Oregon St. Headed For Alamo Bowl

Oregon St. climbed to #13 in the final BCS rankings, the highest of any 3 loss team, and ahead of 7 teams in the top 25 with either 1 or 2 losses. And once Oregon, who finished #4 in the BCS, was selected to the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl against #5 Kansas St., the Big XII Champions, the way was clear for the Valero Alamo Bowl to select the Beavers to play in San Antonio on Dec. 29 at 5:45 PM CST (3:45 PM PST).

The Beavers are ready to roll for San Antonio.

Oregon St. (9-3, 6-3) will face Texas (8-4, 5-4), the 3rd place team from the Big XII. The Longhorns are ranked #23 in the BCS, #29 in the AP poll, and #25 in the Coaches' Sports Information Directors Poll.

Stanford, which placed #6 in the final BCS standings, is the highest ranked 2 loss team, and will represent the Pac-12 in the Rose Bowl, against Wisconsin, an 8-5 team that Oregon St. beat 10-7, after the Badgers belted Nebraska 70-31 in the Big 10 Title game.

UCLA will meet Baylor in the Holiday Bowl, in the third matchup of the bowl season between the BigXII and the Pac-12, and USC is headed for the Sun Bowl to take on Georgia Tech.

Boise St. came up short in the BCS Buster Derby, won by Northern Illinois, and is headed for the Maaco Las Vegas Bowl, where the Broncos will meet Washington, in a prequel to next year's season opener for both teams, when they will rematch to open renovated Husky Stadium. Whether Boise St. head coach Chris Peterson will be there for either game remains to be seen, as Peterson will reportedly interview for the Colorado opening.

Arizona St. is headed for San Francisco, where the Sun Devils will take on Navy in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, and Arizona rounds out the 8 Pac-12 teams that are going bowling. The Wildcats will meet the Nevada Wolfpack in the New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque.

After Northern Illinois won the MAC Championship 44-37 over Kent St. in overtime, the Huskies climbed to #15 in the final BCS rankings, earning an automatic BCS berth, which will be a trip to the Orange Bowl to face Florida St. The Huskies will be doing so without their head coach Dave Doeren, who has left (just hours before his team became the first MAC team to ever advance to a BCS bowl) to take over at North Carolina St.

Notre Dame will of course face Alabama for the National Championship, and Louisville will meet Florida in the Sugar Bowl.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com