Is Cal Still a Bowl Team? 9 Experts Weigh in With Their Projections

Even though Cal (5-4) has lost its past two games, it still needs just one victory in its final three regular-season games to become bowl-eligible for the third straight season.

The nine reputable college football experts who project bowl pairings apparently believe Cal is going to get that last win, because all nine predict Cal will be in a bowl game.

Perhaps they are not looking at Cal’s remaining schedule, because at this point the Bears will be clear underdogs in two of their remaining three games (this Saturday at Louisville and November 29 at home against SMU) and might be slight underdogs for their November 22 game at Stanford as well.

This late in the season, a lot of bowl pairings are taking shape, and the projections reflect that, with several sites agreeing on a number of bowl matchups.

That’s not the case for Cal. The nine experts place Cal in seven different bowls with a variety of possible opponents. The seven possible bowls for Cal, according to the nine experts, are the Independence Bowl, Hawaii Bowl, First Responder Bowl, Frisco Bowl, Pinstripe Bowl, Las Vegas Bowl and LA Bowl. And don’t be too surprised if another bowl possibility pops up in a week or two.

No one seems to know quite what to do with Cal.

The only two possible Cal bowl destinations mentioned by more than one expert are the Hawaii Bowl and the Independence Bowl, with two sites projecting the Golden Bears will face Kansas State in the Independence Bowl.

Once again we will remind readers that the schools that were members of the Pac-12 in 2023, such as Cal, are tied to the six Pac-12-affiliated bowls this season. However, four of the bowls Cal is projected to play in by the experts – Hawaii Bowl, Frisco Bowl, Pinstripe Bowl and First Responder Bowl – are not Pac-12-affiliated bowl games.

The list of the six Pac-12-affiliated bowls is provided at the end of this report.

The projections of the nine sites we cited are below:

ESPN (Kyle Bonagura)

Hawaii Bowl – Cal vs. Boise State

Wednesday, December 24

Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex (Honolulu)

5 p.m., ESPN

ESPN (Mark Schlabach)

Las Vegas Bowl – Cal vs. Nebraska

Wednesday, December 31

Allegiant Stadium (Las Vegas)

12:30 p.m., ESPN