Jacob Thorpe’s Pac-12 bowl picks

PULLMAN – Money has been an issue for Pac-12 schools ever since the Pac-12 Networks and other TV deals turned out to be less golden goose than lemonade stand.

The supplemental income helps, sure, but many Pac-12 schools spent as if they were going to win the lottery when in fact their payouts more resemble $25 off the bar tab at trivia.

The Pac-12 made about $439 million in 2015, which sounds like a lot until one considers the $25 million distributed to each school was about $7 million less than the SEC and Big Ten. Those conferences also have much more lucrative TV contracts and their in-house networks are making a lot more money than the Pac-12 Networks.

Bowl season cannot come close to making up the difference, even with Washington earning the conference an extra $4 million by making a semifinal game. But the Pac-12 does make up a little ground with the bowl games.

Even though the Rose Bowl is generally considered to be the best bowl game, the Pac-12’s usual bowl slate has a fairly bad rap. The conference tie-ins to bowl games are mostly determined by geography, and west coast fans like to grumble about never playing any SEC teams.

The Pac-12 currently has contracts to seven bowl games, three of which are also partnered with the Big Ten. The Big 12, Mountain West, and ACC each partner with one Pac-12 bowl.

Excluding the College Football Playoffs Championship Game and the New Years Six bowl games that all contribute to the playoff revenue pool, the Pac-12 partners with two of the six highest-paying bowl games, and four of the top 11.

The Alamo Bowl, which paid out $3.8 million last year, and Holiday Bowl ($2.8 million) are particularly important, since the lesser bowl games often barely cover the expenses of the attending team, or fail to do so.

The conference does especially well when it can send teams to at-large bowl games, taking the spot, and revenue, of a conference that failed to have enough teams qualify for bowl games to fill its obligations. Of course, that’s the Pac-12 this year, which will only send six teams to bowl games.

The Pac-12’s losses are the American Athletic Conference and Mountain West Conference’s gains, since Houston and Boise State will replace the Pac-12 teams in the Las Vegas Bowl and Cactus Bowl, respectively.

Fewer bowl teams also directly correlate with less charitable giving, merchandise sales and even applications to attend universities, studies have shown. So the Pac-12 has good bowl games, it just needs its member teams to qualify for them.

Here is how I think the bowl games play out for the Pac-12 this year.

Holiday Bowl – Tuesday, Dec. 27; San Diego, California

Washington State (8-4) vs. Minnesota (8-4)

The Cougars will try to complete a second consecutive nine-win season at the hands of a reeling Golden Gophers squad, which will be missing 10 suspended players.

The line: WSU by 10

The pick: Will be in our game preview

Foster Farms Bowl – Wednesday, Dec. 28; Santa Clara, California

No. 19 Utah (8-4) vs. Indiana (6-6)

Utah has the name, the ranking, and the talent advantage. But it’s hard to see the Utes being too motivated for this game.

The line: Utah by 7

The pick: Utah 31-28

Alamo Bowl – Thursday, Dec. 29; San Antonio, Texas

No. 10 Colorado (10-3) vs. No. 12 (9-3) Oklahoma State

Possibly the most intriguing matchup involving a Pac-12 team will pit OSU’s high-octane passing offense against one of the country’s best secondaries. But can CU’s defense sustain its level of play without defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt?

The line: CU by 3

The pick: CU 35-24

Sun Bowl – Friday, Dec. 30; El Paso, Texas

North Carolina (8-4) vs. No. 18 Stanford (9-3)

Neither team lived up to high preseason expectations. This will be our first look at the Cardinal in the post Christian McCaffrey era.

The line: Stanford by 3

The pick: UNC 34-24

Peach Bowl/CFP Semifinal – Saturday, Dec. 31; Atlanta, Georgia

No. 1 Alabama (13-0) vs. No. 4 Washington (12-1)

The Huskies have their best season in 25 years only to be rewarded with a matchup against Leviathan. Can UW keep it close enough to make fans still want to remember 2016?

The line: Alabama by 14.5

The pick: Alabama 38-10

Rose Bowl – Monday, Jan. 2; Pasadena, California

No. 5 Penn State (11-2) vs. No. 9 USC (9-3)

In which the team that many felt should be included in the playoffs is not expected to beat the team very few deserved a shot.

The line: USC by 6.5

The pick: USC 42-24

Jacob Thorpe’s records: 64-21 straight up, 38-36-3 against the spread