Given that the Hyundai Sun Bowl gets the fifth pick of Pac-12 teams and that Washington might be removed from that pool for the playoffs, the Dec. 30 game can't always expect a nine-win Pac-12 team with a Heisman Trophy runner-up.
Fortune might well smile on the Sun Bowl for that half of the equation, as two of the bowls picking ahead of it, the Holiday Bowl and the Foster Farms Bowl, might be set to pass on 9-3 Stanford and their All-American tailback Christian McCaffrey for an 8-4 team.
Nothing is certain yet and either of those bowls could yet take the Cardinal, which could send 8-4 Utah to El Paso, but various reports and the ensuing projections have Stanford most likely playing North Carolina or Pitt, although Wake Forest or Georgia Tech also could be in the 82nd edition of the game.