[jacketree]

I plan to watch a lot of football on TV over the holiday.  Stanford has some work to do if they want to be one of the teams I watch. I don't think mere bowl eligibility will cut it. But who knows?

The Pac 12 has 7 bowl tie-ins including the Rose Bowl in non-playoff years, so we all better root for the Ducks to pull down that playoff slot and leave 6 additional slots to fight over, rather than five.

The following Pac 12 teams are already bowl eligible:

1. Oregon
2. Arizona State
3. UCLA
4. Arizona
5. Utah
6. Washington
7. USC

Cal and Stanford are on the cusp of bowl eligibility and haven't played each other yet, so one of them will be bowl eligible. Wazzou and Colorado will never get there, and the Beavers are a game behind Cal and Stanford with losses to both. But the slots are already filled. Assuming it pulls out one more win, but no more, is Stanford more attractive than any of the above in terms of fan travel or entertainment?  Not really, and they only have a win against one of them so far.  "Andrew Luck played there only three years ago" or "watch the two time defending Rose Bowl champion crashing back to earth" isn't going to be much of a draw.

So if Stanford is bowl bound, it is either by winning at least two more games, if not three, or by replacing some other conferences' non-qualifiers. And it doesn't look like the Pac 12 is a backup to anything. Maybe if Navy can't win two of its last three, the Poinsettia Bowl would be interested in a Pac 12 team to face Mountain West #2.  Or maybe there will be some slot open God knows where.

[jacketree]

I plan to watch a lot of football on TV over the holiday.  Stanford has some work to do if they want to be one of the teams I watch. I don't think mere bowl eligibility will cut it. But who knows?

The Pac 12 has 7 bowl tie-ins including the Rose Bowl in non-playoff years, so we all better root for the Ducks to pull down that playoff slot and leave 6 additional slots to fight over, rather than five.

The following Pac 12 teams are already bowl eligible:

1. Oregon
2. Arizona State
3. UCLA
4. Arizona
5. Utah
6. Washington
7. USC

Cal and Stanford are on the cusp of bowl eligibility and haven't played each other yet, so one of them will be bowl eligible. Wazzou and Colorado will never get there, and the Beavers are a game behind Cal and Stanford with losses to both. But the slots are already filled. Assuming it pulls out one more win, but no more, is Stanford more attractive than any of the above in terms of fan travel or entertainment?  Not really, and they only have a win against one of them so far.  "Andrew Luck played there only three years ago" or "watch the two time defending Rose Bowl champion crashing back to earth" isn't going to be much of a draw.

So if Stanford is bowl bound, it is either by winning at least two more games, if not three, or by replacing some other conferences' non-qualifiers. And it doesn't look like the Pac 12 is a backup to anything. Maybe if Navy can't win two of its last three, the Poinsettia Bowl would be interested in a Pac 12 team to face Mountain West #2.  Or maybe there will be some slot open God knows where.