Rose Bowl:
12/02/07
Rose Bowl: USC V. Illinois
Southern California and Illinois will play in the Rose Bowl, giving organizers the traditional Big Ten-Pac-10 matchup they desire even though they lost Ohio State to the national championship game.
USC got healthy and finished strong, winning four straight to end the season and take the Pac-10 title for the sixth straight season.
The sixth-ranked Trojans earned their third straight Rose Bowl bid Sunday and fourth in the last five seasons.
No. 13 Illinois (9-3) orchestrated one of the best turnarounds of the season, getting back to the postseason for the first time since 2001 season after going 2-10 last year.
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11/27/07
Pac-10 Rose Bowl Scenarios
After UCLA's 16-0 win over Oregon on Saturday, the Pac-10's Rose Bowl representative is down to three schools: USC, ASU, UCLA.
Trojans: Clinch their second straight Rose Bowl with a win over UCLA.
Arizona State: Clinch their first Rose Bowl appearance since 1997 with a win over Arizona AND a UCLA win over USC.
Bruins: Clinch their first Rose Bowl appearance since 1999 with a win over USC AND an Arizona win at ASU.
11/26/07
Athens - Mitch Dorger, a West Coast guy, found out a little something about SEC football in 2006.
"Last year we had LSU on our radar scope, and they pre-sold 42,000
Rose Bowl tickets on the possibility of coming out here," the CEO of the Rose Bowl said. "That said a lot to us in terms of how much the fans are interested in the game."
Although coach Mark Richt tosses an orange, the bowl he really likes is in Pasadena, Calif.
This year Georgia is on the radar for the Rose Bowl, and the Bulldogs fan contingent is just as large.
"They are on our mind," Dorger said of the Bulldogs. "They are not the only team that is on our mind, but we are cognizant of the great football they have been playing, and we are cognizant of the tradition and the enthusiasm of the fans.
"They would provide a matchup that would have a lot of people talking," he said.
That matchup likely would be Southern Cal and Georgia, two of the hottest teams in the country. For that to happen, here is what has to happen:
Missouri must lose to Oklahoma. That would mean Ohio State would go to the BCS national title game, and the Rose Bowl would have the first pick among the BCS at-large teams. It appears as if Georgia, ranked No. 4 in the BCS, would be the highest ranked at-large team.
Then it would be up to the Rose Bowl to select the Bulldogs.
Of course, it is not that easy. Illinois is looming out there at No. 15 in the BCS. If the Fighting Illini move up to No. 14 or better, they are eligible for a BCS bowl. The Rose Bowl tradition is to have a Big Ten team face a Pac-10 team.
"We are very cognizant of the long-time partnership between the Big Ten and the Pac-10, and we try to give special preferences to those," Dorger said.
"But we are not obligated to disadvantage the game in order to keep that [partnership] alive."
So it is safe to say there will be some internal debate between the powers that be at the Rose Bowl if Illinois moves up and Missouri loses to Oklahoma.
If Missouri wins, the point is moot. Ohio State stays in the Rose Bowl, and the Big Ten-Pac-10 matchup is secure.
If such a scenario occurs, the Fiesta Bowl would have the next pick because it is losing its conference tie (Missouri and the Big 12) to the BCS title game. Georgia again would be the highest ranked at-large team in the BCS.
In this scenario, the Orange Bowl would pick next and match an at-large team against either Boston College or Virginia Tech.
At the moment, however, the Rose is the most plausible scenario. It also is generating the most excitement among the Bulldogs. Georgia coach Mark Richt said from a personal standpoint it is where he would like to play because he has never experienced the game. Few Georgians have. The Bulldogs haven't played in the Rose Bowl since 1943. They beat UCLA 9-0 in that game.
A team from the SEC hasn't played in the Rose Bowl since Alabama in 1946. In fact, other than the years it has hosted the national title, the Rose Bowl has featured only two non-Big Ten-Pac-10 matchups in the past six decades. In 2003 Washington State played Oklahoma, and in 2005 Texas played Michigan.
Now that the Rose Bowl has the first pick, one of its parameters is ticket sales. Dorger said they expect a Big Ten team to guarantee 27,000 tickets sold.
A replacement team would need to guarantee at least 20,000 and possibly higher. Georgia athletics director Damon Evans said he is confident Georgia would have no problem selling tickets to the Rose Bowl.
