Nov 20, 2008 4:46 pm US/Pacific
SF's Emerald Bowl Hoping For A Pac-10 Team
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ―
Emerald Bowl director Gary Cavalli has mapped out the dozens of possible scenarios for how the Pac-10 bowl situation could play out.
About half of those scenarios are best-case ones for Cavalli, who would like to have either Stanford or California play in the San Francisco-based bowl for the first time in its seven-year history.
"It would fill the place. It would get a whole lot of local attention and probably generate more interest in the game than we've ever had," Cavalli said. "This would be part of our continued effort to raise our profile in the Bay Area. Getting one of those two teams would be like a dream come true."
The Emerald Bowl and Las Vegas Bowl alternate fourth and fifth picks, with this season being Las Vegas' chance to go first. But Cavalli is negotiating with the Las Vegas Bowl to leave a Bay Area team for the Emerald Bowl if possible.
But that won't happen if the Emerald Bowl's possible nightmare scenario comes true, leaving it without a Pac-10 team to pit against an ACC opponent.
"If there's not a team, then Las Vegas will not bargain with me," Cavalli said. "They will take the Pac-10 team. I will be the one looking. Next year when we're four we don't have to worry about it. Going forward I want to get to where we're four every year and I don't have to lose sleep."
If the conference gets two teams into the BCS, it's possible there won't be a bowl-eligible team left for the Emerald Bowl.
For that to happen, Oregon State would have to win its final two games to make the Rose Bowl based on its head-to-head win over Southern California. If USC wins its final two games, the Trojans would likely earn an at-large bid to a BCS bowl.
Oregon, California and Arizona are already bowl eligible and would then be slotted in some order into the Holiday, Sun and Las Vegas bowls. But no other team is assured of a bid, leaving the Emerald Bowl possibly without a team.
Stanford needs to beat California on Saturday to qualify for its first bowl since 2001. The loser of next week's game between Arizona State and UCLA will also be eliminated, while the winner will need to win its rivalry game the following week to make a bowl.
In that scenario, Cavalli said he has talked to the WAC about getting possibly Fresno State, Nevada or San Jose State to fill the Pac-10's spot. The WAC, which could have six bowl eligible teams and three bids, is already in position to fill the Pac-10's spot in the Poinsettia Bowl.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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