Huskies To The Sun Bowl?

By Bud Withers
The Seattle Times
SEATTLE — While Washington State athletic director Bill Moos hinted broadly Monday that the Cougars will play in a bowl game this season, a Sun Bowl official said Washington will be under serious consideration for that game if it beats WSU in Friday’s Apple Cup.

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Meanwhile, if Washington wins Friday and gets to eight wins, “that makes them a lot more attractive,” said John Folmer, longtime chairman of the Sun Bowl selection committee. “A great deal of it is going to depend on what kind of feedback we get from their fans.”

The Dec. 31 Sun Bowl, picking behind the Rose, Alamo and Holiday bowls, figures to have attractive options. Stanford (9-2) and Arizona State (9-2) meet for the Pac-12 title, but Oregon is 9-2, USC is 9-3 and UCLA 8-3. The Huskies, at 8-4, would thus be weighed against two of those remaining teams (or possibly one, because the Sun isn’t high on USC after a downbeat showing there last year).

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San Francisco’s Fight Hunger Bowl has been seen as the likely destination for the Huskies, opposite BYU, which is already committed to the game. The Fight Hunger has No. 6 pick of Pac-12 teams, but the Las Vegas Bowl, picking No. 5, hosted Washington last year and is widely figured looking elsewhere.

“We’d be very excited if Washington is 8-4 and available,” said executive director Gary Cavalli of the Dec. 27 Fight Hunger Bowl. “If they’re not and one of the LA schools is, we’d be very excited about that, as well. And thirdly, we like Arizona (7-4).”

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