Here's Who Cal Could End Up Playing In Bowl Game

BERKELEY, CA —It's been a tumultuous season for the Cal Football Team.

The team, led by true freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, started the 2025 season with a promising 3-0 record before suffering an upset loss to San Diego State University.

From there, the Bears never seemed to regain momentum, going the rest of the season without back-to-back wins. A loss to rivals Stanford in the 128th "Big Game" saw the departure of longtime head coach Justin Wilcox.

Despite the ups and downs, the Bears are bowl eligible. The team finished the season with a 7-5 record and capped off the season with an upset victory against Southern Methodist University, its first game without Wilcox at the helm.

The Bears won't learn until Sunday what bowl game they'll be playing in and who they'll be competing against.

But analysts predict Cal will play against Hawai'i in the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl or Texas Christian University at the Autozone Liberty Bowl in Tennessee.

The Bears last played the Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors in 2016, coming out on top with a 51-31 victory. The Rainbow Warriors finished this season with an 8-4 record and also carry momentum into a bowl game after finishing off its season with a win against the University of Wyoming.

The Bears, meanwhile, have played TCU only twice, losing both games by tiny margins, including during the 2018 Cheez-It Bowl game. TCU also finished the season with an 8-4 record.

Cal last won a bowl game in 2019, when the team defeated the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign at the Redbox Bowl.