Bowl projections: Cougs to Poinsettia, and will Utes end up playing bowl game at Yankee Stadium?

Notre Dame should be highly favored to win its next three games against Pitt, Wake Forest and Boston College, none of which has a winning record. Then it would come down to the season finale at USC on Nov. 24, when the Trojans could do their fellow league-mate a favor by knocking off the Irish.

Kansas State’s toughest remaining game is against Texas, which just dropped out of the AP Top 25 after barely getting by Kansas Saturday, so the Wildcats’ computer points may go down in the coming weeks.

ANDERSEN WATCH: After Cal got beat up by a 2-5 Utah team and basically fell out of bowl consideration with its 3-6 mark (the Bears face Washington, Oregon and Oregon State to finish up), we can officially crank up the Gary Andersen to Cal talk.

Jeff Tedford still has three years remaining on his contract at Cal, which pays him $2.3 million per year. But with a new multimillion-dollar football complex to pay for, Cal may be more concerned about getting a winning coach in place. And there is plenty of talk in the Bay Area questioning Tedford's future.

I know Andersen says he is very happy in Logan and recently signed a long-term deal. However, most coaches aspire to bigger jobs with better contracts and usually don’t turn down chances to work in bigger conferences and quadruple their salaries.

Andersen could be a candidate for a lot of jobs, especially after a 9-3 or 10-2 season, but if he goes anywhere it would likely be in the West, where he has a familiarity with recruiting, and Cal could be the best job open.