Pac-12 bowl projections: The CFP problem, Utah repeats, USC receives squeezed and eight teams qualify

When examining the Pac-12’s postseason potential customers, the Hotline friends into the future with reverse engineering.

Will the convention ship a crew to the School Football Playoff for the first time in 6 decades?

Which is not the accurate issue, in our opinion.

Does the meeting have a crew very good adequate to finish the typical year with a 13- or 12-1 file?

That is the problem.

No two-reduction workforce has been invited to the CFP in its eight several years of existence, which strongly implies the Pac-12 demands its winner to have no a lot more than one particular reduction when it hoists the trophy in Las Vegas on Dec. 2.

We don’t see any one capable of finishing 13- or 12-1 — not when all the top rated contenders (Utah, Oregon and USC) facial area hard non-convention matchups, enjoy 9 league opponents and must survive the title duel.

Which is 11 online games from Electrical power Five opposition and only 1 decline allowed.

Incredibly tough.

Really challenging.

As a final result, the most likely final result to the Pac-12 time is acquainted: No playoff participant.

Our bowl projections, detailed below, are centered on the order of end revealed right here very last week.

But 1st, three notes on the approach …

— The convention has 6 immediate tie-ins but is capable to put a seventh suitable team into an ESPN-operated match.

— The Rose, Alamo, Getaway and Las Vegas bowls will find participants primarily based on desirability, but only to a level: They can't pass on group X in favor of staff Y if there is far more than a one-game distinction in conference history.

— Starting with the Sun Bowl, groups ought to be picked in buy of convention history.

Range buy offered by the conference workplace.

1. Rose Bowl
Day: Jan. 2
Pac-12 crew: Utah
Matchup: vs. Massive Ten
Remark: The Utes acquire a very unique typical-time journey to the identical location, with a Pac-12 championship followed by the vacation to Pasadena. And this time, they go out on top.

2. Alamo Bowl
Date: Dec. 29
Pac-12 group: USC
Matchup: vs. Significant 12
Remark: The paucity of at-huge berths into the New Year’s Six bowls every single 3rd yr, when the Peach and Fiesta bowls host semifinals, ends up squeezing 3-loss USC. As a substitute, the Trojans make their initial-ever visual appeal in the Alamo. Oklahoma would make an appealing opponent, don’t you imagine?

3. Las Vegas Bowl
Date: Dec. 17
Pac-12 workforce: Oregon
Matchup: vs. SEC
Comment: The Ducks close the year as they open up it: struggling with an SEC foe on a (technically) neutral area. The lessons realized towards Ga in September will pay back dividends from the likes of LSU or Florida in December.

4. Holiday getaway Bowl
Day: Dec. 28
Pac-12 crew: Washington
Matchup: vs. ACC
Comment: Our hunch is the meeting race performs out in a style that would, under other circumstances, deliver UCLA to San Diego. But soon after the Bruins canceled last year, Holiday officers want very little to do with them.