Oregon one of 16 teams to make BCS bowl list.

Byline: From Register-Guard and news service reports

Oregon is officially under consideration for participation in the Bowl Championship Series of games. The Ducks were named Tuesday along with 15 other teams being considered for the four major college football bowl games.

The Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the final BCS standings on Dec. 4 play in the Rose Bowl for the national title. The Fiesta and Sugar bowls will be played Jan. 2. The Orange Bowl will be played Jan. 3.

The champions of the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and Southeastern conferences automatically qualify for a BCS game, and there are two at-large berths available.

Penn State has already clinched the Big Ten's BCS bid and USC is an automatic qualifier from the Pac-10. If the Trojans lose to UCLA on Dec. 3, those two teams and Oregon would finish in a tie for the Pac-10 title, but USC holds the tiebreaker advantage for the automatic berth to a BCS game.

Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oregon and UCLA are only eligible for an at-large berth. The Fighting Irish need to beat Stanford on Saturday to reach the nine wins that are required to become eligible for BCS selection, along with a top 12 ranking in the final BCS poll.

The other teams that can earn either an automatic bid as a conference champion or an at-large team are: Florida State, Miami and Virginia Tech from the ACC; Pittsburgh, South Florida and West Virginia from the Big East; Colorado, Iowa State and Texas from the Big 12; and Auburn, Georgia and LSU from the SEC.

TCU accepts bid

to bowl in Houston

Realizing it was officially out of the running for a BCS berth, TCU accepted an invitation Tuesday to play in the Houston Bowl.

The No. 15 Horned Frogs have a nine-game winning streak going into the Dec. 31 bowl game against a Big 12 team.

The Southeastern Conference doesn't have enough bowl-eligible teams to fill its spot in Houston, which opened up the at-large spot for TCU.

The Mountain West has tie-ins with the Las Vegas, Poinsettia and Emerald bowls - all games that pay less than the expected $1.2 million payout for the EV1.net Houston Bowl at Reliant Stadium.

Since beating UNLV 51-3 in their regular season finale Nov. 12, the Frogs have moved up in the last two BCS rankings, advancing four spots to No. 13 - still one below what is needed to even be considered for one of the four big-money games.

Mountain West

fills other berths

With TCU assured of its bowl spot, Colorado State, Brigham Young and Utah snapped up the other bowl bids for the Mountain West.

The Rams will play Navy in the inaugural Poinsettia Bowl on Dec. 22 in San Diego, while BYU will play the same day in the Las Vegas Bowl.

Utah accepted a bid Tuesday to compete in the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco. They were chosen ahead of New Mexico because the Lobos played in that game last year.

All four of those teams finished 6-5 to gain bowl eligibility.

The Emerald bowl will be played Dec. 29 and Utah will most likely face an opponent from the Atlantic Coast Conference - the winner of Saturday's Maryland-North Carolina State game, Virginia or Georgia Tech.

Stanford still has an outside shot, but the Cardinal would need to beat Notre Dame on Saturday and have Arizona State beat Arizona to qualify for the Pac-10 spot, which would go to an at-large team if Notre Dame wins.

BYU will face a team from the Pac-10, probably California, if the Pac-10 has enough bowl-eligible teams to fill its berth in the Dec. 22 game at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas.