This season of college football will feature these eight teams from the Pac-12 in bowl games: Oregon, Stanford, Washington, Arizona, Arizona State, USC, Utah, and UCLA. The Pac-12 will send two teams to BCS Bowls through Oregon (Rose Bowl) and Arizona (Fiesta Bowl) but will leave four teams without a postseason game: Oregon State, Cal, Washington State, and Colorado. Below is a preview of all eight bowls featuring teams from the Pac-12:

2015 Rose Bowl (Jan. 1, 2 pm PT, ESPN)

#2 Oregon vs #3 Florida State

On January 1, 2015, the Oregon Ducks will face the defending national champion Florida State in the Rose Bowl for the first semi-final game for the inaugural playoff. Shortly after the clock strikes 0 in the 4th quarter, the Sugar Bowl will kick off in New Orleans between Alabama and Ohio State. The winners of both games will play at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas for the National Championship Game.

Mark Helfrich has led the Ducks to a spectacular 12-1 season, culminating in huge win over Arizona 51-13 in the Pac-12 Championship Game, a season that should get all doubters off Helfrich’s back. It also helps to have a Heisman Trophy winner quarterback in Marcus Mariota who has thrown 38 touchdown passes, only 2 interceptions, and has won the Camp, Maxwell, and O’Brien awards. The season Oregon has had is arguably the most successful season in the school’s history, besides perhaps 2010 where Chip Kelly led a 12-0 squad to the BCS National Championship.

Their opponent in the Rose Bowl, Florida State, has won 29 games in a row and is led by 2013 Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston who has never lost a game as a college quarterback. The Seminoles are undefeated at 13-0, but have struggled throughout the season that only features two wins over teams currently ranked in the top 25 in the CFP Rankings. Oregon has four and is looking for a fifth.

2014 Vizio Fiesta Bowl (Dec. 31, 1 pm PT, ESPN)

#10 Arizona vs #20 Boise State

Arizona has enjoyed one of the most successful seasons in school history finishing 10-3 and winning the Pac-12 South. Unfortunately for them, the party ended there with a loss to Oregon in the Pac-12 Championship Game by a margin of 38 points. Over the course of the season Arizona upset second-ranked Oregon in Eugene and had impressive wins over Utah and Arizona State.

From here Arizona moves on to face Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl in their first BCS Bowl since 1993. Boise State has had some big wins including two over Fresno State and one over Colorado State. However the Broncos have lost to Ole Miss and Air Force giving them a record of 11-2. Last year, Boise State faced Oregon State in the Hawaii Bowl and ended up losing 38-23.

2015 Valero Alamo Bowl (Jan. 2, 3:45 pm PT, ESPN)

#14 UCLA vs #11 Kansas State

On January 2, 2015, after a season loaded with lofty expectations, UCLA will be looking to redeem themselves and send Brett Hundley out with a win in the Valero Alamo Bowl where they will face Kansas State who is looking to come back from a loss to Baylor. Neither teams’ season has gone quite the way they wanted it to with each team finishing with a 9-3 record. Both will be looking to make statements in their final games of the 2014 season for themselves and for their conferences.

The Pac-12 was able to send its champion Oregon to the Playoffs but the Big-12 had both of its co-champions left out of the discussion as Ohio State nudged itself into the semi-final game against Alabama. The Big-12 was abandoned and penalized for not having a single champion; ironically their campaign slogan was “one true champion” and being left out has forced them to reconsider a championship game.

2014 Hyundai Sun Bowl (Dec. 27 , 11 am PT, CBS)

#15 Arizona State vs Duke

Of all the Pac-12 teams, Arizona State had one of the wildest up and down seasons of the conference. They started ranked at #19, became unranked, and finished at #15. They lost in spectacular fashion to UCLA 62-27 and the next week got a big win over USC on a hail mary pass. Oregon State upset Arizona State in Corvallis 35-27 one week after the Sun Devils put a whipping on Notre Dame 55-31. Then finally, with a chance to win the Pac-12 South for the second year in a row, they fell 42-35 to their rival Arizona.

