Arizona Bowl Projections: Four potential bowls for the Wildcats

A year ago, Arizona was in the Fiesta Bowl. Now it's not looking so glamorous.

The college football season is halfway over, and the Arizona Wildcats find themselves sitting at 4-2 overall and 1-2 in Pac-12 play. The three easy non-conference games have helped stuff the win column, and those wins will be necessary if Arizona wants to make it to a bowl this season.

With some winnable games vs. Colorado and Washington State, the Wildcats could certainly salvage their Pac-12 record, jumping up to 3-2. A trip to Seattle could be interesting, as the Huskies have had a stout defense all season long, despite their true freshman quarterback pains.

We'll see how USC reacts to the new coaching change this season, meanwhile Utah looks to be one of the best teams in the nation. But hosting the Utes in November could be the only advantage Arizona needs. And of course, the Territorial Cup game is always a toss up.

Arizona will make a bowl game, that much is known, but now it's a matter of where their Pac-12 wins can come from, to determine where they get sent. The Las Vegas Bowl, Sun Bowl, Fosters Farm Bowl, National University Holiday Bowl, Rose Bowl, Valero Alamo Bowl, and Cactus Bowl are all up for grabs in the Pac-12, with some potential at-large bids as well.

So enough for the intro into our first edition of bowl projections.

Site	Bowl	Opponent	Location	Date
SB Nation	Cactus Bowl	West Virginia	Tempe, AZ	January 2nd
CBS Sports	Sun Bowl	Louisville	El Paso, TX	December 26th
ESPN Pac-12	Las Vegas Bowl	N/A	Las Vegas, NV	December 19th
Mark Schlabach (ESPN)	Sun Bowl	North Carolina	El Paso, TX	December 26th
Brett McMurphy (ESPN)	Foster Farms	Minnesota	Santa Clara, CA	December 26th

So clearly, no one has any solid idea as to where Arizona can land, and that's okay, considering we're still about four weeks out until things start getting serious.

A road trip to Tempe would be nice for the Tucson and Phoenix folk, especially matching up against Rich Rod's former team. Not that there's any ill-will like there is at Michigan, but still an intriguing matchup. Two have us projected to go to the Sun Bowl -- one vs. Louisville and another vs. North Carolina -- both of which seem very winnable at this point in the season.

The Las Vegas Bowl could be a sweet trip to Vegas for any holiday festivities, no opponent is given in the Pac-12 Blog's, but it would be a Mountain West opponent, presumably a Utah State, Nevada or San Jose State. And then Brett McMurphy thinks the highest of Arizona, putting them in the Foster Farms Bowl up north. Arizona doesn't have great memories of playing in Santa Clara, but Minnesota is again a very doable opponent.

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