The Irish Trojan’s Blog reminds us that this isn’t the first time Mother Nature has messed with the Pac 10.
Six years ago, a University of California school from the Pac-10 was one win away from a trip to college football’s national-championship game, but was tripped up at the last possible moment by a non-conference game that had been rescheduled from September due to a hurricane. The threat of Hurricane Georges postponed the UCLA-Miami game from Sept. 26 to Dec. 5, and the then-#2-ranked Bruins missed out on a trip to the Fiesta Bowl because they lost 49-45 on the last day of the regular season.
This year, another September hurricane helped keep another highly ranked University of California school from the Pac-10 out of a big-time bowl game. Mighty Ivan delayed the non-conference showdown between Cal and Southern Miss from Sept. 16 to Dec. 4, and although the #4-ranked Berkeley Bears didn’t wind up losing on the last day of the season, like the Bruins did in 1998, they did “struggle” — if a 26-16 win (which should have been 33-16) on the road against a bowl-bound team can really be described as “struggling” — and it cost them a Rose Bowl berth, as poll voters rebelled and gave the BCS edge to Texas.