Freedom Invites Oregon; Hancock Wants USC : College football: Ducks, second-place Western Athletic Conference team, might meet in Anaheim. Trojans’ opponent on New Year’s Eve expected to be Michigan State.

USC and Oregon, two of the runners-up to Pacific-10 Conference champion and the nation’s No. 2 team, Washington, reached oral agreements to accept bowl invitations Monday.

USC reached an 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, and a Freedom Bowl official announced that Oregon would be extended an invitation to the Dec. 29 game in Anaheim.

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.

Freedom Bowl officials say they got a similar unofficial commitment from Oregon.

Oregon Athletic Director Bill Byrne said if such an offer was made, Oregon would accept it.

“It’s our intention to accept the Freedom Bowl’s offer once we can officially do so,” Byrne said.

In an attempt to prime local interest and turn around disappointing attendance figures, Freedom Bowl officials have hoped to sign a Pac-10 team, said Don Andersen, the executive director of the Orange County Sports Assn., which runs the bowl and the Disneyland Pigskin Classic. The Freedom Bowl has drawn an average of 34,888 to its six games at Anaheim Stadium, which holds 69,000 for football. Last year, 33,858 watched Washington defeat Florida, 34-7, and Andersen said Florida only brought 2,000 fans.

Oregon (7-2 and 3-2 in the Pac-10) has two games remaining in the regular season--at California Saturday and at Oregon State Nov. 17, but Andersen said the Ducks would be invited regardless of the outcome of their remaining games. It would be the first time in Oregon history that the Ducks have gone to bowl games in consecutive seasons. Last year, they defeated Tulsa, 27-24, in the Independence Bowl.

Byrne said he told bowl officials that Oregon, which has about 14,000 alumni in California, could draw between 10,000 and 14,000 fans.

“Given the previous numbers we have played to in Southern California, I don’t think we’ll have any trouble hitting 10,000-14,000 people,” he said.

Andersen said the bowl is planning to offer the other bid to the second-place team in the Western Athletic Conference. The WAC’s first-place team will receive an automatic bid to the Holiday Bowl in San Diego.

Colorado State (6-3, 5-1) and Wyoming (9-1, 5-1) are currently tied for second place behind Brigham Young (7-1, 5-0). Brigham Young will play Saturday at Wyoming.

If Michigan State falters in its last three games and finishes with a losing record, the Hancock Bowl committee has a backup plan involving another Big Ten team or a Southwest Conference team, said Folmer, the Hancock Bowl official.

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 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.