Six wins may not send UW bowling

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, October 26, 2006

SEATTLE – Six has been the magic number for fans of the Washington football team, but it may not be the safe number.

While a 6-6 record is necessary to become eligible for a bowl game, it doesn’t necessarily ensure a postseason spot. And that’s why the Huskies are taking the approach that winning two of their last four isn’t enough.

“That’s why you don’t think on six games,” UW coach Tyrone Willingham said. “You better win every game you can.”

Willingham said he hasn’t started to think about bowl scenarios yet, but it’s difficult not to. While USC and California seem to have the edge for the Pacific-10’s top two bowl games – the Rose Bowl and the Holiday Bowl – there are six other teams (Oregon, Washington State, Oregon State, UCLA, Washington and Arizona State) with between four and five wins. With just four other bowl games tied in to the Pac-10, two of those teams are likely to be left out.

That makes Saturday’s game between Washington (2-3 Pac-10, 4-4 overall) and Arizona State (1-3, 4-3) at 4 p.m. at Husky Stadium all the more important. Both teams are right in the middle of the bowl mix, and both need two more wins to become eligible.

“It’s extremely vital, but I would say that no matter who we were playing,” ASU coach Dirk Koetter said. “They’re all vital this time of year when you’re playing everybody in the conference. There’s a bunch of teams sitting there with four wins right now. Those teams are going to be fighting for conference positioning.”

It won’t be enough for a team to finish at 6-6. It’s also necessary to finish in the top six in the conference. If a team finishes at 6-6 but is not picked up for one of the Pac-10’s bowls, it could still receive an at-large bowl invitation, but it would be a long shot. The only way a 6-6 team gets an at-large bid is if every other NCAA Division I-A team with a winning record has already been picked up for a bowl game.

There are 62 teams right now with winning records. With 32 bowl games, you can do the math and realize that the odds of getting an at-large bid are not particularly good.

“We’re trying to win them all,” Washington guard Stanley Daniels said. “That was our goal from the beginning of the season. We’re trying to win all the games and run the table. At this point, unfortunately, the best we can be is 8-4 so that’s what we’re going to try to do.”

The third-place team in the Pac-10 goes to the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. After that, the Las Vegas and Emerald bowls get the next two teams, with the Hawaii Bowl getting the sixth-place team.

With so many teams having similar records, though, there’s a chance that there could be a tie for sixth. If that’s the case, the tie-breaker is conference record. If that’s tied, the bowl gets to pick which team it wants.

Washington has several things going for it if it comes down to a choice. The Huskies have been impressive in near losses to both Cal and USC on the road. Willingham is certainly a well-known coach and the turnaround he has orchestrated in Seattle has generated plenty of positive national attention. And Washington fans are known to travel well.

But the Huskies also have a bad loss to Oregon State at home and are on a three-game losing streak. A poor finish could reflect badly as bowls may want hot teams to play in their games.

That means Washington needs to begin to turn things around and begin a fast finish against the Sun Devils today. The Huskies have four games left, including home games against ASU and Stanford. Sweeping those would at least make Washington bowl eligible, and that puts serious pressure on the Huskies to take care of business in Husky Stadium. And while they are trying not to make one game more important than the other, they clearly understand that Saturday’s contest carries enormous implications.

“We’re all aware of the significance of this game, of the last four games and its impact on our postseason hopes,” senior linebacker Scott White said. “I think we’re still in control of our own destiny. We have to win out, we understand.”

“I would hope that we’ve always had a sense of urgency about what we’re trying to get accomplished,” Willingham said. “What game is it that knocks you out of what you want? It can be the first game of the season. You’ve got to have a sense of urgency about every game.”