Two Unlikely Teams Find Themselves on Center Stage

After a 25-game undercard, the Bowl Championship Series games finally kick off Tuesday afternoon in Pasadena, Calif. The Rose Bowl preserved its traditional Pac-10/ Big Ten pairing by inviting Illinois, but do the Illini really deserve the bid? Then it's on to the Sugar Bowl, where the ultimate BCS party-crasher, Hawaii, faces Georgia of the SEC. Hawaii and traditional bowl games go together about as well as former Warriors defensive coordinator Jerry Glanville's Aloha shirt and his belt buckle. Still, Hawaii and its runand-shoot attack paired against a traditional power from a premier conference provides one of the most intriguing matchups of the entire bowl season.

Rose Bowl at Pasadena, Calif.
No. 13 Illinois (9–3) vs. No. 7 USC (10–2) January 1, 4:30 p.m., ABC

The Rose Bowl was the last holdout to the formation of the BCS, and it'll likely be the last holdout to whatever comes next in postseason college football. One gets the sense that the Tournament of Roses officials sold a little piece of their souls to join the BCS — casting aside a 50-year relationship with the Big Ten and Pac-10 in the process — and have been regretting it ever since.

So it should come as no surprise that the Rose grabbed Illinois to match against Pac-10 champ USC as soon as the Illini became available. While much of the college football world assumes Illinois has no business playing in the game — at nearly two touchdowns, the Illini are the biggest underdog of the entire bowl calendar —Ron Zook's club would beg to differ. Coming off a 2–10 season in 2006, they finished 9–3, including a pair of wins over teams that were rank in the top five at the time of the game.

The first of those wins, over fifth-ranked Wisconsin in October, put Illinois on the map. The second, a road shocker over no. 1 Ohio State on November 10, served notice regarding Illinois for 2008 and appeared to knock the Buckeyes from the nationaltitle picture. But the season-long wave of upsets continued over the season's final two weekends, elevating Ohio State back to the top of the polls and opening up a spot in Pasadena for Illinois.

Illinois can only hope this trip is more pleasant than its last appearance — a 45–9 loss to UCLA in 1984. In order for that to be the case, Zook will have to hope his offense, led by tailback Rashard Mendenhall, can put together the kind of clock-eating drives that salted away the Ohio State game, while also opening things up for quarterback Juice Williams to occasionally throw downfield.

Still, if USC plays up to its capability, it might not matter what Illinois does. Pete Carroll's team is so chock-full of five-star talent that people tend not to give it any sort of a pass for injuries, but the Trojans might well be playing for the national title had starting quarterback John David Booty not broken a finger in their shocking loss to Stanford.

The 2005 national title game loss to Texas aside, the Trojans tend to take care of business in January, even when they're not playing for the crystal football, so Illinois should not expect anything less than USC's best effort.

Sugar Bowl at New Orleans

No. 10 Hawaii (12–0) vs. No. 5 Georgia (10–2) January 1, 8:30 p.m., FOX

Simply by achieving an invite to the Sugar Bowl, Hawaii has already won. The nation's most isolated program will benefit from the BCS payday they receive for years to come, as it means improved facilities and a higher profile from which to lure recruits to the islands. But Hawaii isn't traveling 4,000 miles to New Orleans simply to serve as the Washington Generals to Georgia's Globetrotters. June Jones's players believe they can win, that their defense is athletic enough to slow down Georgia, and that a healthy Colt Brennan can pick apart any defense, even one loaded with SEC talent.

Few teams were hotter than Georgia at the end of the year. After getting embarrassed at Tennessee in early October, the Bulldogs reeled off six straight wins to close the regular season, the last five by double-digit margins. That Tennessee loss kept Georgia out of the SEC and national title games, even after all the late-season wackiness. Coach Mark Richt would like for his players to believe they were snubbed and play with the resultant chip on their shoulder. It was that collective edge, shown in a group celebration of a touchdown against Florida, that carried Georgia over the season's second half. The Bulldogs can't afford to get passive against a dangerous underdog that has nothing to lose.

This game represents the biggest opportunity for Hawaii to prove itself that it is ever likely to have. The Warriors have had showcase games in the past — they opened the 2006 season with an eight-point loss at Alabama, and they are scheduled to play at Florida next fall — but a win here would validate both Brennan's career and Jones's offensive philosophy. A blowout loss risks seeing Brennan's achievements dismissed as merely the product of a system, and seeing the system itself dismissed as a gimmick.

Hawaii must get off to good start to prevent Georgia from simply pounding running back Knowshon Moreno at the line all night. The Warriors have a very athletic, aggressive defense, and they will likely pack the box and dare quarterback Matthew Stafford to beat them. If they can force Georgia to play from behind, they can minimize the effectiveness of the Georgia running game without really having to stop it. If the game becomes a shootout, it's advantage Hawaii.

Mr. Levine is a writer for FootballOutsiders.com.