This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

It may not be wise to book a flight before next Sunday's bowl selection show, but you can justifiably avoid scheduling anything on Dec. 20 or Dec. 27 for the time being.

Bowls with Pac-12 tie-ins must choose teams based loosely on conference standings, and Utah's finish at 5-4 means that either Utah or Stanford will be chosen by the Pac-12 bowl with the sixth overall selection.

Should only one Pac-12 team make the so-called "New Year's Six" bowl games, that sixth choice would fall to the Las Vegas Bowl — played on Dec. 20 against the Mountain West's top team.

More likely, the loser of Friday's Pac-12 Championship Game in Santa Clara, California, will receive an at-large bid to a bigger bowl, and the sixth choice will be that of El Paso's Dec. 27 Sun Bowl, which gets fourth pick in the ACC.

Utah Athletic Director Chris Hill hopes for the second scenario, he said after Utah's 38-34 victory in Boulder.

"I think we're a heck of a league," he said. "Everybody says we're No. 1 or No. 2 in the country, so if any league should get two [New Year's Six games], you would think we would, but I'm not going to second-guess a committee."

Utah's win over Stanford doesn't necessarily work in its favor. Stanford has momentum after thumping No. 9 UCLA in Pasadena, and nationwide interest.

But what Utah does have going for it is a motivated fan base that may be more likely to travel than Stanford's, which has been treated to four straight BCS games.

Bowl officials told the Tribune earlier this month that they're well aware Utah hasn't been bowling for three years, and they value that.

Should the Pac-12 title game loser fall into the tie-in field, and should the Las Vegas Bowl then opt for the Cardinal, Utah would be virtually guaranteed a trip to the Cactus Bowl on Jan. 2 in Tempe.

Until they learn their destiny, said Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham, all assistants will leave for recruiting trips while he mans the fort and runs Monday's team meeting.

Players will lift weights next week, and if Utah gets a strong feeling that they will be in a pre-Christmas bowl (read: Vegas), they will begin bowl practices toward the end of the week.

Otherwise, Whittingham said, they'll tend to their wounds and enjoy a period of relative leisure.

mpiper@sltrib.com Twitter: @matthew_piper