COSTA MESA — You can cheer, schmooze, even write fan letters, but sometimes getting Rose Bowl football teams and fans to spend a chunk of an estimated $100 million in Orange County comes down to luck.

The Westin South Coast Plaza hotel, for example, has booked nearly all of its 390 rooms during the traditionally slow week between Christmas and New Year's for Big Ten winner Ohio State's football team and their families, friends and Ohio media. Though the Westin no doubt helped itself by wooing the Buckeyes all season long, ultimately this year's booking seems to have turned on superstition.

Two years ago, the Buckeyes defeated Fresno State in the Disneyland Pigskin Classic and guess where they slept?

"We won staying at the Westin two years ago," said Larry Petroff, director of football operations for Ohio State, which plays Arizona State University in the Rose Bowl. "We didn't want to jinx ourselves."

Through hard work and a lucky break or two, Orange County hotels, shops and restaurants expect to reap millions of dollars from the Buckeyes and their fans, who have booked five-day stays in at least seven local establishments.

The main beneficiary seems to be Newport Beach, where booster clubs, Buckeye faithful and high school marching bands performing in the Tournament of Roses Parade have reserved more than 2,500 of the city's 2,600 hotel rooms. Playing host to the bowl-bound visitors in Newport Beach are the Four Seasons Hotel, the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel and Tennis Club, the Hyatt Newporter, the Sutton Place Hotel, the Sheraton Hotel Newport Beach and the Marriott Suites Newport Beach.

"If we didn't have the Rose Bowl business again this year, occupancy would definitely be down during this slow time of year," said the Westin's marketing director, Bonnie Best, who expects the Costa Mesa hotel to take in more than $200,000 during Rose Bowl week. "This is really fun business, and we are glad to get it."

Because main alumni groups for both universities will be staying in the Los Angeles area, locals probably won't notice the football hoopla quite as much as last year, when bowl-starved Northwestern University fans packed the Westin and staged a pre-bowl pep rally that drew an estimated 10,000. Two years ago, the Athletic Department from Big Ten winner Penn State also headquartered at the Westin.