Ailing Bruins Got What Doctor Ordered : UCLA: Upset of No. 2 Washington provides a much-needed lift heading into renewal of USC rivalry.

UCLA’s 25-22 upset of second-ranked Washington Saturday in Seattle was significant in many respects.

It provided a struggling team with an emotional lift and might have a long-range effect on the football program.

It was also one of the most astounding victories in UCLA history considering Washington’s 21-point favoritism and the Huskies’ previous domination of Pacific 10 Conference opponents this season.

Moreover, by winning, the Bruins (5-5) have an opportunity to avert a second consecutive losing season if they beat USC Saturday at the Rose Bowl.

There is some irony, however, to UCLA’s status. Even if the Bruins beat the Trojans and finish with a 6-5 record, they probably won’t be invited to a bowl game.

UCLA Athletic Director Peter Dalis said that his phone wasn’t ringing repeatedly Sunday with calls from bowl representatives.

“I haven’t heard a thing since we lost to Michigan (Sept. 22),” Dalis said. “The Peach Bowl was the last bowl to pay any attention to us. All the oral commitments have been made.

“The only way that you might slip into a bowl is if a bowl had an agreement with someone earlier and that team might not have a six-victory season and the bowl doesn’t have a backup.”

A NCAA rule prohibits schools with losing records from playing in a bowl game.

Indiana is committed to the Peach Bowl Dec. 29 in Atlanta, reportedly against North Carolina State or Mississippi.

Indiana has a 5-3-1 record with games remaining against Illinois and Purdue. Last year, Indiana was apparently set to play in the Freedom Bowl, before losing to Illinois and Purdue and finishing with a 5-6 record.

It is believed that conferences are as eager as some bowl representatives to place their teams in bowl games at the earliest possible date.

For example, five Pac-10 teams are already in bowl games: Washington, Rose; USC, John Hancock; Oregon, Freedom; Arizona, Aloha, and California, Copper.

Official invitations will not be presented until Nov. 24.

UCLA Coach Terry Donahue wasn’t thinking about a bowl game after the Bruins’ victory.

“It puts us in a position to save our year, bowl, or no bowl, “ Donahue said. “We have an opportunity for a winning season in our big game with our cross-town rival.

“But there’s more to it than that. When you beat the No. 2 team in the country in their stadium, with the weather conditions (wind and light rain) it helps your program, your confidence and the players who have been struggling.”

To put UCLA’s accomplishment in perspective, it ranks with a 7-6 victory over Stanford’s Rose Bowl-bound “Vow Boys” in 1935; the 14-12 victory over Michigan State in the 1966 Rose Bowl; a 20-17 victory in 1972 over Nebraska, the defending national champion, and a 23-10 victory over Ohio State in the 1976 Rose Bowl game after the Bruins lost to the Buckeyes, 41-20, during the regular season.

UCLA Notes

Saturday’s game with USC will be unusual in that a Rose Bowl invitation will not be on the line for either team. That was the situation in 1986 and 1980 (when both teams were on probation). Previously, the Rose Bowl bid was a prize for at least one team, or one team had already clinched a Rose Bowl berth, in every year since 1971.

UCLA’s defense, which has been maligned at times this season, held Washington to 283 total yards, 139 yards below its season average. UCLA defensive coordinator Bob Field said the team had four goals:

“We didn’t want (tailback) Greg Lewis to rush for 100 yards (he got 50). No. 2 was not to allow them to break any run for more than 20 yards (they didn’t). No. 3 was not to let them catch any pass for over 25 yards (which they did) and make (quarterback) Mark Brunell beat us with his arm, and not his feet. (He completed only 10 of 34 passes). We wanted to make him one dimensional, not two. We just played our base defense, simple and sound.”