Ducks fly south to sway Fiesta officials.Byline: Bob Clark For the 19th century baseball player, see Bob Clark (baseball) Benjamin "Bob" Clark (August 5 1939[] – April 4 2007) was an American actor, director, screenwriter and producer best known for directing and writing the script with Jean Shepherd to the The Register-Guard Oregon is headed for the Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl, now sponsored by Tostitos tortilla chips (a Frito-Lay product), is a United States college football game played annually since 1971. Originally, the game was hosted in Tempe, Arizona at Sun Devil Stadium where it remained until 2006. ... at least the contingent headed by UO director of athletics Bill Moos that makes the trip today to Arizona to start an organized push on behalf of the Ducks. `We felt it was important to make our case early, though we know not anything can happen for a while,' Moos said. Pairings for the four Bowl Championship Series games won't be finalized See finalization. until Dec. 4. Oregon (10-1) is pursuing one of the two at-large berths, with the competition at this point seeming to be from Notre Dame Notre Dame IPA: [nɔtʁ dam] is French for Our Lady, referring to the Virgin Mary. In the United States of America, Notre Dame (8-2) and Ohio State (9-2). In the BCS (1) (The British Computer Society, Swindon, Wiltshire, England, www.bcs.org) The chartered body for information technology professionals in the U.K., founded in 1957. rankings released Monday, Oregon moved up to seventh, which puts the Ducks directly behind the Buckeyes, who also finished their season Saturday, and one spot ahead of the Irish, who still have one game left, at Stanford this Saturday. To play in a BCS game, a team must finish with at least nine victories and be ranked in the top 12 of the BCS poll, meaning the Irish are out if they lose at Stanford. `That's certainly something we in the Pac-10 are most interested in having happening,' Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen said. If it doesn't, the widely held assumption is that Notre Dame is assured of a spot in a BCS game, either the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 2 or the Orange Bowl on Jan. 3. The other two BCS games are the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 2 and the Rose Bowl, where the national title will be decided, on Jan. 4. When the Rose Bowl was last the site of the championship game after the 2001 season, Oregon played in the Fiesta Bowl as the Pac-10 winner and defeated Colorado. Moos said he would be reminding Fiesta Bowl officials of that past appearance. `We've had a great relationship with them,' Moos said. `They know how we handle our business. They know that we travel well' in terms of bringing a large number of boosters. More than the last time Oregon played in the Fiesta Bowl, the bid by the Ducks this season bears great similarities to the 2000 season when Oregon State drew an invitation from the Fiesta Bowl as an at-large team. The Beavers were co-champions of the Pac-10 that season along with Oregon and Washington, but through a tiebreaker tie·break·er n. An additional contest or period of play designed to establish a winner among tied contestants. Also called tiebreak. tie , the Huskies earned the league's automatic BCS berth and a spot in the Rose Bowl. That left the Beavers competing with Notre Dame and Virginia Tech for the Fiesta Bowl berths, with the widely held belief then as it is this year that the Irish were assured of being chosen. `It's us versus somebody else again,' Hansen said of the Ducks being up against the Irish and Buckeyes. There is an economic impact for the entire league. The first team from a league to earn a BCS berth receives a payout of about $14.8 million, and a second team from a league would be paid about $4.5 million. After expenses of the participating schools are deducted, that money is then divided equally 11 ways, between the conference office and all of the Pac-10 schools. The Pac-10 commissioner has been in regular contact with Moos about how Oregon can best present itself to the Fiesta Bowl selection committee, today and in future discussions. Hansen said two things that OSU (Open Source UNIX) Refers to the Unix variants that are maintained as open source, which were primarily BSD Unix and Linux until Sun made its Solaris operating system open source in 2005. did to help itself greatly in 2000 was have boosters e-mail and otherwise contact the Fiesta Bowl to show great interest in the game among