WSU says 'yes' to Holiday Bowl

Washington State yesterday accepted an invitation to play in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego on Dec. 30.

Barring an upset by Kansas State over Oklahoma in Saturday's Big 12 championship game, Nebraska (9-3, 5-3) is the Cougars' likely opponent.

The foe won't be announced until Sunday; Kansas State, Oklahoma State and Texas presently are other possible opponents.

WSU (9-3, 6-2) accepted the Holiday Bowl invitation after being released by the Bowl Championship Series yesterday as a possible Rose Bowl team. The Cougars dropped one spot to No. 16 in yesterday's BCS rankings.

The Cougars have clinched at least second place in the Pac-10; the No. 2 Pac-10 team is slotted to the Holiday Bowl unless it goes to one of the four BCS bowls.

"We're obviously very excited to accept the bid," said WSU athletic director Jim Sterk, whose coach, Bill Doba, was named Pac-10 co-coach of the year yesterday with USC's Pete Carroll.

WSU already has orders for its initial allotment of 11,500 tickets and has asked for 2,000 more. Tickets for the 5 p.m. kickoff also are available through San Diego-area outlets.

The various ticket outlets in the Northwest and San Diego are www.pacificlifeholidaybowl.com, www.ticketmaster.com, www.ticketswest.com, Tickets West (1-800-325-SEAT) or the San Diego Ticketmaster office (1-619-220-8497).

The last Holiday Bowl sellout at 66,000-seat Qualcomm Stadium was in 2000 when Texas played Oregon.

Notes

• Sterk said he and Doba are going to "sit down in the future" and discuss the coach's contract.

Sterk pointed out, "That's why we have incentives in his contract — so he can perform like this and get compensated for it."

• The Cougars lost the 1981 Holiday Bowl 38-36 to Brigham Young. Doba coached outside linebackers on the 1979 Indiana team that beat BYU 38-37.

Craig Smith: 206-464-8279 or csmith@seattletimes.com