If Hawkeyes go West, they could face a handful

Wrap your mind around this:

Iowa, with a 7-5 record, could face a 10-win division-champion from the Pacific-12 Conference in a bowl game.

Oh, it's true. It's darn true.

For it to happen, South Division champion Arizona would need to lose to Oregon tonight in the Pac-12 title game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. Coincidentally, that loss could send the Wildcats tumbling all the way back to the same stadium on Dec. 30 to play a Big Ten team in the Foster Farms Bowl. Like, say, Iowa?

How so? Well, Arizona would need to lose by enough to keep the College Football Playoff selection committee from putting it in one of its 'New Year's Six” bowls at 10-3.

After the major bowls are filled, the Pac-12's pecking order is this: Alamo Bowl, Holiday Bowl, Foster Farms Bowl, and then assorted flotsam and jetsam like the Cactus Bowl and Las Vegas Bowl.

So let's say Arizona is a free agent after the playoff committee slots the Orange, Peach, Cotton and Fiesta bowls. Whither the Wildcats?

The Alamo Bowl? Maybe. Or perhaps more likely, 10-3 UCLA.

The Holiday Bowl? Maybe. Or perhaps more likely, 8-4 USC.

A Holiday Bowl rep told me at the Minnesota-Wisconsin game last Saturday that his bowl really wants the Trojans and their fans from a couple hours up the road. USC has never played in the Holiday, which has had a Pac-12 affiliation since 1998. Arizona last played there in 2009, when it lost 33-0 to Nebraska.

So maybe that would send Arizona all the way down to the Foster Farms, formerly the Fight Hunger Bowl, formerly the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, formerly the Emerald Bowl, formerly the San Francisco Bowl.

That bowl dates back to 2002 in the Bay Area. It has never hosted Arizona. Or Stanford, which is a mere 15 miles from Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara.

Should Arizona play its way into a New Year's Six game, look for UCLA in the Alamo, USC in the Holiday, and 7-5 Stanford in the Foster Farms. To say that would be a home game for the Cardinal is an understatement. Assuming anyone in the Bay Area cares about playing in that game on a holiday week, that is.

Whether Iowa is the Big Ten team that heads to San Francisco, who knows? Much depends on whether a Big Ten bowl lands in the Orange Bowl or not. It's a little complicated.

But if the Hawkeyes do go West, it looks like a certainty they would at least get a quality opponent instead of, say, some SEC rum-dum in the Music City Bowl. Even 7-5 Stanford is strong. The Cardinal clubbed UCLA 31-10 in the regular-season finale for both in Pasadena last Friday, and is 41-12 in David Shaw's four years as the head coach.

For those who say 'Who cares?” about Iowa's bowl scenarios this year, I sympathize. But if you read this far, you clearly are at least a little interested. Or you're a glutton for punishment.