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Bouquets of roses greeted the University of Utah's arrival in the Pac-12 on that June afternoon in 2010 at Rice-Eccles Stadium, as the school joined a conference that gave the football team access to the Rose Bowl.

Six years later, the Utes are better positioned than ever to play in the Rose Bowl, as long as they do what they need to do Saturday: Utah must lose to No. 4 Washington.

That's one avenue to Pasadena, anyway — and maybe the easiest route, which adds a weird twist to Utah's biggest game of the Pac-12 era. This discussion could occur only in a year when the Rose Bowl is not hosting a College Football Playoff semifinal game. Historically tied to the Pac-12, the Rose Bowl will need a replacement if the conference champion is in the CFP.

No. 17 Utah (7-1) will be in contention for a CFP berth, if the Utes win out. The question of the week is whether you would rather have the Utes play Alabama in the CFP in Atlanta or Michigan/Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. The obvious answer is meeting anybody, anywhere in the semifinals, offering a shot at a national championship. But would the Rose Bowl be more fun? Absolutely, especially with the possibility of Utah's facing Urban Meyer's Ohio State team.

Here's how it would happen: Washington goes unbeaten and is among the four CFP contestants, while Utah finishes 10-3, with two losses to the Huskies — including the conference championship game, Dec. 2 at Santa Clara, Calif. The Utes also could lose Saturday and beat Washington (or Washington State) in the title game, automatically qualifying for the Rose Bowl.

Either scenario probably requires the Utes beating Colorado in the Nov. 26 regular-season finale, giving them tiebreakers over USC and Colorado in the South.

If Washington is in the CFP, a 10-3 Utah team almost certainly would be No. 2 among Pac-12 teams in the CFP rankings, which is the Rose Bowl criterion for a replacement.

The qualifier here is that just about anything can happen in the CFP race, with several games this weekend (including Utah-Washington) having potential impact. By early December, who knows how many unbeaten teams will remain. But a one-loss Washington team may have trouble cracking the top four, due to a nonconference schedule of Rutgers, Idaho and Portland State. So if the Huskies lose to Utah on Saturday but win the Pac-12 championship game, they probably would go to the Rose Bowl.

The case for a 12-1 Utah team in the CFP would get interesting, with a nonconference schedule of Southern Utah, BYU and San Jose State and its only loss coming at California, where the Utes were denied at the 1-yard line on the final play. The Utes might as well keep winning and find out what happens. In that case, the Rose Bowl may become a nice consolation prize.

Yet the crazy thing as of this week is the Utes don't necessarily have to beat Washington to get there — and losing might help make it happen.

Twitter: @tribkurt