Let's see now, if the University of Washington football team beats Stanford and Washington State ...

Or, if UCLA knocks off Oregon State and Arizona State ...

But what if ASU thumps UCLA and ...

When Hawai'i pummeled Utah State on Saturday, 63-10, for its seventh victory against two losses, the Warriors did more than clinch a berth in the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl. They also opened wide the speculation about who they will play on Christmas Eve at Aloha Stadium.

This is something both new and a little bit exciting for the bowl which, in four previous years, sort of had an opponent to be named later dropped on its doorstep in the middle of the night by Conference USA. Or, at least that's how it sometimes seemed.

When it came to who would oppose the Western Athletic Conference entry, there was generally a collective yawn because whether it was Central Florida, Tulane or anybody else you could name from C-USA — and you can name all 12 members, right? — few in Hawai'i really cared.

The games were good, but the opposing team might as well have been Taxidermy Tech for all the tickets it sold. No knock on Conference USA, you understand, because if UH was playing in a bowl game in, say, Greenville, N.C., or Hattiesburg, Miss., it might not elicit much interest, either.

Not so with the Pac-10, this year's contracted supplier of the opposition, however. The Pac-10 has teams that have been heard of and seen on television. They have alumni here. No need to run to the library to find out what the Green Wave is or refresh the memory on a Golden Hurricane. The nickname recognition game is real easy when it is a Bruin, Sun Devil or Husky.

And if the Warriors come into the bowl at 11-2 like many think they have a chance to, you'd at least like them to play somebody you've heard of if you are going to be spending Christmas Eve afternoon watching them. Even the sixth-place team from the Pac-10 has more cachet here than the best C-USA team. So it was practically providential that when the Hawai'i Bowl worked out a deal with the conferences to rotate in the Pac-10 this is the year it starts.

While it could be a couple weeks before we know which Pac-10 teams it will be, there are a couple of things we do know: Stanford isn't coming because the Cardinal is 0-9 and, no matter how famous your band is, you still have to win some football games. Not a lot. But some.

Oregon State is out, too, because the Beavers are already booked for UH's Dec. 2 regular-season finale and the sight of Mike Cavanaugh in pumpkin orange twice in three weeks might be a bit much for some folks.

Scratch off Southern California and California, too, because at 7-1 and 8-1 respectively, they will be playing somewhere else in January. That leaves seven teams, with Arizona, ASU, UCLA and Washington among the group most likely to produce a Hawai'i Bowl entrant.

In the meantime, there are a couple weeks to speculate on who in the Pac-10 would make the best matchup for UH. And, when was the last — or even first — time you could say that about some other conference sending a team to the bowl here?

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.