A look at Arizona’s bowl prospects after locking up eligibility
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Officially bowl eligible, Arizona knows it will have one more game after the regular season ends later this month. But with dozens of postseason bowl games, which ones could the Wildcats play in?
That depends on what happens with some of the UA’s old Pac-12 friends.
Despite being in the Big 12 Conference, Arizona and the rest of the “legacy schools” that left that Pac-12 two years ago are still somewhat bound to that league’s bowl tie-ins. The Pac-12 has slots to fill in the Alamo, Holiday, Vegas, Sun and LA bowls as well as potential openings in a pool of ESPN-owned games.
Currently, seven schools with Pac-12 ties have secured bowl eligibility:
- Oregon (8-1)
- USC (7-2)
- Utah (7-2)
- Arizona (6-3)
- ASU (6-3)
- Washington (6-3)
- Cal (6-4)
Washington State (4-5) and UCLA (3-6) can also get to six wins, but UCLA visits No. 1 Ohio State next week and would need to win out to become eligible.
Arizona is also eligible for the Big 12’s slate of bowl spots, but only if it doesn’t get slotted into a Pac-12 bowl. In addition to the Alamo those games include the Pop-Tarts Bowl (!!) in Orlando, Texas Bowl in Houston, Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Rate Bowl in Phoenix and Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La.
Not including the former Pac-12 schools, the Big 12 currently has six bowl-eligible teams:
- Texas Tech (9-1)
- BYU (8-1)
- Houston (8-2)
- Cincinnati (7-2)
- TCU (6-3)
- Iowa State (5-4)
Baylor (5-4), Kansas (5-5), Kansas State (4-5), UCF (4-5) and West Virginia (4-6) are also still alive for bowl eligibility.
At least one Big 12 school will make the 12-team College Football Playoff, and Oregon is also likely to make that field, which reduces the number of teams Arizona is competing with for bowls. If Utah were to get into the playoff that would almost assure the Wildcats end up in one of the Pac-12 bowls.
A lot also depends on how the UA finishes out the season. If it goes 6-6 the LA Bowl on Dec. 13 against a Mountain West opponent is probably the best option, or possibly the Independence Bowl Dec. 30 against a Conference USA foe.
Get to seven wins and the Sun Bowl on Dec. 31, against an ACC opponent, becomes very likely. Most bowl projections released Sunday have the Wildcats facing SMU in El Paso on New Year’s Eve.
Win eight or more games and anything is possible. The UA could return to the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 30, spend New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas or take an early January trip to San Diego for the Holiday Bowl.
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