Ducks making a pitch

Last year Texas head coach Mack Brown publicly made his case for a BCS berth and it ended up paying off handsomely with a Rose Bowl bid. Meanwhile, California – a team headed for Pasadena until Texas beat it out in the polls in the final week – was relegated to the Holiday Bowl and spent Jan. 1 stewing on the couch.

This year, however, it’s a Pac-10 team that might be on the outside looking in doing some of the politicking. Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said Tuesday that he thinks his team deserves a spot in the Fiesta, Sugar or Orange Bowls as an at-large, presuming USC ends up in the national title game as currently expected.

“Absolutely,” Bellotti said. “I think a 10-1 record, if that occurs, with the strength of schedule, it would be another one of those typical mistakes not to include us in the BCS game.”

The Ducks certainly have a chance – assuming they take care of business in the Civil War this week – but it could be an uphill fight. Alabama could get an at-large bid as a one-loss team, and Notre Dame would almost certainly get in if it gets to 9-2.

Essentially, if neither one of those two teams loses the rest of the way, Oregon will have to take a bid from either of those schools.

The good news for the Ducks is this: The Civil War has been taken by the home team in each of the last eight years, and this year’s rivalry game is in Autzen Stadium.

Oregon State is, however, playing for a bowl berth at 5-5 after losing a home game to Stanford last weekend.

Stoops’ surprise

Arizona head coach Mike Stoops expressed his astonishment at Kansas State coach Bill Snyder’s decision to retire after this season.

“I’m very shocked and a little it surprised,” Stoops said.

The second-year head coach was a defensive assistant under Snyder from 1992-98, when he followed his brother Bob to Oklahoma. Stoops served as co-defensive coordinator for two years and assistant head coach for one at Kansas State.

“He could have been lured away many times but really enjoyed building that program,” Stoops said. Kansas State has often been compared to Washington State because of location and recruiting challenges in a power conference, but Snyder brought the Wildcats to prominence in the Big XII, particularly in the late 1990s and early this decade.

“His legacy will be his tireless work efforts,” Stoops said.

Notes

Stanford also needs a win this week in the Big Game against Cal to qualify for a bowl game. If Oregon beats Oregon State and Cal beats Stanford, the Pac-10 will have just four bowl-eligible teams. Arizona State can still qualify next week with a win against Arizona. … The road advantage in the conference continues. Visiting teams are now 19-16 in Pac-10 conference games this season.