Trojans Heading for Texas : College football: USC accepts invitation to play Texas Tech in Cotton Bowl; Sugar Bowl takes Florida State.

On a day when the football bowl matchups fell into place like cogs in a wheel, USC accepted an invitation Monday to play Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl game in Dallas on Jan. 2.

When Sugar Bowl executives invited Florida State to play in their game against the winner of Saturday’s Southeastern Conference championship game between Florida and Alabama, it triggered a top-to-bottom shakeout of the crazy-quilt bowl picture.

By Monday afternoon, Cotton Bowl Executive Director Rick Baker was on the phone with USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett.

“We’ve talked to Mike Garrett, he’s accepted our invitation and everyone I’ve talked to today is excited about watching the Trojans and the Red Raiders here on Jan. 2,” said Cotton Bowl President John Crawford.

Texas Tech (6-5) won four of its last five games, losing Friday to TCU, 24-17, and won a piece of the Southwest Conference championship. USC (7-3-1) was on a five-game winning streak until it lost to UCLA two weekends ago, 31-19, then tied Notre Dame, 17-17, Saturday.

The bowl coalition wasn’t scheduled to announce its pairings until after Saturday’s Florida-Alabama game in Atlanta, but Sugar Bowl officials--hoping now for a Florida-Florida State rematch--jumped the gun Monday morning and nailed down Florida State.

Florida and Florida State played to a 31-31 tie last Saturday and sources said ABC was lobbying for a rematch in New Orleans.

“Under terms of the Bowl Coalition agreement, we were supposed to wait until next Saturday,” said Sugar Bowl President Chuck Zatarain.

“But with Nebraska going to the Orange Bowl and the rankings not going to change again before Saturday, we decided to go ahead now. We wanted to make sure we got Florida State.”

The Fiesta Bowl was also campaigning to get Florida State, Zatarain added.

“We were Florida State’s first choice and they were ours,” he said. “Now, no matter who wins (the SEC title) Saturday, we know we will have two champions (Florida State won the Atlantic Coast Conference) and a great matchup.”

The Orange Bowl game means Nebraska (12-0) will play on turf, where it is 0 for 5 in the last decade, including 0 for 3 against Miami (10-1). And Miami is 62-1 on its home field in the last 10 years.

Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz had said late Saturday he wasn’t sure Notre Dame would play in a bowl this year. But he seemed to have regained his energy level Monday, after the Irish (6-4-1) accepted a bid to play Colorado (10-1) in the Fiesta.

“If you take away the kicking game, I think we can play with anybody,” he said.

USC Coach John Robinson sounded delighted to be Dallas-bound. This will be USC’s first Cotton Bowl appearance. And Texas Tech hasn’t been there since 1939.

“I feel great about the Cotton Bowl--it’s a big-time bowl game with a great tradition,” he said.

“And we’ll be playing a good opponent in Texas Tech. It’s a good situation for our young players, to get in extra work and play in a bowl. It’s a chance for us to enhance our future.”

USC and Texas Tech will earn $3 million each, although USC will share its payout with other Pac-10 universities.

Crawford said he expected Texas Tech to sell about 25,000 tickets, and predicted USC would bring “a reasonable number” of fans.

Arizona, which tied USC for second in the Pac-10, agreed to meet Utah in Anaheim’s Freedom Bowl.

Outlook

The bowl outlook, with date, time, television, teams (records) and site. All times PST.

LAS VEGAS Dec. 15, 6 p.m., ESPN Central Michigan (9-2) Las Vegas Nevada Las Vegas (6-5) ALOHA Dec. 25, 12:30 p.m., ABC Kansas State (9-2) Honolulu Boston College (6-4-1) FREEDOM Dec. 27, 6 p.m., Raycom Arizona (8-3) Anaheim Utah (9-2) INDEPENDENCE Dec. 28, 5 p.m., ESPN Texas Christian (7-4) Shreveport, La. Virginia (8-3) COPPER Dec. 29, 5 p.m., ESPN Oklahoma (6-5) Tucson Brigham Young (9-3) GATOR Dec. 30, 4:30 p.m., TBS Virginia Tech (8-3) Gainesville, Fla. Tennessee (7-4) HOLIDAY Dec. 30, 6 p.m., ESPN Colorado State (10-1) San Diego Michigan (7-4) SUN Dec. 30, 11:30 a.m., CBS Texas (7-4) El Paso North Carolina (8-3) ALAMO Dec. 31, 5 p.m., ESPN Baylor (7-4) San Antonio Washington State (7-4) LIBERTY Dec. 31, 10 a.m., ESPN Illinois (6-5) Memphis, Tenn. East Carolina (7-4) PEACH Jan. 1, 5 p.m., ESPN Mississippi State (8-3) Atlanta N.C. State (8-3) ORANGE Jan. 1, 5 p.m., NBC Nebraska (12-0) Miami Miami (10-1) HALL OF FAME Jan. 2, 8 a.m., ESPN Wisconsin (6-4-1) Tampa, Fla. Duke (8-3) CITRUS Jan. 2, 10 a.m., ABC Ohio State (9-3) Orlando, Fla. Alabama (11-0) or Florida (9-1-1) FIESTA Jan. 2, 1:30 p.m., NBC Colorado (10-1) Tempe, Ariz. Notre Dame (6-4-1) CARQUEST Jan. 2, 10:30 a.m., CBS West Virginia (7-5) Miami South Carolina (6-5) COTTON Jan. 2, 10 a.m., NBC Texas Tech (6-5) Dallas USC (7-3-1) ROSE Jan. 2, 1:50 p.m., ABC Penn State (11-0) Pasadena Oregon (9-3) SUGAR Jan. 2, 5:30 p.m., ABC Florida State (9-1-1) New Orleans Alabama (11-0) or Florida (9-1-1)