supporters, and an in-person presentation led by then OSU director of athletics Mitch Barnhart. `He went down there and looked them in the eye,' Hansen said. `And those OSU fans really made a case for how much they wanted to be there.' On his trip today, Moos will be accompanied by UO coach Mike Bellotti Robert Michael Bellotti (b. December 21, 1950 in Sacramento, California) has been the head coach of the University of Oregon football team since 1995. His accomplishments at Oregon include an 11-1 season and #2 national ranking in 2001. Education M.S. , associate director Dave Heeke, director of media services Dave Williford and director of football operations Jeff Hawkins Jeff Hawkins (born June 1, 1957 in Huntington, New York) is the founder of Palm Computing (where he invented the Palm Pilot)[1] and Handspring (where he invented the Treo). . The best-case scenario for Oregon being selected for the Fiesta Bowl would be if the game decided it wanted Big Ten champion Penn State, which is available for selection since that conference - like the Pac-10 - isn't this year assured of its spot in the Rose Bowl. As the selection process currently stands, the Rose Bowl would pair USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. and Texas, the two unbeaten teams that stand first and second in the BCS rankings. The Fiesta Bowl, which is tied by contract to the Big 12 champion, would then make a selection to replace Texas. The Orange Bowl would have either the ACC See adaptive cruise control. champion (likely Virginia Tech) or the Big East champion (West Virginia West Virginia, E central state of the United States. It is bordered by Pennsylvania and Maryland (N), Virginia (E and S), and Kentucky and, across the Ohio R., Ohio (W). Facts and Figures Area, 24,181 sq mi (62,629 sq km). Pop. or South Florida) as its host team, but would then select an opponent, almost certainly taking either Penn State or Notre Dame, the team left by the Fiesta Bowl. The next option would belong to the Fiesta Bowl again. That leaves the Sugar Bowl to pair the SEC winner against either the Big East or ACC representative, whichever isn't taken by the Orange Bowl. The league champions of the six BCS leagues are all assured of berths in the four BCS bowls. The key for Oregon may be what the Fiesta Bowl does with its first selection. If it takes Penn State and thus allows Notre Dame to be taken by the Orange Bowl, there is seemingly no way the Fiesta Bowl comes back with another Big Ten team, in the form of Ohio State, and instead would choose Oregon. None of the possible at-large teams from the South such as Miami or Auburn Auburn (ô`bərn). 1 City (1990 pop. 33,830), Lee co., E Ala.; inc. 1839. The city's economy centers around Auburn Univ.; there is some manufacturing. 2 City (1990 pop. 24,309), seat of Androscoggin co. or Georgia are seen as being of interest to the Fiesta Bowl. Making it Penn State and Oregon, which played in the 1995 Rose Bowl, would thus match a pair of one-loss teams, the case Hansen and Moos say is important to Oregon's cause. But what if the Fiesta Bowl instead takes Notre Dame with that first selection? Then the Orange takes Penn State, and might the Fiesta match the Irish and the Buckeyes? Hansen termed that a `regional' game, but those are two schools that have great tradition on a national basis. `We're a nationally recognized program,' Moos countered. `People will turn on their TV sets to watch Oregon.' Hansen contends that ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. , which televises all the BCS games, will already have a corner on the Midwest television markets with the presence of Notre Dame, so why take Ohio State? `Oregon would bring (ABC) a new area (of viewers) that Ohio State doesn't bring,' Hansen argued. Ticket sales doesn't seem to be an issue. Each team has 15,000 available and any of the teams being considered by the Fiesta Bowl should have a ready market for its share. Moos said that even though Oregon played in the state of Arizona twice in the past season, the lure of a BCS bowl would override that with Duck supporters. Ohio State has also played in two recent Fiesta Bowls, and Oregon's hope would be that the game organizers might fear that there has been saturation from that past experience among supporters of the Buckeyes. And back and forth it will go in the coming two weeks, with probably little indication from the Fiesta Bowl which way it will eventually go. `The Fiesta Bowl (selectors) hold their cards very closely,' Hansen said. `They are very difficult to read.' B C S BCS RANKINGS Harris USA Today USA Today National U.S. daily general-interest newspaper, the first of its kind. Launched in 1982 by Allen Neuharth, head of the Gannett newspaper chain, it reached a circulation of one million within a year and surpassed two million in the 1990s. Computer BCS Rk Pts Pct Rk Pts Pct Rk Pct Avg Pv 1. Southern Cal ... 