When a football team goes 10-1 during the regular season, it’s a reason to celebrate.
But University officials are hoping for more than just a celebration for this year’s team.
They’re hoping for an all-out fiesta.
The Ducks are one of at least three teams in the running for the two at-large berths in the Bowl Championship Series’ Fiesta Bowl. If they don’t go to that bowl game then they’re assured a spot in the Holiday Bowl, which takes the third runner-up in the Big 12 and the Pacific-10 runner-up.
Invitations to the BCS games will be announced Sunday afternoon.
The difference between the two bowl games is tremendous.
On paper, it comes down to the money conferences get if their teams make it to a BCS bowl. Travel expenses – estimated at $1.2 million by the Athletics Department – for the team and support personnel are paid with money from the earnings, and the rest is split between the 10 teams in the conference. The first team from a conference chosen for a BCS bowl earns between $14 million and $17 million for the conference; the second team brings in about $4.5 million.
The payout for the Holiday Bowl is about $2 million per conference.
But money isn’t everything. Officials say it’s more about the prestige and recognition than the cash.
“It really puts you in a very special group,” said former Vice President for Administration Dan Williams, who’s currently doing work with the Athletics Department. “If you can play in the top tier postseason bowl games, that carries a lot of credibility, and that flows into interest on the part of your fans and interest on the part of the media.”
Athletic Director Bill Moos agreed that the biggest financial benefits don’t begin to play in until after the game is played, when supporters begin donating money and more people buy season tickets.
“A lot of people have the misconception that if there’s $4.5 million for that second berth it all comes to Oregon, and that’s not true,” Moos said. “(The money) really finds itself coming later in future ticket sales, television exposures, novelty sales – you can’t even put a price tag on that.
“All the benefits of having a really good football team come back to help not just athletics but the entire University.”
Though many sports analysts and football junkies have written the Ducks out of the running, Moos said Fiesta Bowl representatives assured him when he visited them last week that nothing will be decided until after the last games are played on Saturday.
The Fiesta Bowl selection committee met for the first time Monday, committee member and the bowl’s Vice President for Media Relations Shawn Schoeffler said, adding that contrary to popular belief, there had been no previous discussion about the berths between committee members.
Moos traveled to Tempe, Ariz., the site of the game, with Oregon football coach Mike Bellotti and three other Athletics Department representatives to meet with Fiesta Bowl officials and promote the Ducks as a team worthy of a BCS bowl berth.
“The good thing is we made our case in person, and now it’s a matter of following up and reiterating some of those things,” Moos said.
This week will be spent further conversing with Fiesta Bowl officials and “working every angle I can to hopefully convince them that we are an effective draw,” Moos said.
Moos said he planned on traveling with the men’s basketball team to Nashville, Tenn., for today’s game but opted to stay in Eugene to work on getting the football team a BCS berth.
Deciding which team will be invited to a bowl game depends mostly on wins and losses and how much fan support and hype the team has, though Schoeffler said there’s no exact formula the committee follows.
Fan support is never a problem for the Ducks, Moos said, and Schoeffler said e-mails and faxes have been pouring in from Duck fans touting their team.
Moos said it’s important to continue promoting the Ducks as BCS worthy, but it’s also important to make sure the University doesn’t seem too pushy.
“There’s a fine line there,” he said.
Williams served as interim athletic director during 1994-95, the year the Ducks went to the Rose Bowl. He said much has changed in the department since then because the Ducks have further propelled themselves into the national spotlight.
There’s no need to rush to make sure bowl game plans are in place because Moos’ staff has been around for numerous trips to bowl games and knows what needs to be done, Williams said.
Moos said he has a plan in place for both the Holiday Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl, and he’s just waiting to find out which one he will put into play.
A trip to San Diego for the Holiday Bowl would be great, Moos said, but he’s holding out hope that the Ducks will land the BCS berth he and other officials say they so deserve.
“People will turn on their television sets to watch Oregon,” he said. “We’ve moved the Oregon football program into the national spotlight, and we’ll go head to head with anyone.”
Williams said if BCS officials truly want the best teams to play in their bowl games, they’ll focus more on wins and losses rather than on how storied the football program is.
“10-1 is a big deal,” Williams said.

Contact the news editor at [email protected]