Ducks’ postseason fate hinges on BCS bids
■ Oregon may not know who
or where it plays in which
bowl game until Dec. 3
By Scott Pesznecker
Oregon Daily Emerald
One day after suffering the biggest
lost in his coaching career, Oregon
head coach Mike Bellotti tended to
his weekly conference call with re
porters from around the state.
But Bellotti, like everyone else,
was unable to answer the big ques
tion: Where will the Ducks play next?
“We want the best bowl game
possible to play the best opponent
possible,” Bellotti said. “I don't
have anything more to say on it un
til I know more.”
Oregon’s Civil War loss Saturday
ended all hopes of the Ducks play
ing in the Rose Bowl. Washington
received the automatic bid to
Pasadena when it routed Washing
ton State, effectively beating out
Oregon and Oregon State by way of
tiebreakers.
Under normal circumstances, the
Beavers would go to the Holiday
Bowl in San Diego, Calif., usually
reserved for the second-place Pacif
ic-10 Conference team, and Oregon
would play at the Sun Bowl in El
Paso, Texas, as the third-place Pac
10 team.
However, this season is anything
but usual.
If Oregon State gets a BCS bid to
play in the Fiesta or Sugar Bowl,
then Oregon would play in the Holi
day Bowl instead of the Sun Bowl.
But other teams, such as Virginia
Tech, will probably receive at-large
BCS bids before the Beavers.
Also, the Sun Bowl — like the Hol
iday Bowl and the two bowl games in'
Hawaii — has a “no repeat” clause. If
implemented, the clause would pro
hibit Oregon from playing in the Sun
Bowl because it played there last sea
son. In that case, the Sun Bowl would
replace the Ducks with a Pac-10 team
from either a Hawaii bowl or the Hol
iday Bowl.
The Sun Bowl could also refuse
Oregon if Wisconsin made it to El
Paso. The Ducks and Badgers have
already played once this season,
and play again early next season.
Bowl commissioners may fear that
the matchup may be unexciting and
fail to draw a profitable crowd.
So when will the Ducks know
where they’ll go? Probably Dec. 3,
when football action wraps up and
BCS bids are determined.
' “We are the co-Pac-10 champi
ons,” Bellotti said. “As such, we de
serve to play in a great game. ”
Cross country sends four to national championships
■The cross country team wraps up the 2000 season at the
NCAA meet today
By Robbie McCallum
Oregon Daily Emerald
In the sport of cross country, it’s
hard to predict when or where an
athlete will run his or her final race.
But for four Oregon seniors, the fi
nal race is today.
Now it is certain; Hanna Smed
stad, Katie Crabb, Rhiannon Glenn
and Michael Kasahun will close out
their cross country careers at Ore
gon today at the NCAA Champi
onships in Ames, Iowa. The men’s
race begins at 11 a.m., followed bv
the women’s race at 11:45.
The four seniors weren’t quite
sure of their fate ten days ago. The
Oregon women’s cross country
team was a dark horse in earning an
NCAA-meet berth coming into the
Western Regional meet in Fresno,
Calif., and Smedstad, Crabb and
Glenn faced an unknown fate.
The day after the Regional meet,
the Oregon men’s team was left out
of the NCAA field. That left senior
Kasahun with an unknown fate as
well.
Fortunately, Kasahun and the
women’s team performed well
enough at Regionals to earn NCAA
berths. The unranked women’s
team placed fourth in the team
standings to qualify. Although the
men were snubbed by the NCAA se
lection committee, Kasahun and
sophomore Jason Hartmann re
ceived individual bids.
The Ducks are familiar with the
national course, having ran at the
Iowa State Memorial Classic on Oct.
14. Both the 6,000-meter women’s
course and 10,000-meter men’s
course are the same as the national
course.
At the Iowa State meet, the Ore
gon women finished in a disap
pointing 21st, but have made signif
icant improvements since then. On
the men’s side, Hartmann placed
30th, followed closely by Kasahun
at 36th place.
Hoops
continued from page 7
Luke Ridnour stole the ball in the
backcourt and dished to Norwood,
who streaked in for the two-hand
dunk. After a MVSU timeout, Nor
wood continued his dominance by
draining three more of his 15 points
with just under 16 minutes left.
The Ducks’ dominating 21-4 run
was capped on a Bracey bucket that
gave Oregon the 61-39 advantage.
“I thought it was a really good
opening game for us,” head coach
Ernie Kent said. “I was really
pleased with my veteran players —
particularly Bryan, Freddie, Julius
and Norwood. I was pleased with
how hard they played.”
