Arizona drops from most bowl projections after Stanford loss

D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports

A once promising season is likely to end below .500, according to experts

It was only a few weeks ago that a 4-1 Arizona Wildcats team was in seven out of eight major bowl projections. Add three straight losses and a tough finishing schedule, and now the Wildcats are down to two of eight.

Here are bowl projections from the country’s experts after Week 9:

• 247Sports’ Brad Crawford: No bowl
• CBS’ Jerry Palm: No bowl
• CollegeFootballNews: No bowl
• ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura: No bowl
• ESPN’s Mark Schlabach: No bowl
• SB Nation/Banner Society’s Jason Kirk: No bowl
• Sporting News’ Bill Bender: Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl vs. Pitt (played at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, TN)
• Stadium’s Brett McMurphy: Belk Bowl vs. Louisville (played at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, NC)

Having only two of eight experts projecting Arizona to make a bowl is disconcerting, but it’s made worse by the fact that both bowl slots would only be open if the SEC didn’t fill all of its bowl slots.

Arizona absolutely has to win this weekend against Oregon State during homecoming. After a bye, they’ll then have to win either at Oregon, vs. Utah, or at Arizona State. ASU jumps out as the most likely win there, but it’s still in Tempe and the Sun Devils are still probably the better team.

After the Stanford loss, I’m thinking Arizona has about a 15% chance to make a bowl this season, and I believe that’s mildly generous. We’ll see if the new QB platoon system or having Chuck Cecil coaching the defense will improve those odds.

What do you think?

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