The Cardinal (11-2) will likely have to settle for a Rose Bowl appearance against No. 6 Iowa or No. 7 Ohio State.
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As a bowl “free agent” of sorts, UW (6-6, 4-5 in Pac-12) will instead play in a bowl affiliated with a conference that did not fill all of its spots.
Tim Griffin of the San Antonio Express-News is reporting that TCU will meet OR at the Valero Alamo Bowl on January 2 in San Antonio’s Alamodome.
Some projections also mention the Independence Bowl, played December 26 in Shreveport, Louisiana, as a possible destination, and a representative from that bowl was in attendance for UW’s 45-10 victory over Washington State in the Apple Cup.
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The Ducks are 9-3 this season and enter the bowl game on a six-game winning streak. The differing opinions come from college football analysts Mark Schlabach and Brett McMurphy at ESPN.com. He had TCU ranked No. 5 prior to a loss to Oklahoma State, then suffered an ankle injury in the first half of a win over Kansas and missed TCU’s loss to Oklahoma. The rankings are easy, bowl picture – that’s a different story. Will the Pac-12 put USC close to home in the Holiday? Giving a lot of power to Pac-12 bowl games allows those committees to basically “draft” the school they feel is the best for that particular game. It shows just how competitive the Pac-12 conference has been in 2015 and how hard it has been for college football analysts to come up with the bowl projections each week.
