Oregon
All eyes in Eugene will be on the L.A. Coliseum this Saturday, because as the No. 5 USC Trojans’ bowl hopes go, so go No. 16 Oregon’s.
If USC wins, it will advance to the Rose Bowl as the conference champion, leaving Oregon (9-3, 7-2 Pacific-10 Conference) tied for second place in the conference but with a tiebreak over Oregon State by virtue of its Civil War win, a berth in the Holiday Bowl. Played Dec. 30 in Qualcomm Stadium, the game will be Oregon’s third Holiday Bowl game since 2000. Oregon beat Texas 35-30 in 2000 only to lose to Oklahoma in 2005, 17-14. The Oklahoma loss was the first bowl game for a number of players in the current senior class, including Nick Reed.
Oregon will play the third-place team from the Big 12 Conference in the game, which could be affected by Saturday’s Big 12 Championship game between No. 4 Oklahoma and No. 19 Missouri.
In the last 10 years, the game has been won by the Pacific-10 Conference four times, and the game has become one of the bowl season’s highest-scoring and competitive games, drawing an average score of 38-27 in the last 10 meetings.
Oregon is currently seventh in the nation for points scored, averaging nearly 42 points per game, while Missouri and Oklahoma State, possible opponents, average 45 and 41.5 points per game, respectively. Both teams feature dynamic quarterbacks who have led their offenses for at least two seasons. Oregon offensive coordinator Chip Kelly said earlier in the season he studied Missouri’s offense this summer in Columbia, Mo. That knowledge has come in handy this season with the smaller Jeremiah Masoli at quarterback for the Ducks.
Oklahoma State’s Kendall Hunter is the fifth-best running back in the nation, averaging 126 yards per game this season.
California
Cal could very well be staying in the San Francisco Bay Area for its bowl game this season, if the Emerald Bowl gets what it wants.
Officials from the Emerald Bowl, which alternates with the Las Vegas Bowl yearly for who gets the Pac-10’s fourth-place team, are hoping to snag the Golden Bears (7-4, 5-3 Pac-10), located just across the bay. Even though it is Las Vegas’ turn to grab the fourth place team, Cal, the Emerald Bowl looks to have an agreement.
“I would like nothing better; we’d be absolutely thrilled,” Emerald Bowl Executive Director Gary Cavalli told the San Francisco Chronicle early this week.
Cal could play either Wake Forest or Miami from the Atlantic Coast Conference. Both ACC defenses allow more than 115 rushing yards per game, a major concern with Cal’s Jahvid Best averaging 108 yards per game this season for 1,083 yards.
Oregon State
The No. 25 Beavers could still make the Rose Bowl if the Trojans lose. It’s unlikely that the Bruins can upset the Trojans, but then again, few thought the Beavers would in September.
The Rose Bowl berth looked to be in the Beavers’ possession for the first time since the 1964 season until their 65-38 Civil War loss to Oregon last weekend. With that, the Beavers will most likely find their way into the Sun Bowl. El Paso, Texas will again host the 75th Sun Bowl this season, which is broadcast by CBS.
No. 23 Pittsburgh (8-3) looks to be the likely pick for the Beavers, led by power running back LeSean McCoy, who has averaged nearly 119 yards rushing this season, about six yards more than the Beavers’ lightning-quick freshman Jacquizz Rodgers. It might be an unwelcome matchup for the Beavers after they allowed 385 yards rushing in the Civil War.
The Sun Bowl, however, has expressed interest in selecting Notre Dame, a team the bowl has never played host to. The last time Oregon State played Notre Dame it was in the 2001 Fiesta Bowl. The score? Oregon State 41, Notre Dame 9.
Arizona
The Arizona Wildcats, at 6-5 overall, have clinched their first bowl berth since the 1998 Holiday Bowl, whether they win or lose this Saturday when they host rival Arizona State.
A win would give the Wildcats their first seven-win season since 1998 and put them in the Las Vegas Bowl, likely against Texas Christian University or possibly BYU, though the Horned Frogs beat the Cougars head-to-head.
A loss would relegate them to the Emerald Bowl and promote California to the Las Vegas Bowl, while adding a sixth bowl-eligible team from the Pac-10 in Arizona State, which would then likely go to the Hawaii Bowl.
USC
Most bowl projections have the Trojans facing Penn State in the Rose Bowl. The Rose Bowl committee has to love the possibility of getting the true powerhouse programs of the Pac-10 and Big 10 for the first time in what seems like forever, but this matchup isn’t set in stone yet.
Southern Cal still has to get by cross-town rival UCLA this weekend at the Rose Bowl to lock it up. Sure, the Bruins are huge underdogs and have played very poorly since upsetting Tennessee in their opener, but remember two years ago? The Trojans surely do.
Should the Trojans lose, the Rose Bowl would get Oregon State by way of the conference tie-breaker protocols, a far less sexy matchup given the whipping Penn State put on the Beavers earlier this season.
This scenario would relegate USC to the Holiday Bowl, thus knocking Oregon all the way down to the Las Vegas Bowl.
Of course, there’s still the outside chance that USC could play for the national championship given some help this weekend. This would leave the Rose Bowl with an at-large BCS bid to decide on and, though Oregon has been ruled out, we all know how much the Rose Bowl Committee loves to keep the traditional Pac-10/Big-10 matchup. Plus, this way they’d get to stick it to the BCS at the same time, another favorite pastime of the Rose Bowl Committee.
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