The Pac 10 bowl game picture should be particularly interesting to the W.A.C. teams. Look at how the Pac 10 is shaping up this year. The Pac 10 stands a very good chance of only having five bowl eligible teams this year, yet they have SIX bowl game tie-ins PLUS they are very likely to have two teams in the BCS bowls. So they would need EIGHT bowl eligible teams to meet all of their bowl game tie-ins if two Pac 10 teams (USC and CAL) are in two of the BCS bowl games. Here's what it looks like right now:

# 1. U.S.C. - If they remain unbeaten they go to the Orange Bowl for the BCS championship game. They are 7-0 and they have road games AT Washington State (which is awful this year) and AT Oregon State, home games against Arizona (another awful Pac 10 team) and Notre Dame and a "road" game AT U.C.L.A. They should remain unbeaten.

# 7. CAL - If they continue to win they will likely go to the Rose Bowl (2nd BCS bowl game for Pac 10). Right now CAL is 5-1 with their only loss being a close loss to # 1 U.S.C. CAL's remaining games are home games against # 20, Arizona State, and Oregon, and a road game AT Washington (another awful Pac 10 team this year) and a home game against Stanford and a rescheduled road game against # 25 Southern Mississippi. They look very capable of winning all of those games. They should finish the season 10-1.

# 20. Arizona State - If they lose to CAL but win the other games they will likely go to the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. Right now ASU is 6-1 with a game this weekend AT California. Then they have home games against Stanford and WSU and a road game AT Arizona. All of those games look to be wins for ASU other than the CAL game this weekend. So they will likely finish the season 9-2.

Unranked Oregon - They are currently 4-3. They have a home game against Washington this weekend (a very likely win), and then a road game AT California (a very likely loss), and a home game against UCLA (a game that could go either way, but Oregon will probably be favored to win) and then a road game against Oregon State (it also could go either way). If Oregon wins the rest of their games other than the CAL game they will finish the season 7-4. If they do they will likely go to the Insight.com bowl in Phoenix or the Sun Bowl.

Unranked U.C.L.A. and Stanford - One of these two teams will likely finish the season as bowl eligible, but probably not both of them. They play each other this weekend. The winner of that game will probably go bowling, the loser may not. Both of them are 4-3 overall right now and 2-2 in the Pac 10. U.C.L.A. is home this weekend to Stanford and then has WSU at home followed by a game AT Oregon and then U.S.C. at home. If they lose to Stanford this weekend, beat WSU and then lose at Oregon and to USC they will finish this season at 5-6 for the season and ineligible for a bowl game. If they beat Stanford and WSU they are assured of being bowl eligible, even if they lose AT Oregon and to USC. Stanford on the other hand has the road game against UCLA this weekend followed by a road game AT # 20 Arizona State, and then a home game against Oregon State and a road game AT # 7 CAL. If Stanford loses this weekend to UCLA there is virtually no chance of them being bowl eligible this season. The team that wins this weekend will likely go to ether the Insight.com bowl in Phoenix or the Sun Bowl.

The only other Pac 10 team that has any shot at all of being bowl eligible this season is Oregon State and they are really just about out of it at this point. They are 3-4 with a game AT Arizona (a likely win to get them to 4-4) and then a home game against # 1 U.S.C. followed by a road game AT Stanford and a home game against Oregon. They would have to beat Arizona and win two of their final three games in order to be bowl eligible this season. Not likely to happen.

If the Pac 10 does have only five bowl eligible teams and eight bowl spots to fill they would be unable to put teams in the Las Vegas Bowl, and the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco and the Silicon Valley bowl in San Jose.

BoiseStateRules Wrote:The Pac 10 bowl game picture should be particularly interesting to the W.A.C. teams. Look at how the Pac 10 is shaping up this year. The Pac 10 stands a very good chance of only having five bowl eligible teams this year, yet they have SIX bowl game tie-ins PLUS they are very likely to have two teams in the BCS bowls. So they would need EIGHT bowl eligible teams to meet all of their bowl game tie-ins if two Pac 10 teams (USC and CAL) are in two of the BCS bowl games. Here's what it looks like right now:

# 1. U.S.C. - If they remain unbeaten they go to the Orange Bowl for the BCS championship game. They are 7-0 and they have road games AT Washington State (which is awful this year) and AT Oregon State, home games against Arizona (another awful Pac 10 team) and Notre Dame and a "road" game AT U.C.L.A. They should remain unbeaten.

