Cal Bowl Projections: One Expert Puts Bears in a Bowl vs. Oklahoma

Despite its 45-21 loss to Duke on Saturday, all eight of the college football experts we cite project that the Bears will be in a bowl game for the third straight season.

Cal is 4-2 heading into this week’s bye, so it needs just two more wins, starting with the Friday, October 17 home game against North Carolina, to be eligible for a postseason game. ESPN’s College Football Power Index calculates that Cal has a 72.7% chance of reaching the six wins needed to become bowl-eligible.

The Independence Bowl is the most common destination cited, and Kansas is the most common opponent. Three of the eight sites – CBS Sports, Athlon Sports and Pro Football Network – predict that Cal will wind up in the Independence Bowl, and all three predict that Kansas will be the Bears’ opponent in that game.

The Jayhawks are 4-2 overall and 2-1 in the Big 12, coming off its 27-20 victory over UCF on Saturday.

One expert – Kyle Bonagura of ESPN – predicts Cal will wind up in the Frisco Bowl in Frisco, Texas, and will face Utah State.

But the most interesting prediction belongs to Pete Fiutak of College Football News. He projects that Cal will play in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida, where the Bears would face Oklahoma and former Cal running back Jaydn Ott.

Oklahoma is undefeated and ranked No. 6 in the country at the moment, so that would be an odd postseason opponent for Cal. Ott has had limited success at his new school, rushing for just 66 yards and 3.3 yards per carry while catching two passes for 10 yards at Oklahoma this season. He has one kickoff return for 1 yard.

As always, we remind readers that teams that were members of the Pac-12 in 2023, such as Cal, are still tied to six Pac-12 bowl games this season. Cal is not tied to the ACC-affiliated bowls this season. (The Pac-12-affliated bowls are listed at the end of this report.)

Here are the bowl projections for Cal this week from the eight experts. (All times are Pacific time.)

ESPN (Kyle Bonagura)

Frisco Bowl– Cal vs. Utah State

Tuesday, December 23

Ford Center at The Star (Frisco, Texas)

6 p.m., ESPN

ESPN (Mark Schlabach)

Las Vegas Bowl – Cal vs. Nebraska

Wednesday, December 31

Allegiant Stadium (Las Vegas)

12:30 p.m., ESPN

CBS Sports (Brad Crawford)