Bowl Destination Is Not Certain

The Bruins end their regular season this Saturday, but they might have to wait two weeks after that before finding out whether they will play their bowl game in Hawaii or Texas.

The Bruins can finish no higher than fourth in the Pacific 10 Conference standings, and the Pac-10 assigns its fourth- and fifth-place teams to the Aloha and Oahu bowls. But the bowl championship series selects two at-large teams after games of Dec. 2, and the Bruins could fill a Pac-10 vacancy in the Sun Bowl in El Paso if the BCS awards an at-large bid to a Pac-10 team.

If Washington wins Saturday, the Pac-10 would have two 10-1 teams and would lobby hard to get one into either the Fiesta Bowl or the Sugar Bowl. If Oregon beats Oregon State, the Ducks would play in the Rose Bowl and the Huskies could get a BCS bid. If Oregon State wins, the Huskies would play in the Rose Bowl and the Beavers could get a BCS bid, although their relatively weak nonconference schedule and smaller fan base makes them less attractive than the Huskies.

UCLA is tied with Arizona and Stanford for fourth place in the Pac-10, at 3-4, but the Cardinal cannot finish with the six victories required for bowl eligibility. If UCLA loses to USC Saturday and Arizona beats Arizona State next week, the Bruins play in Hawaii no matter what.

The Arizona-ASU winner advances to a bowl, with the loser staying home with five victories. If a BCS selection creates a Sun Bowl vacancy, and if the Bruins tie for fourth place, or if ineligible Stanford finishes fourth, the Sun Bowl has its pick, and CBS would likely ask bowl officials to pick UCLA ahead of either Arizona school.

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After the UCLA offense sputtered for most of the second half in last Saturday’s 35-28 loss to Washington, the Bruins called for the two-minute drill with 3:35 to play. Quarterback Cory Paus drove the Bruins 88 yards to a touchdown in one minute 58 seconds, completing eight of 11 passes.

So why not run more of the two-minute drill?

“It’s not our system,” Coach Bob Toledo said. “We’re not a hurry-up offense.”