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2011 Bowl Projections: Big 10, Big 12, ACC Face Pac-12 Opponents

Update: Latest BCS Rankings are here.

Things have settled in the Pac 12, such that the projections for the 2011 Bowl season are fairly locked in. The Oregon Ducks are the Pac-12 participant in the 2012 Rose Bowl Game, the 98th edition of the annual game. The Stanford Cardinal, sitting at #4 in the BCS last week and unlikely to move. The Sugar Bowl will have first at-large selection, as they will love SEC Champion LSU to the BCS Championship game, but most likely the Cardinal will play the Fiesta Bowl which has the second at-large selection. 

For both Oregon and Stanford, their BCS opponents are already determined. The Wisconsin Badgers won the Big 10 championship game in a rematch against Michigan State Saturday night. The Fiesta Bowl has a tie in to receive the Big 12 champion, which is Oklahoma State.

Both the Ducks and the Badgers are 11-2, and both the Cowboys and the Cardinal are 11-1. The Rose Bowl will be played the day after New Years, due to the committee having a "never on Sunday" policy. The Fiesta Bowl will be played on Monday, January 2nd as well.

The non-BCS Pac 12 opponents are more of a mystery. With the Washington Huskies likely selected by the second choice pick Alamo Bowl, they will face a third choice Big 12 team. With Virginia Tech losing to Clemson in the ACC Championship game yesterday, this likely means Kansas State picks up a second BCS bid for the Big 12, unless TCU finishes in the top 16 of the BCS. That puts Baylor in the Cotton Bowl, and the 7-5 Huskies facing the 9-3 Oklahoma Sooners in the Alamo Bowl. 

The 7-5 California Golden Bears appear a lock for the third choice Holiday Bowl, where they'll face the fifth choice Big 12 team. They'll face whichever 7-5 team the Insight Bowl doesn't take, which is either the Missouri Tigers or the Texas Longhorns. The Utah Utes fall to the Sun Bowl, where they'll face either Georgia Tech or Virginia. 

The Las Vegas Bowl will have to chose between the 6-6 Arizona State Sundevils or the 6-7 UCLA Bruins, who had to submit a waiver in order to go to a bowl game. The Sundevils will face perennial BCS buster Boise St. in the Vegas Bowl, while UCLA would face a WAC team (likely Nevada) as Army are not bowl eligible in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl (Army is guaranteed a bid to this bowl if they are bowl eligible). 

The Pac 12 will not have an eligible team to send to the New Mexico Bowl.