Pac-10 Wants BCS to Leave Spot to Beavers

By CHRIS DUFRESNE

Nov. 29, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

The Pacific 10 Conference, tired of being virtually snubbed by the major college football bowls other than the Rose in recent years, is threatening to pull out of the bowl championship series after its contract expires in 2006 if the Fiesta Bowl does not select Oregon State.

“There is an extra burden on the Fiesta Bowl this year,” Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen said Tuesday. “I hope they feel that. I think the BCS has been very good for college football, but it has to be good for all the participants.”

After a disastrous 1999 season, the Pac-10 has rebounded strongly and now has three teams ranked in the top 10--Washington at No. 4, Oregon State at No. 5 and Oregon at No. 10.

Yet Oregon State may not end up in the Fiesta Bowl.

If that happens?

“The Pac-10 may be better off going back to the Rose Bowl and forgetting the rest,” Hansen said. “I wouldn’t want to continually subject our teams to the anticipation of being selected and fairly considered when it just doesn’t happen.”

The formation of the BCS three years ago was made possible because the Pac-10, Big Ten and Rose Bowl agreed to join the alliance in order to allow the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams meet in a “national championship” game.

In 1994, 1996 and 1997, a title game between No. 1 and No. 2 was not possible because Penn State, Arizona State and Michigan were contractually obligated to play in the Rose Bowl.

Hansen has been disappointed that, since joining the BCS, the Pac-10 has not placed a second team in a $13.5-million game and feels there may never be a more qualified participant than 10-1 Oregon State, ranked No. 6 in this week’s BCS rankings.

In truth, the BCS was formed only to assure a matchup of No. 1 vs. No. 2, leaving the other bowls to negotiate pairings based on economic and regional ties.

The Fiesta Bowl is very interested in Oregon State, yet there are complicating factors, namely that ratings-bonanza Notre Dame has qualified for one of two at-large BCS spots.

“We’ve said all along we want to let the season play out,” Fiesta Bowl spokesman Shawn Schoeffler said Tuesday. “Oregon State, we admit, is very deserving of a BCS bid, but we have to let it unfold and then we’ll decide on Sunday.”

The key for the Fiesta is Saturday’s Big 12 championship game in Kansas City, Mo.

If No. 1 Oklahoma defeats Kansas State, the Jan. 1 Fiesta Bowl gets to choose both at-large selections and will be left with some tantalizing options.

The Fiesta could pair No. 11 Notre Dame vs. No. 2 Miami in a game pitting two of college football’s most storied and fierce rivals.

In that scenario, Oklahoma and Florida State would play in the Jan. 3 Orange Bowl for the BCS national title, but Miami could claim the Associated Press title with a Fiesta Bowl victory should Florida State defeat Oklahoma two days later in the Orange.

In the Oklahoma-beats-Kansas State scenario, however, the Fiesta would be under great pressure to work Oregon State into the mix. The Fiesta could match Oregon State against Miami (Story line: Dennis Erickson coaches against the school he led to two national titles) and allow Notre Dame to go to the Sugar Bowl or it could match Oregon State against Notre Dame and let Miami play in the Sugar Bowl.

The Fiesta Bowl has a much bigger problem if Kansas State upsets Oklahoma this weekend because the bowl is then required to take Big 12 champion Kansas State as the automatic qualifier.

That leaves the Fiesta to chose between Oregon State and Notre Dame as Kansas State’s opponent.

Oregon State obviously lacks Notre Dame’s historical credentials, yet the Beavers are the better team this year on merit.

In terms of national interest and television ratings, Notre Dame-Kansas State is a far more attractive game for the Fiesta Bowl than Oregon State-Kansas State.

But the Notre Dame-Kansas State pairing would create tremendous backlash at Pac-10 headquarters in Walnut Creek.

Hansen understands the Fiesta Bowl is the only logical option for Oregon State. For geographical reasons, the Sugar Bowl is not interested in Oregon State as an at-large selection.

Since 1985--when UCLA defeated Miami in the Fiesta and Washington beat Oklahoma in the Orange--the Pac-10 has placed only one team in the current BCS bowls other than the Rose, Arizona in the 1994 Fiesta.

The knock on Pac-10 schools is that they don’t travel well. UCLA, for example, brought only 3,000 fans to the 1995 Aloha Bowl in Honolulu.

In 1997, No. 5 UCLA was bypassed by the Sugar Bowl in favor of No. 9 Ohio State even after the Pac-10 offered to subsidize travel packages for UCLA to help secure the berth. UCLA went instead to the Cotton Bowl.

Hansen and Mitch Barnhart, Oregon State’s athletic director, have been working overtime to sell Oregon State the Fiesta Bowl.

Barnhart was in Tempe, Ariz., this week to make his case for the Beavers, whose only blemish this season was a three-point defeat at Washington.

“Our conference is very deserving this year of two teams in the BCS, and I’m proud of where our program is,” Barnhart said. “Our kids deserve to be there. Having said that, we’ll play wherever we’re told to go.”

Hansen said that the conference, as it did with UCLA in 1997, has agreed to subsidize travel packages to Tempe for Oregon State fans.

In terms of Oregon State’s national appeal, Hansen notes the Oregon-Oregon State game on Nov. 18 outperformed ABC’s ratings average in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston and New York.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

LEFT OUT?

Despite a No. 6 ranking in the bowl championship series, Oregon State faces long odds to get into one of the premier bowls. A look at the likely scenarios:

If Oklahoma beats Kansas State and wins the Big 12 championship

Saturday:

ORANGE BOWL, JAN. 3

No. 1 Oklahoma vs. No. 2 Florida State

Payoff: $11-$13 million

FIESTA BOWL, JAN. 1

No. 3 Miami vs. No. 11 Notre Dame

or No. 5 Oregon State

Payoff: $13.5 million

SUGAR BOWL, JAN. 2

SEC winner vs. No. 6 Virginia Tech

or Notre Dame