Ole Miss, TCU, Central Florida May Get Sun Spot Against USC

The upheaval in the bowl picture has thrown more uncertainty into which team USC will play in the Sun Bowl.

As of Saturday night, Purdue was out and Mississippi, Texas Christian or even Central Florida might be in, Sun Bowl official John Folmer said.

The rematch between USC and Purdue probably went up in smoke with the upsets of UCLA and Kansas State--which presumably vaulted Ohio State back into a bowl championship series game. With the Big Ten Conference’s other bowl commitments, that means Purdue is probably headed to the Alamo Bowl.

At one point, the Sun was starting to consider such Big 12 teams as Missouri or Texas Tech that could be knocked down by Kansas State’s elimination from the BCS, but Folmer said he didn’t expect them to be available--and even guessed Kansas State might be skipped all the way down to the Alamo.

One of the few things that didn’t change Saturday was USC’s berth in the Sun Bowl.

After the Holiday Bowl offered a conditional bid to Oregon, the Sun Bowl made an official bid to USC and the Trojans accepted.

That means that if Arizona plays in the Holiday, Oregon is bumped to one of the doubleheader games in Hawaii, and USC remains in the Sun Bowl.