Early prediction has Utah heading south to play in the Holiday Bowl

When the Pac-12 announced last week that the college football season would begin in November, it officially meant that the postseason bowl predictions were sure to come out in full force.

And now, despite not even playing in a game this year let alone choosing a starting quarterback, the Utes are going bowling.

According to CBS Sports analyst Jerry Palm, Utah football will be flying south in December to play in the Holiday Bowl — where they will face Pittsburgh in rematch of the 2004 Fiesta Bowl.

Come November, it’s showtime.
WE’RE BACK! 🙌

Original song by @Kscott_2 #GoUtes pic.twitter.com/tulsi13T5i
— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) September 24, 2020

If this prediction comes true, this will be the second time the Utes and Panthers have faced one another in a bowl game, with Utah dismantling Pittsburgh 35-7 in the game, the first victory by a non-Power 5 team in a New Years Six bowl game.

If Utah is to make the Holiday Bowl — which is reserved for the Pac-12's fourth best team — it will be its second time playing in the game. They lost to Northwestern 31-20 back in 2018, a game in which the Utes jumped out to a 20-3 lead but could only muster 91 rushing yards.

According to Palm, the Pac-12 is going to send eight teams to bowl games this year

Oregon leads the group with a College Football Playoff berth as the No. 4 seed, set to face No. 1 Clemson in the Sugar Bowl. USC then gets an NY6 bowl game, facing Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl.

The rest of the conference shakes out with Arizona State facing Iowa State in the Alamo Bowl, Washington playing North Carolina State in the Sun Bowl, Stanford versus Army in the Independence Bowl, Cal taking on reigning national champion LSU in the Las Vegas Bowl and UCLA squaring off with Nevada in the Los Angeles Bowl.

Typically teams need to win seven games to become bowl eligible, but that isn’t going to be an issue this season. The NCAA Division I football oversight committee has recommended that any team meeting Academic Progress Rate standards be able to play in a bowl regardless of record.

“Providing a more flexible framework for the postseason in this unprecedented time will provide some certainty moving forward,” said West Virginia athletics director Shane Lyons, who chairs the oversight committee. “These are important postseason opportunities for our student-athletes, and this will help everyone to prepare.”

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Twitter — @UtahUtes_SI and Ryan Kostecka at @Ryan_Kostecka