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WSU bowl projections: The first appearance of a New Year’s Six bowl

Sitting at 11th in both major polls and at a perfect 5-0, WSU is starting to sneak into the NY6 in some bowl projections.

By Michael Preston
NCAA Football: Cotton Bowl-Wisconsin vs Western Michigan Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Boy ... that was a fun weekend!

In front of a sold out, raucous crowd, and all alone as the only game with eyeballs on a Friday night, the No. 16 Washington State Cougars took advantage of the spotlight, beating the No. 5 USC Trojans 30-27. For an evening (and much of the day after) they were the toast of college football, winners of an incredible game with a superb ending on a strip sack of Sam Darnold by Jahad Woods.

The fans rushed the field. They danced to “We Always Find Our Way Back Home”. Yours truly totally DIDN’T have leaky eyeballs.

What an evening.

As you’d expect, bowl prognosticators now think more favorably on the No. 11 Cougs following their defeat of Southern Cal. So lets take a look at where they stand as we flip the calendar to October. Brief aside first though:

That’s pretty dang neato.

As a reminder, the Pac-12’s bowl tie-ins for this coming season:

  1. Alamo Bowl: Dec. 28th, 6:00 p.m. on ESPN vs. Big 12
  2. Holiday Bowl: Dec. 28th, 6:00 p.m. on FS1 vs. Big Ten
  3. Foster Farms Bowl: Dec. 27th, 5:30 p.m. on FOX vs. Big Ten
  4. Sun Bowl: Dec. 29th, 12:00 p.m. on CBS vs. ACC/Notre Dame
  5. Las Vegas Bowl: Dec. 16th, 12:30 p.m. on ABC vs. Mountain West
  6. Cactus Bowl: Dec. 26th, 6:00 p.m. on ESPN vs. Big 12

(Note: The Rose Bowl is a CFP Semifinal game this season so the Pac-12 champion is not automatically eligible for a spot in the game.)

SB Nation: Holiday Bowl

The mothership actually dropped the Cougs down a spot, slotting USC in the Alamo Bowl because of the loss to Washington State. Of all the games on the Pac-12 schedule though, this is probably the one the Cougs won’t end up in regardless of whether they’re eligible or not. It’s tough to convince a bowl to take a team two seasons in a row, especially after the stinker WSU laid in San Diego last year.

ESPN: Cotton or Alamo Bowl

Two Texas projections, one decidedly better than the other as we see the Cougs make their first appearance in a New Years Six bowl. David Hale puts the Cougs in San Antonio against the Fightin’ Gundy Mullets while Kyle Bonagura slots them in the Cotton Bowl against the TCU Horned Frogs.

Sporting News: Cotton Bowl

Another projection that like the Cougs to nab an at-large bid in a New Years Six game. This also includes the identical projection from ESPN that TCU will be making the short trip from Fort Worth to watch the Cougs play in Jerry’s World.

CBS: Alamo Bowl

UPDATE 2:30 p.m., 10/3: Turns out there was a bugaboo with Jerry Palm’s site. He actually has the Cougs in the Alamo Bowl against Okie State.

College Football News: Foster Farms Bowl

I don’t know what it is about this game, but there’s no bowl game less appealing to me as this one, especially with the team CFN thinks we’ll be playing.

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