Give Me San Franciso Any Day

... At least compared to El Paso.

I am hearing quite alot of static from some members of Beaver Nation who are disappointed, ney: downright upset that Oregon State got passed up by the Sun Bowl and will play in the Emerald Bowl.

Here's why this seems to be a bitter pill for some:
They are upset that we took third in the conference and seemingly got snubbed by the Sun Bowl. Wrong: We took third, yes... but we didn't get snubbed by the Sun Bowl. The correct answer is that we didn't get invited because we went there last year and the bowl can choose someone else if the same team is in line for year two.

They see the payouts and think we got a raw deal. While the payouts are indeed higher for the Sun Bowl ($1.9 million vs $750K) than for the Emerald it doesn't really matter. The payouts are convoluted at best. They basically serve as a barometer for how much you can spend on the game, getting the band there, etc. The proceeds from each bowl go into a communal pot. From there each team gets a slice. Even lowly Stanford and Washington get to share in the spoils of USC, ASU, OSU etc...

There are a bunch of reasons we really should be happy about the Emerald Bowl. Here are a few:
SF is obviously closer to Oregon and our fan base. To date 5,000 of our 11,000 tickets have already been sold. By contrast, the U of O will be lucky to sell 2,000 by kickoff (unless Nike buys up a bunch).
Northern CA is alot closer to any potential recruits that might be considering Oregon State. Trust me... there are many kids in El Paso we are after.

Last but not least... "Been there, done that." Do we really want to go to the same bowl two years in a row?

Bring on Maryland.

... getting to El Paso is MUCH harder.
Be thankful, buy those tickets to SF and see you at the game.