Terrelle Pryor

Last week, we shared a Blog on the various Pac-10 Rose Bowl scenarios. Our line was “We would never want to be accused of putting the cart in front of the horse.”

We don’t have to worry about carts and horses any more, though. Ohio State is going to the Rose Bowl.

We can look fully to the West Coast to figure out who the Buckeyes will be playing in the Rose Bowl, set for Fri., Jan. 1, 2010, at 5 p.m. (ABC).

Five Pac-10 teams went into Saturday with hope of reaching Pasadena. Those ranks were thinned by one as USC got drilled at home by Stanford 55-21. There will be no Ohio State-USC rematch in Pasadena.

That leaves four teams still in the Run for the Roses on the Pac-10 side. They are Oregon (8-2, 6-1 Pac-10), Stanford (7-3, 6-2), Oregon State (7-3, 5-2) and Arizona (6-3, 4-2).

Two of those teams – No. 11 Oregon and No. 20 Oregon State – continue to hold their destiny for the Rose Bowl in their own hands.

Oregon sits alone in first place with two conference games left If Oregon can win at Arizona this Saturday and defeat rival Oregon State at home on Dec. 3, the Ducks will be headed to Pasadena.

Likewise, if Oregon State can win a pair of road games at Washington State and Oregon, the Beavers would be the Pac-10 representative to the Rose Bowl.

Arizona lost its margin for error with its 24-16 loss at California. The Wildcats must win out with games at home against Oregon and at Arizona State and USC and would also need both Oregon and Oregon State to lose another game.

No. 14 Stanford must also win its final Pac-10 game against California to get to 7-2 and have a shot at the Rose Bowl. The Cardinal would then likely need losses by Oregon, Oregon State and Arizona to reach the Rose Bowl. That would set up a first-place tie with Stanford and Oregon and Stanford won that head-to-head match-up.

In terms of Oregon, Ohio State is 7-0 all-time against Oregon. That includes a 10-7 win over the Ducks in the 1958 Rose Bowl. The last meeting was in 1987 in Columbus (24-14 OSU win).

OSU is 3-1 all-time against Arizona. The last meeting was at Tucson in 2007 (27-17 OSU win).

The smart money right now is on Oregon, but this Pac-10 season has proven that anything is possible.

Here are the schedules for the Pac-10 contenders:

Oregon (8-2, 6-1) – Nov. 21, at Arizona; Dec. 3, Oregon State.

Stanford (7-3, 6-2) – Nov. 21, California; Nov. 28, Notre Dame.

Oregon State (7-3, 5-2) -- Nov. 21, at Washington State; Dec. 3, at Oregon.

Arizona (6-3, 4-2) – Nov. 21, Oregon; Nov. 28, at Arizona State; Dec. 5, at USC.