The Four Major Non-Playoff Bowls Revealed, UCLA Is Left Out

After the circus this morning surrounding the announcement of the first ever College Football Playoff, which matched up Oregon and Florida State in the Rose Bowl and Alabama and Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl for the semi-final round, the CFP committee revealed their final rankings which lead to the placement of eight teams in the four major non-playoff bowls. Even at #14 in the latest rankings, UCLA is left out.

The biggest concern here is that Arizona, who lost to UCLA 17-7 in the regular season and got destroyed by Oregon in the Pac-12 Championship Game, only fell to #10 and got the favorable nod for the Fiesta Bowl. Now say what you will about both UCLA and Arizona’s resume, but it clear that the Bruins were the more deserving team. Sure that is opinion, but it is a strong one considering several factors.

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First are the aforementioned head-to-head results. Aside from a touchdown early in the game, UCLA shutout the Wildcats for the remaining 56 minutes on November 1. The Bruins only allowed 7 points against a team that averages 27.5 per game.

Secondly, UCLA had the #1 strength of schedule in the nation and did a valiant job going 9-3 this season amid all that tough competition.

Third, Georgia Tech, Arizona and Ole Miss all have three losses and are going to these major bowls, so there is no reason why the Bruins could not.

Still, do not lose games late in the season. That defeat at the hands of Stanford really hurt.

So now the rest of the bowl world are making their decisions on what teams they would like for their respective games. As of now, it seems as if the Valero Alamo Bowl on January 2 is where the Bruins could end up and speculation is it is against a good Kansas State team. Stay with Go Joe Bruin as we continue to bring you information as it becomes available.