post 11: Who said *beaver* fans are delusional?

Oregon beat writer for the Register-Guard, Rob Moseley, has carefully delineated the series of impossible events that would have to occur for Oregon to earn the honor of getting pwned by Penn State again in a Rose Bowl.

I have to say I'm impressed, not just because it is theoretically possible for this to happen, but that Rob cared enough to construct the level of Rube Goldberg gyrations such a possibility would require (then again maybe he just has TMTOH):

1. OSU beats Arizona. Kind of depends on which Arizona team shows up. Beavs haven't played all that well on the road -- their only road wins are at UCLA (bad) and Washington (superbad) -- and although they could have beaten Utah with a full game effort, and should have beaten Stanford, the point is they didn't. So, the Cats will be a real test, and I give them maybe a coin-toss chance to win at best. 
   
   
2. Oregon beats OSU. OK, not impossible, it's a rivalry game and all that, but I think it's unlikely given OSU's Team Of Destiny Status.. although it would be sweet and -- if USC pulls in an at-large BCS bid -- I'd be happy to stop here and plan a trip to the Holiday Bowl. Better to be stomped by a third-place Big12 team on ESPN than by the BigTelevEN champ in a BCS marquee game. 
   
   This is where the whole thing becomes less nearfetched..
   
   
3. UCLA, suddenly discovering a hidden cache of actual uninjured Pac-10 quality athletes eligible to play this season, beats ASU, then USC.
   
   
4. Arizona State, finally realizing after its pathetic stomping at the hands of the neuly mighty Bruins that it was supposed to not suck this year, rights its ship and smites Arizona with a mighty blow. Arizona's trustees, forgetting they no longer have basketball to fall back on, get their Irish up and give Mike Stoops a ten-year extension as a reward for all those games they almost won this year.
   
   
5. Cal, completely demoralized after losing a game in Corvallis, suffers a mass mutiny of players, who come to the conclusion that all this has something to do with the tree-huggers being coaxed out of their aerial homes. Trading playbooks for bongos, they form a drum circle on the construction site, stopping both construction work and their season; as a result, the Bears give Ty Willingham a going-away road victory present (albeit sadly removing some of the anti-lustre from the Sour Apple Cup, because wouldn't it be more fun to see two winless teams than one?), then in the Big Game gives the conference a bonus by making Stanford bowl eligible.
   
   
6. Finally, after all that, Oregon would have to find a way to get itself ranked ahead of both OSU and USC in the final BCS standings. This likely requires either USC to lose to Notre Dame (see #3), or some level of fraud at the polls. 

This is about as far from "controlling your own destiny" as you can go.  Somehow, I like the barkrats' chances better this year.