Inside The Huskies

Huskies Eligible for 5 Bowl Games and College Football Playoffs

Thirty-seven games are on tap for an upcoming bowl season, though the total keeps dropping during these pandemic times.
Dan Raley|
Huskies Eligible for 5 Bowl Games and College Football Playoffs
Huskies Eligible for 5 Bowl Games and College Football Playoffs

Bowl games, anyone?

While continuously battling COVID-19 to get its teams and top players onto the field, college football this week revealed a postseason of 37 bowl games, though the list keeps shrinking.

The Washington Huskies, who open in a week at California, find themselves eligible for the College Football Playoff plus six other bowl games — with a chance to return to the now Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl, which they won in 1987.

Yet because of the pandemic, four games have suspended operations this year, among them the Hawaii Bowl, the Bahamas Bowl, the Fenway Bowl, the Redbox Bowl and the Holiday Bowl, with the latter two annually hosting Pac-12 teams. 

The Las Vegas Bowl at new Allegiant Stadium and the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit could be casualties, too. 

Besides the CFP semifinals and title game, with the Rose Bowl hosting one of the feeder games, the Huskies will be eligible for the following bowl match-ups:

Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl, Dec. 26, in Shreveport, Louisiana. 

Alamo Bowl, Dec. 29, in San Antonio, Texas.

LA Bowl, Dec. 30, in Inglewood, California.

Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl, Dec. 31, in El Paso, Texas. 

Playstation Fiesta Bowl, Jan. 2, in Glendale, Arizona.

The LA Bowl is a new game that will debut at new Sofi Stadium, which is located a few miles south of LAX airport and normally hosts the NFL's Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers. 

Bowl season begins on Dec. 19 with the Tropical Smoothie Cafe Frisco Bowl and ends with the national championship game in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Jan. 11. 

Should the Huskies end up at the Independence Bowl, they would play an independent team, likely Army. 

Thirty-three years ago, coach Don James took the UW to the second-tier bowl and beat Tulane 24-12 in a steady rain with Chris Chandler at quarterback, playing his final game for the Huskies. 

The UW practiced at a Shreveport high school field, leading outspoken linebacker and the now deceased Jay Roberts to look around at his surroundings after a workout and memorably proclaim, "We're in a s*** bowl."

Independence Stadium is home to Louisiana Tech and once hosted Terry Bradshaw-led teams. 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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