Jones had a positive first step to
ward his goal of being the team’s go
to guy with 21 points, seven re
bounds and six assists. But he was
more concerned with his poor 3-for
8 shooting from the charity stripe
and the team’s 25 turnovers.
“Everybody knows in their heart
that they weren’t playing to their
potential,” Jones said. “We just have
to go back to the drawing board and
get better.”
Oregon takes its 1-0 record on the
road for the first time this season af
ter playing two exhibition games
and the opener at home. The Ducks
will face Denver this Tuesday.
“The biggest thing right now is to
just win games,” Kent said.
Smith
continued from page 7
49-yard line.
There’s still life. Harrington drops
back, fires it downfield, but it gets in
tercepted by Grant to seal the deal.
The scoreboard flashes the words,
“It’s a great day to be a Beaver! ”
And as you watch the Oregon
sidelines, you know exactly what
kind of day it was to be a Duck.
When the clock showed 0:00,
fans stormed the field as the Ducks
ran off of it, trying to escape their
nightmare as quickly as possible.
As some students attempted to
tear down the goal post, Oregon’s
Jason Nikolao stood in full pads
with his family. Hugging. Kissing.
And hugging some more.
The Ducks made their way down
to the basement of nearby Gill Coli
seum, where the reality of missing
the Rose Bowl slowly started to
sink in.
“It was a fatal game,” senior wide
receiver Marshaun Tucker said.
“We had that right there in the
hands and we let it slip away.”
In the days leading up to this
game, Harrington didn’t hide his
emotions about his love for the
Ducks and how much he wanted to
win this game. He said he would
never forget it, regardless of the
outcome, and now knows that the
memories will be painful. They’ll
be especially painful since he
threw five interceptions — after
only throwing eight all season.
“We had a chance to do what we
wanted to do,” said the junior quar
terback, while he sat on a chair with
his face down, trying to hide his ob
vious hurt. “We just didn't do it,"
Meanwhile, in the Valley Football
Center, Oregon State head coach
Dennis Erickson danced and talked
of how proud his players should be.
Those players sported grins as wide
as can be and hats wi th the words,
“Pac-10 Champs” on it.
Actually, the Beavers are Pac-10
co-champions, along with the
Huskies and Ducks.
Which is where the true ironic
twist comes into play. Despite hav
ing two teams in the nation’s top-10
clash in a historic Civil War, the state
of Oregon gets shut out in the Rose
Bowl. Washington gets the berth,
along with the extra money, the
added television exposure and the
feeling of being a real champion.
All Oregon gets to feel is empti
ness and despair, and must find a
way to gear itself back up for what
ever bowl game comes its way.
And for all those heart-broken
Duck fans, as well as everyone in
volved with the Oregon football
program, I leave you with a quote
from poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson:
“It is better to have loved and lost,
than never to have loved at all.”
Jeff Smith is the sports editor of the Emer
ald. He can be reached at
Smittside@aol.com.
Corvallis
continued from page 7
points in the first half. Their first
touchdown happened with 10:03
left in the first when quarterback
Jonathan Smith passed 32 yards to
Robert Prescott in the end zone.
Then, with 4:27 left in the first,
Smith found Prescott for his second
passing touchdown.
Oregon State place-kicker Ryan
Cesca kicked a 32-yard field goal to
make the score 17-0.
Harrington put the Ducks on the
scoreboard when he ran six yards
and jumped into the end zone with
7:38 to play in the first half.
“We spotted them too many
points,” Bellotti said, referring to Har
rington throwing two first-half inter
ceptions and Oregon giving up 97
yards in penalties. “They’re a good
football team and you can’t do that.
In a championship game at the oppo
nent’s field, I don’t think you can spot
them plays or touchdowns. ”
Beaver tailback Ken Simonton
scored Oregon State’s final touch
down with 7:07 left in the third
when he ran 20 yards into the end
zone, but Cesca missed the extra
point and the score was 23-7.
Duck tailback Maurice Morris an
swered early in the third, scoring on a
1-yard run, but he failed to run into
the end zone on the two-point con
version attempt that could have set
up a tie, had the Ducks scored again
with a second two-point bonus.
Oregon would not score again.
“We’re shocked right now, but we
did know what was at stake and we
knew as soon as the clock ran zero
that the Rose Bowl hopes were gone,”
Bauman said. “We’ve just got to battle
back, and whatever bowl game we do
go to, we’ve got to make sure we go
down and handle business.”
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