Bowl Projections: Will Cal Wind Up Playing at New $5 Billion Stadium?

Bears still three weeks from playing their opener, but they might play Boise State in LA Bowl. One expert does not project Cal to be in any bowl

Playing a bowl game at the new $5 billion SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., would be a nice little postseason present for Cal, and at this early stage that seems to be the most likely bowl-game destination for the Bears.

Of course, it's all complete speculation when it comes to bowl destinations for Pac-12 and Big Ten teams, who have not begun play yet. Cal's season opener -- Nov. 7 against Washington -- is still more than three weeks away.

Furthermore, dates for a lot of bowls have not be finalized, and the Redbox Bowl, Hawaii Bowl and Bahamas Bowl have already been canceled for this season, with a chance that others will follow. It's not clear whether spectators will be allowed to attend those bowl games either.

A number of sports websites are not even engaging in bowl projections this week, but three of the eight experts we cited predict that Cal will play Mountain West opponent Boise State in the LA Bowl at SoFi Stadium.

Cal fans are expecting even bigger things from their team, with the possibility of a Pac-12 title dancing in their heads.  So they will be surprised to note that one reputatable site -- CBS Sports -- does not project Cal to be going to any bowl. CBS Sports' Jerry Palm projects that Oregon will get into the College Football Playoff and has eight Pac-12 teams, including Oregon State, Stanford and UCLA, in his his projected bowl pairings, but not Cal.

Hmmm.

Here is what the experts project:

ESPN (Mark Schlabach) -- Cal vs. Boise State, LA Bowl, SoFi Stadium, Inglewood (Bowl Tie-Ins: Pac-12 vs. MWC)

ESPN (Kyle Bonagura) -- Cal vs. Boise State, LA Bowl, SoFi Stadium, Inglewood (Bowl Tie-Ins: Pac-12 vs. MWC)

Bleacher report -- Cal vs. Boise State, LA Bowl, SoFi Stadium, Inglewood (Bowl Tie-Ins: Pac-12 vs. MWC)

USA Today -- Cal vs. Kentucky, Las Vegas Bowl, Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas (Bowl Tie-Ins: Pac-12 vs. SEC)

College Football News -- Cal vs. Syracuse, Sun Bowl, Sun Bowl Stadium, El Paso, Texas (Bowl Tie-Ins: ACC vs. Pac-12)

CBS Sports -- Cal not projected to be in a bowl

247Sports -- Cal not in any the 20 bowls the site projected (40 postseason games are still expected to be played).

The Sporting News (posted Oct. 6, the site's most recent projections) -- Cal vs. Pittsburgh, Sun Bowl, Sun Bowl Stadium, El Paso, Texas (Bowl Tie-Ins: ACC vs. Pac-12)

Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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