Hancock Has Deal With USC : College football: Trojans’ opponent on New Year’s Eve expected to be Michigan State.

USC has reached an oral agreement with officials of the John Hancock Bowl and will play in the New Year’s Eve game at El Paso, the chairman of the game’s selection committee said Monday night.

Bowl invitations cannot be officially extended until Nov. 24, but John Folmer of the Hancock Bowl committee said of the Trojans: “They say they want to come, and we say we want them.”

USC’s probable opponent, Folmer said, will be Michigan State, which is 4-3-1 overall and 3-2 in the Big Ten Conference.

But if the Spartans falter in their last three games and finish with a losing record, the Hancock Bowl committee has a backup plan involving another Big Ten team or a Southwest Conference team, Folmer said.

USC (6-2-1) is set to play in the game, Folmer said.

USC officials declined comment.

“We’ve wanted Southern Cal for a long time,” Folmer said. “I assure you, the earliest we can possibly notify USC (of an official invitation), we will be there, standing at attention.

“The opportunity for us to get USC doesn’t come that often.”

Three years ago, in its first season under Coach Larry Smith, USC was set to play in the Hancock Bowl, which until last year was called the Sun Bowl. But the Trojans qualified for the Rose Bowl by upsetting UCLA, 17-13.

“The only guy who was more shocked than me was the Rose Bowl guy sitting right beside me because he already had the yellow and gold ribbons around the roses,” Folmer said. “He pulled those off in a hurry.”

Four Pac-10 teams have played in the John Hancock Bowl, including Arizona, coached by Smith, in the 1985 game.

No Big Ten teams have participated in the game.

Michigan State Coach George Perles has said that his team wants to play in the Hancock Bowl, which was first played in 1935. At a news conference Monday in East Lansing, Mich., he told reporters: “They’re our first choice. . . .

“If we have a chance to go to El Paso, that’s where we’ll go. If we continue to win and they ask us officially, we would be very interested.”

Michigan State has games remaining against Minnesota (5-3), Northwestern (2-6) and Wisconsin (1-7).

USC has not fared well recently in bowl games outside the Rose Bowl, losing to Penn State in the 1982 Fiesta Bowl, Alabama in the 1985 Aloha Bowl and Auburn in the 1987 Citrus Bowl.