How does a Rose Bowl rematch sound?

But can Oregon State still get to the Rose Bowl with a loss?

The answer, drum roll please, is . . . "yes," and we'll explain the tiebreaking procedures after explaining how ticked off the Rose Bowl would be having to stage a rematch game between Oregon State and Penn State.

Penn State already defeated Oregon State once this year, in September, in State College, Pa., by the score of 45-14.

Bowls generally deplore repeats.

Or would the Rose Bowl be upset?

"We don't root for any particular university," Rose Bowl CEO Mitch Dorger said Tuesday. "We have a wonderful arrangement with the Pac-10 and Big Ten to take their champions. We're delighted with whoever comes to us."

And you were expecting Dorger to say . . . what?

There are some interesting issues at play here, though, and whether Oregon State-Penn State II would be awful or awesome depends on your vantage point:

* Penn State: The Nittany Lions would hate this. You never, ever want to have to beat a team twice in the same season. No good can come of it. In 1975, Ohio State clobbered UCLA in the regular season, returned on Jan. 1 as the nation's top-ranked team, only to get shocked by UCLA in the Rose Bowl.

Remember John Sciarra to Wally Henry?

People back East are calling Rose Bowl headquarters to see if Oregon State can somehow be kept out of Pasadena, not understanding a contractual arrangement that has been in place since 1947.

* Oregon State: The Beavers would love this. Not only would the school dig the chance to get out of Corvallis in late December, get some sun on their pale faces and go on the map-of-the-stars tour, Oregon State would get a chance to avenge an ugly defeat.

* ABC: The Rose Bowl always draws high ratings because of its time slot and captive-audience access to people huddled around televisions wishing they were in Pasadena instead of Peoria.

But let's get serious. USC vs. Penn State, a matchup of potential top-five schools, is worth at least an extra ratings point to the network.

* USC: After appearing (yawn) in three of the last (yawn) five games, the Rose Bowl is probably third (at least) on this year's priority list behind the Bowl Championship Series title game in South Florida on Jan. 8 and a possible Fiesta Bowl pairing against Texas, Oklahoma or Texas Tech.