USC, Texas Christian Get Their Day in Sun

In yet another late twist in this season’s bowl scenario, the Sun Bowl will be a matchup between a school with great football tradition--USC--and a school with very little football tradition after Texas Christian was picked to play the Trojans on Dec. 31 in El Paso.

The Horned Frogs, 6-5 this season in a turnaround performance under first-year Coach Dennis Franchione, became the Sun Bowl’s choice Sunday after the upheaval in the bowl picture took Purdue out of the Sun.

That was the good fortune of TCU, a team that was 1-10 a season ago and had no real expectation of playing in a bowl.

It’s probably also to the modest good fortune of USC, which no longer needs to worry about an improved Purdue team seeking payback and now ought to finish 9-4 in Paul Hackett’s first season as coach.

“There’s always some uncertainty when you play a team a second time,” Hackett said.

It will be a bit of old-home week for Hackett, who was named coach at Pittsburgh in El Paso in 1989 when the Panthers defeated Texas A&M;, 31-28, in their bowl game, with Hackett as interim coach.

“I was interviewing for the job, then got the job the night before and they announced it on TV the day of the game,” Hackett said.

As for this year’s Sun Bowl and the Horned Frogs, their chief qualification appears to be that they will draw in west Texas.

“As we’re all aware, we had a wacky last 24, 36 hours,” said John Folmer, the head of the Sun Bowl selection committee.

He can say WAC-ky again.

The Sun ended up picking TCU over three other Western Athletic Conference teams with better records--Colorado State (8-4), Wyoming (8-3) and Utah (7-4).

Colorado State beat TCU, 42-24, and Wyoming beat TCU, 34-27.

What gives? Geography and WAC politics. Colorado State and Wyoming are among the teams deserting the WAC with Brigham Young to form a new football conference, leaving Texas El Paso stranded in what’s left of the WAC.

“I think that had a lot to do with it,” Folmer said. “When the separation happened, people felt it personally insulted this city and this team.”

The anticipated rematch between USC and Purdue went up in smoke with Saturday’s upsets. When Ohio State landed in the Sugar Bowl, a bowl championship series game, it moved other Big Ten teams up a notch, and left the Sun without a qualified Big Ten team.

“We went into this weekend thinking our game was put to bed,” said Folmer, who had to stand by tied to the likelihood of getting Purdue while other available teams were snapped up.

“Unfortunately, the system has flaws,” Folmer said. “We’ve been a victim, held hostage by the BCS, and more directly by the Big Ten. Who knows? Who expected that many losses?”

Folmer called the situation “madness,” saying the BCS needs to find a solution that won’t keep second-tier bowl games from locking up matchups because of uncertainty in the BCS matchups.

TCU was an afterthought in the bowl picture, but landed in a decent game. The Horned Frogs started the season 4-1 and had an upset victory over Air Force, a top 25 team. But TCU lost four in a row before winning its final two games.

“We know we’ve played some good people and we’re going to play another good team,” Franchione said. “You play USC, you’re going to play a tradition-rich program. We’re a school that’s been on one end of the spectrum and we’re working to get to the other. . . . This is a big step for us and we look forward to it.”