Gazette-Times Reporter

SAN FRANCISCO — Both teams involved in the Emerald Bowl and the game officials used the same word to describe the matchup.

It was called intriguing for several reasons.

The sixth annul game pits first-time opponents against each other, from major conferences that rarely clash.

The Oregon State football team of the Pacific-10 Conference faces Maryland out the Atlantic Coast Conference this evening at AT&T Park.

“I love it,” OSU coach Mike Riley said of the matchup. “That’s why these games are tremendous. It’s West Coast and East Coast coming together, and we’ve never played this team.”

That was the Emerald Bowl plan, according to executive director Gary Cavalli.

Of the 32 bowl games this is the only one that put together the Pac-10 and ACC. The Emerald Bowl has a contract for that matchup through 2009.

The bowl game started out with the Mountain West vs. Big East in the early years, but Cavalli wanted the Pac-10 in the game to help raise the game’s profile and revenue.

“We started talking in 2004 about what to do,” Cavalli said. “We thought it would be nice to put together an east vs. west matchup, but the Mountain West just doesn’t bring as many fans as the Pac-10.

“So we decided early on to try and get the Pac-10 here.”

The Emerald Bowl missed out on the Pac-10 the first two years of their agreement in 2004 and 2005 because a school from the conference wasn’t available when it was the Emerald Bowl’s turn to select participants.

Last year Cavalli got his bowl moved up on the Pac-10 pecking order from the sixth pick to fourth or fifth because of a deal with the ACC. That matchup intrigued both conferences.

The ACC liked the idea of sending a team west and Boston College and Virginia Tech gave the other schools positive reviews when they came out as members of the Big East.

“Our business plan is that a Pac-10 team like Oregon State will sell 8-10,000 tickets and bring a good group,” Cavalli said. “The ACC team will provide the matchup that will excite the Bay Area football fans so they want to come to the game and excite the TV audience so they will want to watch.”

Last year it worked to perfection with UCLA and Florida State. The game was the first sellout with 40,184 in attendance.

It’s working again this year with more than 32,000 fans expected, Cavalli said. That would be the second-largest crowd in the bowl’s history.

The product on the field creates interesting fodder leading up to kickoff. What is better, West Coast football or East Coast football?

“It makes it very exciting,” Maryland defensive lineman Dre Moore said. “In the ACC, we see the same plays week in and week out. It’s just a different dressing with different people, but it’s the same thing each week.

“When we play Oregon State, it’s going to be very different. They are solid all the way around with their speed. We are going to have to bring our A-game.”

Maryland features a power running game with two standout ball carriers in Keon Littimore and Lance Ball. The Terrapins then try to balance the offense with the pass.

The Beavers try to pass first then balance the offense with the run. This year wrinkles to the offense have been added with the outside running speed of wide receiver James Rodgers.

“People have thought there is a difference in styles from the sides of the country,” Riley said. “I’ve thought there isn’t. There’s people who throw more in the east and people who run more on the west.

“There’s the reputation that the Pac-10 is basketball on grass, and it’s not like that anymore. It’s just an intriguing matchup because it’s two teams from two different conferences that rarely see each other.”

And because of this being the first meeting both Riley and Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen say the unknown quickly turns intrigue into worry.

“It’s like playing Missouri (in the Sun Bowl last year),” Riley said. “We knew what they did by watching film, but then you see it on the field and you go, ‘Oh my goodness.’ So it will be interesting to see how we match up. We got some stuff we think is going to work, but when you get to the game it might not.”