Bowl eligibility brings a different twist to the discussion about strength of schedule in college football, especially in the Pac-12 this season.
Utah (5-4), Colorado (5-5), California (5-5) and Oregon (5-5) each could qualify for a bowl with a 3-6 conference record, having won all three of their non-conference games. So if there’s value in playing a difficult schedule for the sake of qualifying for the College Football Playoff, the opposite is true at the other end of the bowl scale. Cal and Oregon deserve credit for beating Power Five opponents — although it is not an impressive list of wins, with the Bears defeating North Carolina and Ole Miss and the Ducks topping Nebraska.