Duke will also be looking to erase some bad memories such as last years loss to Texas A&M 52-48 in the Chick-fil-A Bowl and give Arizona State their best shot. But the Sun Devils pose a huge challenge for the Blue Devils whose biggest win this year is against Georgia Tech, who gave Florida State a big run for their money in the ACC Championship Game.

2014 Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl (Dec. 20, 12:30 pm PT, ABC)

#22 Utah vs Colorado State

The 2014 Utah football team can hang its hat on several big wins this year including Michigan, UCLA, USC, and Stanford and will now be playing against Colorado State in one of the very few bowl games not televised on ESPN (instead on ABC). They can also hang their hat on the fact that they have the fourth best defense in the Pac-12 that gave each opponents offense a good run for their money. Utah finished 8-4, a big improvement from 5-7 last year, and second to last in the Pac-12 South.

Colorado State boasts wins over Colorado and Boston College, but they have fallen short against Boise State and Air Force. The Rams have one of the best quarterbacks in the Mountain West conference in Garrett Grayson and it will be very interesting to see how he matches up against Utah’s defense.

2014 National University Holiday Bowl (Dec. 27, 5 pm PT, ESPN)

#24 USC vs Nebraska

It was Steve Sarkisian’s first year as head coach of USC and, while they didn’t finish as high in the rankings as they started or would have liked to be, it was a season filled with big wins. An 8-4 record is none too impressive but wins against Stanford, Arizona, and Notre Dame help make up for it. Nobody expected the Trojans to make the playoff or even win the Pac-12 South but there was a buzz of excitement surrounding the program as soon as Sarkisian took over.

Nebraska has been an unusual program this year. They finished with a 9-3 record with very respectable loses to Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Minnesota but still fired their head coach Bo Pelini and replaced him with Mike Riley from Oregon State. Now the Wisconsin head coach Gary Anderson is headed to Corvallis in the vacated coaching job in another unusual move by the Big Ten. Nebraska has one of the top running backs in the country in Ameer Abdullah who will have to break through a stout Trojan defense to win this game.

2015 TicketCity Cactus Bowl (Jan. 2, 7:15 pm PT, ESPN)

Washington vs Oklahoma State

Chris Peterson’s first year at Washington drew great attention to the program after Peterson led Boise State to a 92-12 record from 2006-2013 when he left the program. In his first year as head coach he has led the Huskies to a 8-5 record, the same record as last year but that included the bowl game. Washington has a chance to add another win to their season to go to 9-5, but first they need to knock off an Oklahoma State team that upset Oklahoma in overtime.

Oklahoma State’s 6-6 season has been one of steady decline and mismatched games. However their win against the Sooners gives them one of the biggest wins of the Big-12, and bragging rights in the state of Oklahoma. Look for them to battle to finish above .500 and stop the Peterson-led Huskies.

2014 Foster Farms Bowl

Stanford vs Maryland (Dec. 30, 7 pm PT, ESPN)

After winning the Pac-12 and playing in the Rose Bowl for back to back seasons in 2012 and 2013, the Cardinal has fallen to 7-5 and second in the Pac-12 North. Their worst loss, against Oregon 45-16, was the first time in 31 consecutive games they had not given up more than 30 points. The last time was in 2012 against Arizona. A disappointing season was eased in a blowout of UCLA that prevented the Bruins from playing in the Pac-12 Title Game. The problem for this year’s Cardinal has not been defense, #2 defense in the nation only giving up 16 points per game, but offense where Stanford is dead last in the Pac-12 in points per game. To beat Maryland, that will need to change.

Maryland’s season does not feature a win over a top 25 team and finished seventh in the Big Ten. For this bowl game, they will need to travel across the country to Santa Clara and play Stanford in Levi’s Stadium, which will be practically a home game for the Cardinal. Such a hostile atmosphere will make a win over Stanford a very difficult prospect.

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Copyright: Taylor Wilder, Daily Emerald

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