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Oregon Ducks vs Ohio State Buckeyes - Rose Bowl Preview

If the Oregon Ducks think that pressure no longer exists in their universe, they're loud wrong. When the freshly-crowned Pac-10 champions take to the perfectly-manicured and lavishly-decorated lawn of the Rose Bowl on the first day of the new decade, they'll bear as much of a burden as the Ohio State Buckeyes.

When the Ducks and the Bucks gather in the Arroyo Seco for the Granddaddy Of Them All, conference prestige - and the pride of two American regions - will hang in the balance. This colossal collision between Chip Kelly's ultra-modernists from Oregon and Jim Tressel's old-school stalwarts from Ohio State is nothing less than a sports bar silencer, a supreme argument settler for residents of the West Coast and the Upper Midwest.

This game means a great deal to Oregon because, for the first time since 2005, the USC Trojans are not carrying the Pac-10's banner in the shadows of the San Gabriel Mountains that overlook the Rose Bowl stadium. In recent years, a steady stream of Big Ten teams - Michigan twice, Illinois and Penn State once - has come to Pasadena with its eyes fixed on USC, the same team that just swept a regular season home-and-home from Ohio State. Each time, the men of the Midwest have gone home to a cold and snowy winter landscape with the wounds representative of a thorough butt kicking. The prolonged lamentations of Big Ten fans, in the face of USC, had become overwhelming in recent times, and when the Men of Troy won in Columbus on Sept. 12, it seemed quite possible - even probable - that the newest Big Ten champion would have to deal with Pete Carroll's Trojans once again on New Year's Day.

But then a funny thing happened on the way to Pasadena: Oregon happened.

The Ducks, despite their much-reviewed Boise State face-plant on Opening Night, dusted themselves off and crushed USC, 47-20, on Halloween Night in Autzen Stadium. UO then eclipsed Arizona, 44-41, in a late-November classic to stay ahead of the Pac, and finished off the school's first conference crown since 2001 with a 37-33 Civil War win over Oregon State on Dec. 3. Yes, Virginia, there is a Pac-10 champion other than USC, and it's the team that stands in place of the Trojans when Ohio State comes calling on January 1, 2010.

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Oregon 's spot in the Rose Bowl, college football's most revered postseason event, makes Ducks-Bucks a referendum on two leagues and the corners of the country they represent. With USC no longer in the Rose Bowl after a four-year lock on the game, Oregon becomes the new face of the Pac-10 on New Year's Day afternoon in the Arroyo Seco. This gives the Ducks a chance to make a name for themselves on the national stage, but just as importantly, UO's emergence will enable a Big Ten champion to pull into Pasadena free from the looming, haunting questions that have normally surrounded opponents of the Trojans during the Pete Carroll era.

Bragging rights and regional supremacy are on the line in this run for the Roses. If Ohio State wins, people around the nation will say - with considerable justification and logic - that the Pac-10 is still USC and the nine dwarfs, a one-trick-pony whose other schools can't deliver the goods or handle the heat in prime time. If Oregon wins, however, Ohio State's reputation will take a considerable tumble, and the Big Ten will know that its Pasadena problem reaches far beyond one program in a gritty section of Los Angeles.

Yes, yes, we know: The Rose Bowl stadium hosts a remotely important game on Jan. 7, when Texas locks its long Horns with Alabama's Crimson Tide for the (mythical) BCS national championship. Six days earlier, however, the green-shirted Ducks and the white-shirted Bucks will stage a showdown that will propel one side into the sunlight of gridiron glory, and cast a long and interesting shadow over the other. One conference will find a moment of sweet validation, while the other will fade into the darkness brought about by a devastating defeat.

Do the Oregon Ducks think they've escaped pressure as a consequence of their Pac-10 crown? They can't afford to, for if Chip Kelly's kids don't beat the Buckeyes and Mister Sweater Vest, they'll hear only one thing throughout the offseason: They're not USC.

Having just beaten the Trojans, these Oregon athletes need to show the nation they can bash the Big Ten just as forcefully as their conference rival managed to do over the past few seasons.

By Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Staff Writer