If I'm not mistaken, these bowls are contractually obligated to take the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc. SELECTION from the PAC 12. Any one of these bowls could SELECT a lower ranked/placed PAC 12 team over a higher ranked PAC 12 team if that is what they wanted to do. It would seem like most bowls would select a lower placed USC, UCLA, or even Washington team, over a higher placed Utah or Washington State team. For that reason, I think it's highly unlikely that USC falls as far as 6th choice in the PAC 12.