphabetically until all the dates are announced  

LA Bowl

Date Coming
ESPN
SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, CA
Mountain West vs. Pac-12
Spring Projection: San Diego State vs. Arizona State 
Last Season: First Bowl in 2020

Mitsubishi Motors Las Vegas Bowl

Date Coming
ESPN
Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas, NV
Big Ten vs. Pac-12
Spring Projection: Iowa vs. Utah
Last Season: Washington 38, Boise State 7

Redbox Bowl

Date Coming
FOX
Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, CA
Big Ten vs. Pac-12
Spring Projection: Indiana vs. Stanford 
Last Season: Cal 35, Illinois 20

San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl

Date Coming
FOX
SDCCU Stadium, San Diego, CA
ACC vs. Pac-12
Spring Projection: Louisville vs. Washington
Last Season: Iowa 49, UAC 24

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Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl

Thursday, December 30
CBS
Sun Bowl Stadium, El Paso, TX
ACC vs. Pac-12
Spring Projection: NC State vs. UCLA
Last Season: Arizona State 20, Florida State 14

Valero Alamo Bowl

Date Coming
ESPN
Alamodome, San Antonio, TX
Big 12 vs. Pac-12
Spring Projection: Texas vs. USC
Last Season: Texas 38, Utah 10

Walk-On’s Independence Bowl

Date Coming
ESPN
Independence Stadium, Shreveport, LA
Army vs. Pac-12
Spring Projection: Army vs. Cal
Last Season: Louisiana Tech 14, Miami 0

PlayStation Fiesta Bowl

Saturday, January 2
ESPN
State Farm Stadium, Glendale, AZ
New Year’s Six at-large vs. New Year’s Six at-large
Spring Projection: Oregon vs. Penn State 
Last Season: Clemson 29, Ohio State 23

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