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Colorado Daily – Washington State
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November 15th
… CU in a few minutes …
Colorado bowl hopes fade as Saturday games produce adverse results
Colorado coaches and players were still talking bowl bids after Friday night’s 27-24 loss to USC. Despite the 4-7 overall record, there was discussion as to the possibility of a 6-7 Buff team still earning a bowl invitation.
“We have two more games left” said Mike MacIntyre. “There’s also an outside shot still – I know it sounds crazy – of going to a bowl [game] because there might not be enough 6-6 teams, and if we go 6-7 they might take a Pac-12 team over another team that is 5-7 or something like that with an open bowl. So, our kids are still hoping for that”.
“We’ve just got to keep on fighting. We still have two games left. We still have a chance you know to potentially make a bowl game”, said senior defensive lineman Justin Solis. “This one definitely hurts but we’re going to try to leave this one behind us, come back on Monday and start getting ready for Washington State. We’re down right now but we’re definitely not out and we’ll definitely be back next week.”
The Buffs’ chances at a bowl game depended first on Colorado upsetting both Washington State and Utah on the road … giving CU two chances at a 6-7 record: fat and slim.
And now even though chances are gone.
Colorado needed help at both the top and the bottom of the Pac-12 standings for a bowl trip to become a reality … and every Pac-12 game played Saturday worked against that dream.
First, Colorado needed a Pac-12 team to make it to the College Football Playoffs, and have a second conference team earn a bid to the Rose Bowl. Stanford needed to win out to make it to the Playoffs, but lost to Oregon, 38-36. The Buff’s second-best hope for a Playoff team, UCLA, lost to Washington State (the Pac-12’s third ranked team, Utah, also lost, but hoping for the Utes to earn a Playoff bid would be contingent on winning out, including a win over Colorado).
Now, with no one-loss teams left in the conference, the Pac-12 is the easy choice for the odd-man out of the Power Five conferences vying for the four Playoff positions.
Why important to the Buffs?
A Pac-12 Playoff team (Stanford), coupled with a strong conference runner-up (UCLA) would have given the league two teams in the top tier bowls, moving everyone up in the conference up a notch. The Pac-12 has seven bowl tie-ins, including the Rose Bowl, so an extra top tier team would have given the Pac-12 eight bowl slots to fill.
Now, the Pac-12 champion will play in the Rose Bowl, with the other six slots – Alamo, Holiday, Foster Farms, Sun, Las Vegas and Cactus bowls making their picks.
Which is where the bottom of the league also had to help out the Buffs on Saturday … and failed to do so. The Pac-12 started Saturday with six bowl eligible teams: Stanford, Oregon and Washington State from the North division; Utah, USC, and UCLA from the South. Cal was 5-4, Arizona was 5-5, with Arizona State and Washington sitting at 4-5. The Arizona schools entered play Saturday on three-game losing streaks; Cal had lost four in a row.
For Colorado, at 6-7, to fill a void in Pac-12 bowl slotting, the Buffs needed three of those four teams to finish at 5-7 or worse.
No such luck.
Arizona is now bowl-eligible after upsetting No. 10 Utah, and Cal is also at six wins after taking out Oregon State. That gives the Pac-12 eight bowl eligible teams to fill seven slots, with Arizona State, at 5-5, and Washington, at 4-6, still in the running for bowl eligibility.
So the hopes of Colorado qualifying for a bowl bid at 6-7, a faint hope at best on Friday night, officially came to an end at the close of business Saturday night.
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Stuart
Continue reading...
Colorado Daily – Washington State
—
November 15th
… CU in a few minutes …
Colorado bowl hopes fade as Saturday games produce adverse results
Colorado coaches and players were still talking bowl bids after Friday night’s 27-24 loss to USC. Despite the 4-7 overall record, there was discussion as to the possibility of a 6-7 Buff team still earning a bowl invitation.
“We have two more games left” said Mike MacIntyre. “There’s also an outside shot still – I know it sounds crazy – of going to a bowl [game] because there might not be enough 6-6 teams, and if we go 6-7 they might take a Pac-12 team over another team that is 5-7 or something like that with an open bowl. So, our kids are still hoping for that”.
“We’ve just got to keep on fighting. We still have two games left. We still have a chance you know to potentially make a bowl game”, said senior defensive lineman Justin Solis. “This one definitely hurts but we’re going to try to leave this one behind us, come back on Monday and start getting ready for Washington State. We’re down right now but we’re definitely not out and we’ll definitely be back next week.”
The Buffs’ chances at a bowl game depended first on Colorado upsetting both Washington State and Utah on the road … giving CU two chances at a 6-7 record: fat and slim.
And now even though chances are gone.
Colorado needed help at both the top and the bottom of the Pac-12 standings for a bowl trip to become a reality … and every Pac-12 game played Saturday worked against that dream.
First, Colorado needed a Pac-12 team to make it to the College Football Playoffs, and have a second conference team earn a bid to the Rose Bowl. Stanford needed to win out to make it to the Playoffs, but lost to Oregon, 38-36. The Buff’s second-best hope for a Playoff team, UCLA, lost to Washington State (the Pac-12’s third ranked team, Utah, also lost, but hoping for the Utes to earn a Playoff bid would be contingent on winning out, including a win over Colorado).
Now, with no one-loss teams left in the conference, the Pac-12 is the easy choice for the odd-man out of the Power Five conferences vying for the four Playoff positions.
Why important to the Buffs?
A Pac-12 Playoff team (Stanford), coupled with a strong conference runner-up (UCLA) would have given the league two teams in the top tier bowls, moving everyone up in the conference up a notch. The Pac-12 has seven bowl tie-ins, including the Rose Bowl, so an extra top tier team would have given the Pac-12 eight bowl slots to fill.
Now, the Pac-12 champion will play in the Rose Bowl, with the other six slots – Alamo, Holiday, Foster Farms, Sun, Las Vegas and Cactus bowls making their picks.
Which is where the bottom of the league also had to help out the Buffs on Saturday … and failed to do so. The Pac-12 started Saturday with six bowl eligible teams: Stanford, Oregon and Washington State from the North division; Utah, USC, and UCLA from the South. Cal was 5-4, Arizona was 5-5, with Arizona State and Washington sitting at 4-5. The Arizona schools entered play Saturday on three-game losing streaks; Cal had lost four in a row.
For Colorado, at 6-7, to fill a void in Pac-12 bowl slotting, the Buffs needed three of those four teams to finish at 5-7 or worse.
No such luck.
Arizona is now bowl-eligible after upsetting No. 10 Utah, and Cal is also at six wins after taking out Oregon State. That gives the Pac-12 eight bowl eligible teams to fill seven slots, with Arizona State, at 5-5, and Washington, at 4-6, still in the running for bowl eligibility.
So the hopes of Colorado qualifying for a bowl bid at 6-7, a faint hope at best on Friday night, officially came to an end at the close of business Saturday night.
—–
Stuart
Continue reading...
