The regular season is over for the Stanford football team. An 8-4 record is good enough to send Stanford to a bowl game for the first time since 2001. Which bowl that will be has yet to be determined, and won't be determined until after Saturday's Pac-10 action.
Right now it certainly appears that the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco or the Las Vegas Bowl will be the final destination for the Cardinal.
The key game that will help decide the Pac-10 bowl landscape will be Thursday's Civil War between Oregon and Oregon State. The winner goes to the Rose Bowl, and once that happens, the bowl heirarchy can take over.
If Oregon wins, there will likely be a four-way tie for second place in the Pac-10 with Stanford, Cal, Oregon State and the winner of USC vs Arizona.
In a tie scenario each Bowl gets to select who they invite. The Holiday Bowl goes first and would likely take USC (proximity and TV ratings) or Arizona (proximity). The Sun Bowl could step in with Cal. The Sun Bowl has a no repeat clause so OSU is not eligible, and Cal will likely sell more tickets than Stanford. That would leave the Emerald Bowl to take Stanford and OSU going to Las Vegas.
If OSU wins and goes to the Rose Bowl. Oregon automatically goes to the Holiday Bowl. That leaves the Sun Bowl with the next option which is believed to be the USC/Arizona winner for the above reasons. That would leave the Emerald Bowl the decision to take Stanford or Cal with the left out team heading to Las Vegas.
Of course the above options do suppose that Cal will win at Washington this weekend. If Cal loses at Washington it changes the equation a little bit. Under that scenario, if Oregon wins it makes a three-way tie for second place. With Oregon State unable to return to El Paso because they played there last year, if the Holiday Bowl selects the USC/Arizona winner then the Sun Bowl would be forced to take Stanford.
If Oregon State wins and Cal loses, OSU goes to the Rose Bowl, Oregon to the Holiday bowl, USC/Arizona winner would likely go to the Sun Bowl and the Emerald Bowl would happily get Stanford.
Confused yet? Of course all this can be moot should the Holiday or Sun Bowls make a surprise pick. Maybe they like Stanford's offense or Jim Harbaugh and think the Cardinal would make a great matchup.
So don't book any hotel rooms yet. All will be settled on Saturday and bowl invitations will likely be handed out on Sunday or Monday.
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