1 2800 .9912 1 1536 .9910 2 .960 .9807 1 2. Texas ... 2 2737 .9688 2 1501 .9684 1 1.000 .9791 2 3. Penn State ... 4 2494 .8828 4 1344 .8671 3 .920 .8900 4 4. LSU LSU Louisiana State University LSU Large Subunit LSU La Salle University (Philadelphia, PA) LSU La Sierra University LSU Link State Update (OSPF) LSU Learning Support Unit ... 3 2539 .8988 3 1415 .9129 8 .700 .8372 5 5. Virginia Tech ... 6 2244 .7943 5 1277 .8239 4 .870 .8294 6 6. Ohio St. ... 7 2172 .7688 7 1137 .7335 5 .850 .7841 7 7. OREGON ... 8 1980 .7009 8 1102 .7110 6 .790 .7340 10 8. Notre Dame ... 5 2254 .7979 6 1185 .7645 12 .510 .6908 9 9. Miami (Fla.) ... 10 1799 .6368 10 990 .6387 7 .740 .6718 3 10. Auburn ... 9 1945 .6885 9 1025 .6613 10 .550 .6333 13 11. West Virginia ... 13 1428 .5055 12 881 .5684 9 .670 .5813 12 12. UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX ... 11 1611 .5703 11 970 .6258 11 .540 .5787 11 13. TCU (Transmission Control Unit) A communications control unit controlled by the computer that does not execute internally stored programs. Contrast with front end processor, which executes its own instructions. ... 15 1243 .4400 15 704 .4542 14 .470 .4547 14 14. Alabama ... 14 1343 .4754 14 727 .4690 19 .290 .4115 8 15. Georgia ... 12 1582 .5600 13 797 .5142 23 .150 .4081 16 16. Texas Tech ... 17 1009 .3572 17 525 .3387 15 .440 .3786 19 17. Wisconsin ... 23 383 .1356 22 218 .1406 13 .500 .2587 20 18. Boston College Boston College, main campus at Chestnut Hill, Mass.; coeducational; Jesuit; est. and opened 1863. Actually a university, the school's Chestnut Hill campus comprises colleges of arts and sciences and business administration, the graduate school, and schools of nursing ... 20 648 .2294 20 345 .2226 18 .320 .2573 24 19. Fresno State ... 16 1051 .3720 16 543 .3503 NR .030 .2508 17 20. Louisville ... 18 908 .3214 18 520 .3355 NR .070 .2423 18 21. Georgia Tech ... 22 384 .1359 24 149 .0961 16 .430 .2207 NR 22. Michigan ... 24 332 .1175 23 158 .1019 17 .420 .2132 15 23. Florida ... 19 660 .2336 19 383 .2471 NR .000 .1602 22 24. Florida State ... 21 518 .1834 21 341 .2200 NR .000 .1345 NR 25. Northwestern ... t35 10 .0035 t32 9 .0058 20 .240 .0831 NR EXPLANATION KEY Team percentages are derived by dividing a team's actual voting points by a maximum 2825 possible points in the Harris Interactive Harris Interactive (NASDAQ: HPOL) is an American market research company that specializes in public opinion research using both telephone and surveys on online panels. The company is the product of a 1996 merger between the Gordon S. Black Company and Louis Harris & Associates. Poll and 1525 possible points in the USA Today Coaches Poll. Six computer rankings calculated in inverse points (Geom.) two points lying on a line drawn from the center of a fixed circle or sphere, and so related that the product of their distances from the center of the circle or sphere is equal to the square of the radius. See also: Inverse order (25 for No. 1, 24 for No. 2, etc.) are used to determine the overall computer component. The highest and lowest ranking for each team is dropped, and the remaining four are added and divided by 100 (the maximum possible points) to produce a Computer Rankings Percentage. The six computer ranking providers are Anderson & Hester, Richard Billingsley, Colley Matrix, Kenneth Massey Kenneth Massey is an American sports statistician well-known for his development of a methodology for ranking and rating sports teams in a variety of sports. His ratings have been a part of the Bowl Championship Series since its inception. , Jeff Sagarin Jeff Sagarin is an American sports statistician well-known for his development of a methodology for ranking and rating sports teams in a variety of sports. His ratings have been a regular feature in the USA Today sports sections since 1985, have been used by the NCAA Tournament , and Peter Wolfe. Each computer ranking accounts for schedule strength in its formula. The BCS Average is calculated by averaging the percent totals of the Harris Interactive, USA Today Coaches and Computer polls. |
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