The participants in the Holiday Bowl and Poinsettia Bowl will be announced Sunday.
Holiday Bowl organizers get the second choice among Pac-12 Conference teams after selections for the College Football Playoff and New Year's Six games.
The Pac-12 team will face a "top-tier team" from the 14-team Big Ten Conference, according to Gina Beckman, the public relations and marketing manager for San Diego Bowl Games, which operates the Holiday Bowl and
Poinsettia Bowl.
Jerry Palm of the website CBSSports.com projects that Utah will be the Pac-12 representative and Wisconsin the Big Ten representative in a matchup of 9-3 teams. Neither team has played in the Holiday Bowl, which has been played annually since 1978.
Utah opened the season 6-0, rising to third in The Associated Press poll. Wisconsin (9-3) won six of its final seven regular-season games.
The Holiday Bowl will be played Dec. 30 at Qualcomm Stadium.
The Poinsettia Bowl will match "a top team from the Mountain West (Conference) with a Mid-American Conference opponent," Beckman said.
"The Mountain West (Conference) and MAC ultimately do have the final decision in which teams we get," Beckman told City News Service. "However, (there) is some dialogue with the conferences to make sure the teams are a good match for us."
Palm projects Boise State (8-4) will be the Mountain West Conference representative and Central Michigan (7-5) the Mid-American Conference representative.
Boise State played in the 2008 Poinsettia Bowl while Central Michigan has never played in the game, which has been played annually since 2005.
Central Michigan concluded the regular season by winning five of its final six games.
The Poinsettia Bowl will be played Dec. 23 at Qualcomm Stadium.
