Report: Cougs likely headed to Sun Bowl to battle ACC team
With less than a week to Selection Sunday, the picture for the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl is in a familiar place: The Pac 12 is largely set while the ACC half of the equation will go down to the wire.
Washington State looks likely to be headed to El Paso for the 10 a.m. New Year's Eve kickoff, though Sun Bowl executive director Bernie Olivas said Oregon State is also a possibility.
The ACC team will come from a pool that includes 6-6 teams from Boston College, Louisville, Georgia Tech and North Carolina, along with 7-5 Miami also a possibility.
"North Carolina is a popular choice," Olivas said. "In 1994 they were in one of the top five Sun Bowl games ever against Texas. It would be good to get them back."
That North Carolina team was coached by their current coach, Mack Brown, and bringing him back to Texas would be a selling point. The Sun Bowl will be picking in a pool with the Duke's Mayo Bowl in Charlotte, which would have a regional tie-in with North Carolina, and the Pinstripe Bowl in New York.
Ideally the Sun Bowl would like 7-5 Miami, creating a potential rematch of the 2015 Sun Bowl when Miami lost to Washington State in the snow. Miami may be selected before the Sun Bowl picks. The Sun Bowl's ACC pick will be confirmed Sunday around 1 p.m.
For the Pac-12 side, the expectation is that the teams that finished with better records than Washington State — Oregon, Utah, Arizona State and UCLA — will be picked by the Rose Bowl, the Alamo Bowl, the Las Vegas Bowl and the Holiday Bowl.
Washington State and Oregon State are both 7-5 overall, but Washington State's 6-3 Pac-12 record has them a game ahead, plus a head-to-head win, over the Beavers. Contractually the Sun Bowl could still pick Oregon State and Olivas left that open, but Washington State seems probable.
"Absolutely we'd love to have them," Olivas said of Washington State.
As for the projections, Miami is commonly mentioned. CBS Sports, College Football News, Sports Illustrated and ESPN's Mark Schlabach have Miami vs. Washington State; Brett McMurphy of Action Network has Miami vs. Oregon State; ESPN's Kyle Bonagura has Louisville vs. Washington State.
