Cal Could Be Headed to the 50th State for Its Bowl Game

Cal will not have Justin Wilcox as its head coach when it plays in a bowl game for the third straight year this season, and it is still unclear which bowl the Golden Bears will play in this time.

It seems Cal’s most likely postseason destination is the Hawaii Bowl, because four of the nine experts we cite -- and perhaps the four most reliable experts -- project the Bears will be headed to Honolulu for that game the day before Christmas. And three of the four predict that Cal’s opponent in that game will be Hawaii, which plays its home games at Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex, site of the Hawaii Bowl.

That matchup would probably suit Cal interim head coach Nick Rolovich, because he was a standout quarterback at Hawaii, and also had success in his four seasons as the Rainbow Warriors head coach. Hawaii played in the Hawaii Bowl in three of his four seasons as its head coach.

It's not yet a slam dunk that Cal will play in the Hawaii Bowl as two of our college football experts predict that Cal will play in Independence Bowl and two others project the Bears will end up in the Frisco Bow.

By this time, bowl matchups usually are becoming clear, but the Bears are still in limbo. Cal (6-5) faces 25th-ranked SMU in Berkeley on Saturday in the Bears’ final regular-season game.

Interestingly, the Hawaii Bowl and Frisco Bowl are not among the six Pac-12-affliated bowls. Teams that were in the Pac-12 in 2023, such as Cal, are still tied to the Pac-12-affilitated bowls, which are listed at the end of this report:

Here are the nine bowl projections for Cal:

ESPN (Kyle Bonagura)

Hawaii Bowl – Cal vs. Hawaii

Wednesday, December 24

Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex (Honolulu)

5 p.m., ESPN

ESPN (Mark Schlabach)

Hawaii Bowl – Cal vs. Hawaii

Wednesday, December 24

Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex (Honolulu)

5 p.m., ESPN

CBS Sports (Brad Crawford)