Trojans See Daylight

USC is headed for the Sun Bowl on Dec. 31 in El Paso after the Holiday Bowl voted Monday it will pick Oregon over the Trojans if offered that choice.

The unexpected news is there’s a chance USC could end up playing Purdue in the Sun in a rematch of the season-opening Pigskin Classic--a less appealing prospect than the USC-Nebraska game in the Holiday that USC was eyeing.

Another possibility, however, is the Miami team that UCLA will play Saturday.

“Our goal every year is to go to the Rose Bowl, and when you don’t do that, when you’re not No. 1, you put yourself in a position where there’s a choice and sometimes things don’t go your way,” said USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett, who was waiting to speak to Sun Bowl officials. “I’m looking forward to every game we can play. We’re a young team and a couple more weeks practice and another game will just help us out.”

Though many of the bowl scenarios unfolding are contingent on bowl championship series selections, the Trojans look set for the Sun regardless.

Even if UCLA doesn’t reach the Fiesta Bowl and ends up in the Rose, knocking Arizona down to the Holiday, Sun Bowl officials say that offered a choice between Oregon and USC--the same choice the Holiday had--the Sun will take the Trojans, meaning Oregon would fall into one of the two games in Hawaii.

“We’re going to be all over ‘SC,” said John Folmer, football chairman for the Sun Bowl.

“They are head over heels about USC,” said Daryl Gross, the USC associate athletic director who has been the point man on the bowl situation.

USC’s opponent in the Sun is more up in the air. The Sun was looking at a matchup of USC and Miami.

But maneuvering among the bowl championship series games has raised the possibility that Ohio State will get squeezed out of the BCS. And if Ohio State is left out, the Sun’s agreement to take a Big Ten team will be in effect after all because there will be a qualified team available.

“We’ll take Purdue in our scenario,” said Folmer, who had anticipated taking an at-large team because no Big Ten team would be available.

As for the possibility of a rematch between USC and Purdue--repeating a game USC won, 27-17, Aug. 30: “It doesn’t bother us,” he said.

“The only people it bothers might be the people playing in the event. The rematch doesn’t bother us.”

“USC, they’ll play anyone, anywhere. They’re a young team trying to get back to a national championship.”

The BCS scenario in the works is that the Sugar Bowl would get Kansas State and Florida State, a No. 3 versus No. 4 matchup, and the Orange, without Florida State, would choose Florida instead of Ohio State to play Syracuse in order to have a matchup with local appeal.

“We did think we had it wrapped up and it was going to be Miami of Florida,” Folmer said. “Now the rumor is that the BCS is not going to take Ohio State.”

Rumors and contingencies are going to be a fact of bowl-game life until the final BCS poll and selections. But the Holiday, not wanting to wait until next week to begin promoting its game, made a selection based on the assumption Arizona will play in the Rose, and picked Oregon over USC.

“It was extremely close,” said John Reid, executive director of the Holiday Bowl. “I think what it came down to was either way we went, we wouldn’t go wrong. Our only regret is we couldn’t take both. I wouldn’t want to say it was the deciding factor, but head-to-head, Oregon prevailed [defeating USC, 17-13] and Oregon is a ranked team. It was almost to a coin flip.”

Times staff writer David Wharton contributed to this story.