# 7. CAL - If they continue to win they will likely go to the Rose Bowl (2nd BCS bowl game for Pac 10). Right now CAL is 5-1 with their only loss being a close loss to # 1 U.S.C. CAL's remaining games are home games against # 20, Arizona State, and Oregon, and a road game AT Washington (another awful Pac 10 team this year) and a home game against Stanford and a rescheduled road game against # 25 Southern Mississippi. They look very capable of winning all of those games. They should finish the season 10-1.

# 20. Arizona State - If they lose to CAL but win the other games they will likely go to the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. Right now ASU is 6-1 with a game this weekend AT California. Then they have home games against Stanford and WSU and a road game AT Arizona. All of those games look to be wins for ASU other than the CAL game this weekend. So they will likely finish the season 9-2.

Unranked Oregon - They are currently 4-3. They have a home game against Washington this weekend (a very likely win), and then a road game AT California (a very likely loss), and a home game against UCLA (a game that could go either way, but Oregon will probably be favored to win) and then a road game against Oregon State (it also could go either way). If Oregon wins the rest of their games other than the CAL game they will finish the season 7-4. If they do they will likely go to the Insight.com bowl in Phoenix or the Sun Bowl.

Unranked U.C.L.A. and Stanford - One of these two teams will likely finish the season as bowl eligible, but probably not both of them. They play each other this weekend. The winner of that game will probably go bowling, the loser may not. Both of them are 4-3 overall right now and 2-2 in the Pac 10. U.C.L.A. is home this weekend to Stanford and then has WSU at home followed by a game AT Oregon and then U.S.C. at home. If they lose to Stanford this weekend, beat WSU and then lose at Oregon and to USC they will finish this season at 5-6 for the season and ineligible for a bowl game. If they beat Stanford and WSU they are assured of being bowl eligible, even if they lose AT Oregon and to USC. Stanford on the other hand has the road game against UCLA this weekend followed by a road game AT # 20 Arizona State, and then a home game against Oregon State and a road game AT # 7 CAL. If Stanford loses this weekend to UCLA there is virtually no chance of them being bowl eligible this season. The team that wins this weekend will likely go to ether the Insight.com bowl in Phoenix or the Sun Bowl.

The only other Pac 10 team that has any shot at all of being bowl eligible this season is Oregon State and they are really just about out of it at this point. They are 3-4 with a game AT Arizona (a likely win to get them to 4-4) and then a home game against # 1 U.S.C. followed by a road game AT Stanford and a home game against Oregon. They would have to beat Arizona and win two of their final three games in order to be bowl eligible this season. Not likely to happen.

If the Pac 10 does have only five bowl eligible teams and eight bowl spots to fill they would be unable to put teams in the Las Vegas Bowl, and the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco and the Silicon Valley bowl in San Jose.

Nice breakdown!

What happens if there are not enough Bowl Eligible teams to fill all the spots in all the bowls. Do they just not play a bowl game????

Maybe they would cancell the Hawaii Bowl if Hawaii is not bowl eligible????

Not to mention that the Mountain Goats are having a hard time fielding anybody worth a darn past Utah. They might not fill their slots either. That Vegas Bowl might be wiiiide open.

Good news for the WAC if we can get enough teams bowl eligible. Also good news for C-USA, MAC and Navy.

Quote:What happens if there are not enough Bowl Eligible teams to fill all the spots in all the bowls.

There have been times when I've wondered the same thing. With the current number of bowls there will be enough teams with 6 wins to fill them even if they have to use teams from the MAC, or similar, conference. However, it seems that everybody and his brother wants to host a bowl game now. If there is a further increase along with some parity among conferences that may be a problem.

Personally I would like to see the number of bowl games decreased and the required wins increased. I think it's shameful when a team that struggles to win more games than it loses gets to parade around bragging about being a "bowl team". Once upon a time, during my lifetime, bowls meant something and if you didn't win at least 7 or 8 games in a 10 game season you could forget about it. I would like to see 7-4 or 8-3 be required for bowl eligibility with an 11 game season.

As of right now, people who have run the numbers are saying there won't be enough bowl eligible teams this year to go around for all the bowls...should be interesting to see what happens, although I worry about a bowl like the SVC Bowl not being able to be played....

WAC_FAN Wrote:As of right now, people who have run the numbers are saying there won't be enough bowl eligible teams this year to go around for all the bowls...should be interesting to see what happens, although I worry about a bowl like the SVC Bowl not being able to be played....

I think the Hawaii Bowl would be the most likely to be cancelled. With Hawaii in it, no one would go to it anyway!