A year ago, the Washington Huskies needed an Apple Cup win to assure a bowl game.
This year, they are playing for pride, bragging rights and postseason positioning, after clinching a bowl berth when they beat Arizona in late October. UW hasn't won since, but their bowl spot is as secure as ever.
Unlike the early days of bowls, when there was much backroom jockeying, almost every bowl spot now is contractually linked to a conference.
The Pac-12 has seven contractual bowl agreements and only seven conference teams that can be bowl eligible (six or more wins or a .500 record) with USC on probation.
So the only question for UW is, where to? The answer is as cloudy as a Seattle November afternoon.
UW won't go to the top spot reserved for a Pac-12 team, the Rose Bowl.
But just about everything else remains theoretically in play.
After the champion goes to the Rose, bowls get to pick their choice of Pac-12 teams in this order:
* Alamo (San Antonio, Dec. 29), No. 2 choice vs. Big 12 No. 3.
* Holiday (San Diego. Dec. 28), Pac-12 No. 3 vs. Big 12 No. 5.
* Sun (El Paso, Texas, Dec. 31), Pac-12 No. 4 vs. ACC 4.
* Las Vegas (Dec. 22), Pac-12 No. 5 vs. Mountain West champ.
* Kraft Fight Hunger (San Francisco, Dec. 31), Pac-12 No. 6 vs. ACC No. 9 or WAC No. 4 or MAC No. 5.
* New Mexico (Albu-querque, Dec. 17), Pac-12 No. 7 vs. MWC No. 4 or 5.
Pac-12 bowl-eligible teams are Oregon, Stanford, Washington, Arizona State, California and Utah. UCLA (6-5) also could be bowl eligible. However, if the Bruins qualify for the Pac-12 title game with a 6-6 regular-season record, and lose that game, they would be ineligible for a bowl.
Oregon, if it beats Oregon State and then wins the Pac-12 title game, would head to the Rose.
Stanford, which will be 11-1 if it beats Notre Dame, is the wild card. The Cardinal is No. 4 in the BCS and likely will not drop if it beats the Irish.
That would pull everyone in the Pac-12 up a spot in the bowl picture. After the BCS, bowls get their choice of remaining eligible teams. The only rule is bowls cannot skip down to pick a team with a conference record two games worse. But things such as head-to-head outcome don't really matter.
The Alamo is thought still potentially interested in just about every other Pac-12 team that is bowl eligible and will have a representative at the Apple Cup as well as the Colorado-Utah and Cal-Arizona State games this weekend.
