Pac 10 Sports Blog

The Oregon Ducks squared off against the Oregon State Beavers in what was a de facto Pac 10 title game.  The Ducks got the victory 37-33 behind the running of LaMichael James and LeGarrette Blount.  James, only a freshmen, ran for 166 yards and three scores.  Blount made his 1st appearance since being suspend following a season opening loss to Boise State and was very effective running for 51 yards and a score.  The victory sends Oregon to the Rose Bowl to face Big Ten Champion Ohio State.  The Beavers will face BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl. For the entire college bowl schedule look to our friends at Football-Bowl.com.

The “Civil War” battle between the Oregon Ducks and Oregon State Beavers took place last night with a Rose Bowl berth on the line. While the road teams had been victorious in recent years in this series, the home team won this one as the Oregon Ducks won 37-33 to earn a berth in the 2010 Rose Bowl. Oregon got the ball from Oregon State with over 6 minutes remaining and held onto the ball the remainder of the game to ensure the victory. Oregon State now appears to be heading to the Las Vegas Bowl to face Utah per the latest bowl projections.

The Trojans of USC defeated in city rival UCLA 28-7.  The victory moved USC up two slots to #18.  The Stanford Cardinal jumped back into the rankings after a thrilling victory over Notre Dame.  Stanford scored in the final minutes of the game for a 45-38 victory to vault them to #24 in the BCS college football Top 25 rankings. The conference title will be on the line in the Civil War as #16 Oregon State travels to #7 Oregon on Thursday night, December 3rd in front of a national ESPN audience. The winner will face Ohio State in the Rose Bowl on January 1st. USC hosts Arizona and #19 California goes to Washington on Saturday to wrap up the regular season.

The Pac 10 Conference proves the inefficiencies of the BCS rankings as USC is ranked higher than Oregon.  Both teams are 7-2 but Oregon destroyed USC only a few weeks ago.  USC is now ranked #9 following a 14-9 defensive struggle against Arizona State.  The Trojans will have their hands full when they host Stanford on the 14th after the Cardinal defeated Oregon last week causing them to find in the college football rankings.  Oregon fell 5 slots to #13 with their loss at Stanford.  The Ducks host Arizona State this week.  Arizona thumped Washington State 48-7 moving them up to #17.  The Wildcats will have a difficult task as they travel to California.  The Beavers of Oregon State entered the rankings at #23 following a 31-14 victory at California.  The Beavers host Washington this week and are currently projected to play in the Holiday Bowl this winter.

When the dust settled on Sunday and the bowl teams were announced, 5 Pac-10 football teams learned not only their destinations for the 2008 bowl season but also their bowl opponents. The Las Vegas Bowl will feature Arizona facing perennial Pac-10 beater BYU on December 20th to kick off the bowl season for the Pac-10. A week later on the 27th California faces Miami (FL) in the Emerald Nuts Bowl. On December 30th, Oregon face Oklahoma State in an intriguing match-up in the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl and Oregon State will play Pittsburgh in the Brut Sun Bowl on New Year’s Eve. Finally to cap off the 2008-2009 bowl season for the Pac-10, the USC Trojans will face off with the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Rose Bowl presented by Citi on New Year’s Day @ 4:30 pm on ABC.