Washington Football Bowl Game Prediction

The Washington Huskies are the only bowl eligible team from the Pac-12 to have a losing conference record, and as such, they are probably headed to one of the conference’s lesser guaranteed bowl destinations. Their fate could be in the hands of the Arizona Wildcats as a loss to the Oregon Ducks could knock the Wildcats out of an at-large spot in a New Year’s Six bowl game. However, given Arizona’s No. 7 position in the College Football Playoff rankings, they would likely still remain in the top 10 and send Washington to either the Las Vegas Bowl or Cactus Bowl.

The Las Vegas Bowl would have the fifth pick from the Pac-12 schools who didn’t qualify for an at-large berth in a New Year’s Six bowl. If Arizona stayed in the top 10 and gained one of these berths, then the four teams who would likely be selected to more prestigious bowls before the Huskies would be the UCLA Bruins, Arizona State Sun Devils, USC Trojans and Utah Utes. This would leave the Huskies competing with the Stanford Cardinal for a spot in Las Vegas.

The Cardinal has had a higher profile over the past few years, appearing in the last two Rose Bowl games and having at least 11 wins in the past four seasons. This would likely mean that the Las Vegas bowl selection committee would pick them over the Huskies because of a higher profile and a closer proximity to the Las Vegas area. This would mean that regardless of what happened with the Wildcats’ ranking, the Huskies seemed destined to play in the Cactus Bowl.

The Cactus Bowl takes place on Jan. 2, and would pit the Huskies against a lower ranked team from the Big 12. However, since the Big 12 didn’t have enough teams become bowl eligible to fill this slot, Washington would have to take on an at-large team from another conference that was eligible for a bowl but didn’t have a guaranteed conference spot. Some of the teams they are likely to play in this game include the Temple Owls, Texas State Bobcats, Pittsburgh Panthers or Air Force Falcons.

Where things could get tricky, however, is if Arizona falls out of the top 10 and doesn’t get an invitation to a New Year’s Six bowl. The Pac-12’s guaranteed bowl slots would then be filled by other teams and the Huskies would then have to fill another conferences unused slot, which could potentially send them to the Heart of Dallas Bowl against a Conference USA team. This appears unlikely to happen due to the high ranking of the Ducks, but in college football, anything is possible.

While it is not 100 percent certain where the Huskies will be playing their bowl game, it’s a safe bet that they will wind up in the Cactus Bowl against an at-large team, so book your travel plans accordingly.

Phillip Jacques is a Pac-12 Football writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.