Nebraska No Ally of Bruins

On Saturday afternoon, the UCLA Bruins got a lesson in Texas hospitality, hearing all of the good things Coach Bob Toledo could tell them about Dallas.

They would get a watch, a video game and a backpack for going to the Cotton Bowl--total value, $297, $3 under the NCAA limit per postseason player--and all the barbecue they could eat.

Nebraska had dispatched Texas A&M;, 54-15, in the Big 12 championship game for the right to go to the Orange Bowl, and the Cornhuskers now hope that Michigan finds thorns among Pasadena’s roses.

The Aggies would meet UCLA in Dallas.

For three-plus quarters Saturday night, the Bruins were pondering lessons on New Orleans.

And then Tennessee righted things, Marcus Nash catching a short pass from Peyton Manning, turning it into a 73-yard touchdown and sparking the Volunteers in a 30-29 victory over the Tigers in the Southeastern Conference championship game in Atlanta.

Nobody will etch anything in stone, the better to protect whatever integrity is involved in today’s alliance bowl show on ESPN, but when the roll is called in Bristol, Conn., UCLA isn’t expected to be there.

The Orange Bowl will get the Nebraska-Tennessee matchup it expected, unless the Volunteers’ unimpressive one-point win sways the polls toward Florida State.

If Tennessee moves down a notch below the Seminoles, the Sugar gets what it really wants: Manning for his last college game, in his home town. Whether the Volunteers or Florida State go to New Orleans, Ohio State is expected to be the opposition.

The Fiesta is expected to ask Kansas State to fill the stands in Tempe, Ariz., for a game against Syracuse.

UCLA is expected to get Texas A&M; in the Cotton Bowl.

The one point by which Auburn beat Tennessee equates to $8.47 million for Ohio State, or more properly, the Big Ten.

It costs the Pac-10 $8.47 million, or about $750,000 per school, marked down to about $300,000 because of the subsidy the league was prepared to pay to get enough UCLA fans to New Orleans, and to perhaps impress the bowl folk there enough to offer future considerations.

Like another Pac-10 team in a future game. No Pac-10 team has ever played in the Sugar Bowl.

And those folk were impressed. So were others.

“I thought it was really innovative, and the people we had at the SEC championship talked with the Sugar Bowl people and their heads were really turned,” said Glen Krupica, executive director of the Independence Bowl.

But not impressed enough to forgo thousands of Ohio State Buckeyes.

“It really doesn’t matter,” UCLA quarterback Cade McNown said. “The players don’t get any of that money. I just want to find out who we play.

“It’s been two weeks since we’ve played a game, and we want to get ready for a bowl game.”

The ripple effect of UCLA plight/Ohio State fortune is expected to be far-reaching. Well, as far east as Shreveport, La., and as far west as Hawaii, with an El Paso in between.

And as far north as South Bend, Ind.

With the Bruins in Dallas, the Sun Bowl, which gets the third-place team in the Pac-10, matches up Arizona State against Iowa. If UCLA had been asked to New Orleans, Washington would have moved to El Paso to play Notre Dame because Iowa was likely to beg off and accept an Independence Bowl bid to play Louisiana State after its players and Coach Hayden Fry had made disparaging remarks about playing the Huskies in the Sun . . . again.

That would have moved USC to a date with Michigan State in the Aloha Bowl, which has the fourth pick among Pac-10 teams.

If form holds today, Washington stays in the Aloha--the tickets and programs are already printed for a Husky-Michigan State game--and USC stays home.

Oh, and Notre Dame goes to the Independence for a rematch against Louisiana State.

“It’s a mess,” Sun Bowl selection committee head John Folmer said of the wait to sort out the bowl alliance while the Big 12 and SEC settled their championships.

The Sun is talking with organizers of the Peach and Gator bowls about a future that would include naming teams earlier and letting the bowl alliance sort itself out.

McNown has a solution for all of that.

“Make those conferences that have championship games end their seasons a week earlier,” he said. “We played USC on rivalry Saturday, and then there was a weekend after that. They could have played the championships then.”

And sorted out the bowls a week earlier.

“It’s the damnedest mess I’ve seen in 23 years in this business,” Folmer said.

“I really think of all the games that they are projecting, a Florida State-UCLA game would have been the best one.

“Don’t get me wrong. I would have been sorry to lose my alma mater [Folmer played football at Arizona State], but Florida State-UCLA would have been a great game.”

So will UCLA-Texas A&M;, Toledo said.

“I played [actually coached] in the Cotton Bowl three times while I was at Texas A&M;,” said Toledo, who was the Aggies’ offensive coordinator before moving to UCLA.

“It’s a great game, and they are great people there.”

Said McNown: “I’ve sat home the last two New Year’s and watched the games on television,” McNown said. “I’ve wanted to play in one of those games, and now I finally get a chance to. This is what I wanted, whether it be the Cotton or Sugar or whatever bowl.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

MAJOR BOWLS AT A GLANCE

FIESTA (Dec. 31)

at Tempe, Ariz.

Kansas State (10-1) vs. Syracuse (9-3)

COTTON (Jan. 1)

at Dallas

Texas A&M; (9-3) vs. UCLA (9-2)

ROSE (Jan. 1)

at Pasadena

Washington St. (10-1) vs. Michigan (11-0)

SUGAR (Jan. 1)

at New Orleans

Fla. St. (10-1) or Tenn. (11-1) vs. Ohio State (10-2)

ORANGE (Jan. 2)

at Miami

Nebraska (12-0) vs. Tenn. (11-1) or Fla. St. (10-1)