Who Will The Bulls Play in Sun Bowl? (from GoUSFBulls.com)

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TAMPA, Fla. -- After accepting their third-straight bowl invitation, the USF Bulls will log plenty of television hours this coming Saturday to see who their potential bowl opponent shall be.

So which team is most likely to be USF’s first ever Pac-10 opponent? It is rivalry weekend for the Pac-10, with USC-UCLA, Cal-Stanford, Oregon-Oregon State, and Arizona-Arizona State all facing each other to end the regular season.

With the winner of the Pac-10 going to the Rose Bowl, and the second place team playing in the Holiday Bowl, the Sun Bowl will pick the team that finishes third in the conference.

If the most likely scenario of USC and Arizona St. getting BCS bids comes to fruition, the winner of the Oregon/Oregon St. game would wind up in the Holiday Bowl.

The Pac-10 agreement with the Sun Bowl has a clause saying if a team played in a bowl last year, that bowl has the option of picking the next available bowl eligible team. If Oregon St. finishes third, who beat Missouri in the Sun Bowl in 2006 39-38, the Sun Bowl has the option of inviting whoever the fourth-place team may be.

In the event of a four-way tie for first, which would include Arizona St, USC, UCLA and the winner of the Oregon-Oregon St. game, UCLA would get the automatic BCS bid through tie-breakers, the Holiday Bowl would pick from the remaining three teams, and the Sun Bowl from the two teams left.

With the scenarios almost out of the way, how do the potential opponents match up with USF?

Oregon Ducks

Just like USF, Oregon was affected by the No. 2 curse of 2007.  Along with Cal, USC and Boston College, unranked opponents defeated both USF and Oregon earlier in the season. Only Kansas has the satisfaction of saying a ranked opponent beat them at the No. 2 spot.

Oregon DucksOregon provides a great story line for Sun Bowl representatives in pitting two former No. 2 ranked teams against each other. USF would catch a break by not having to face Heisman Trophy candidate Dennis Dixon, who is out for the year with a torn ACL. Even without Dixon, the Bulls will still have to stop the Pac-10’s second-leading rusher, Jonathan Stewart, who averages 118.7 yards per game. The most intriguing part of an Oregon-USF match up will be seeing two of college football's best defenses go head to head. Oregon leads the nation in tackles for loss at 9.9 per game, and has only surrendered one rushing touchdown in the last six games. The Ducks D is even tougher in the red zone with opponents only converting 68.6 percent of their chances inside the 20-yard line.

If the Bulls take on Oregon, they might not recognize the team staring them down from across the field. That’s because Oregon has worn a different uniform combination in every game of the 2007 season. Oregon features jerseys and pants in black, green, white and yellow as well as helmets in green, white and yellow. Only the yellow helmets haven’t been worn yet this season.

Oregon State Beavers

The outcome of the Civil War against Oregon (one of college football’s oldest rivalries dating back 111 years) could very well determine whom USF plays in the Sun Bowl. The game is being held in Eugene, Ore. and the visiting team hasn’t won this rivalry game since 1996. If Oregon State were to be on the losing end of the Oregon Stategame it would put them in the driver’s seat to go to the Sun Bowl. But not so fast my friends! The Sun Bowl might invoke the bowl clause which would allow them to take the next highest-ranked bowl eligible team, leaving Oregon St. to another Pac-10 bowl.

What would make the Sun Bowl committee pick the Beavers for the second year in a row? This year, Oregon State was on the opposite side of the madness that surrounded the No. 2 teams in the country. The Beavers were one of the five unranked opponents to de-throne a No. 2 when they defeated Cal earlier in the season.

The Beavers also boast the nation’s stingiest rush defense, allowing 64 yards per game on the ground, and are 13th in total defense giving up an average of 310.6 yards per game. The key to a Bulls victory against Oregon State would be to score often and early. The Beavers have outscored their opponents in the first quarter 113-9. No team in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) has allowed fewer.

UCLA Bruins

A USF-UCLA match-up could happen but only if certain cards fall into place on rivalry Saturday. Here’s how UCLA can avoid playing the Bulls in El Paso. If UCLA defeats USC and Arizona defeats Arizona State, UCLA will advance to the Rose Bowl. If UCLA defeats USC and Arizona State defeats Arizona, Arizona State UCLA Bruinsadvances to the Rose Bowl. If Oregon defeats Oregon State, that would put USC, Oregon and UCLA in a three-way tie for second place at 6-3. With UCLA holding the head-to-head tiebreaker over both USC and Oregon, they would get the bid to the Holiday Bowl, leaving the Sun Bowl to pick from Oregon or USC.

If USC defeats UCLA, USC advances to the Rose Bowl then nobody has to worry about anything that was mentioned before. If USC and Arizona St. both go to BCS Bowls and Oregon defeats Oregon St., that leaves Oregon in the Holiday Bowl and the Sun Bowl to choose UCLA or Oregon St. Got it? Good. There will be a test later.

UCLA would prove to be a challenge for a USF defense that loves to force turnovers. On the season, UCLA has turned the ball over the fewest times (12) of any Pac-10 team. The Bruins are lead on defense by redshirt freshman Bruce Davis who has been selected as one of 15 finalists for the Chuck Bendarick Award for the nation’s top defensive player. The strength of USF’s offensive line and quarterback Matt Grothe’s elusiveness will cause fits for Davis and his defense.

USC Trojans

The likely scenario for a USF-USC Sun Bowl match-up would be for UCLA to beat USC and Arizona State to defeat Arizona. This would put Arizona State in the Rose Bowl. With a loss to UCLA, USC will likely fall out of the BCS top-10, ending their chance for an at-large bid. An Oregon win against Oregon St. would put the USC TrojanDucks, Trojans and Bruins in a tie for second place behind Arizona St. In the event of a tie for any position in the standings other than the championship, the effected bowl may choose its participant from among the tied teams. If the Holiday bowl were to choose either Oregon or UCLA over USC, then the Sun Bowl would choose between the remaining two teams.

A match-up with USC in the Sun Bowl would give USF its most prolific bowl opponent in its short history. USC in the Sun Bowl means a second consecutive loss in the battle for the Victory Bell against UCLA. USC would most certain be looking for revenge and USF better be ready for Southern California’s high-powered offense to come out in full force. The keys to a USF victory would be to use the speed of the defense to pressure quarterback John David Booty and to pound the ball on offense, to wear down USC’s talented defensive line. Of course when you mention USC, you have to talk about their depth at running back. They don’t have the nickname of “Tailback U†for nothing. In USC’s win over Cal, running plays accounted for 70.6 percent of the offensive play calling.  Tyrone McKenzie and USF’s talented defense would see a carousel of blue-chip running backs in the likes of Chauncey Washington, Stafon Johnson and Joe McKnight. You stop the combination of power and speed in these backs and you stop the USC Trojans.

No matter who the Bulls play in the Brut Sun Bowl it should be a great New Year’s Eve in West Texas. For more information on the Brut Sun Bowl and USF travel packages to El Paso, log on to GoUSFBulls.com.