By John Shinn
Oklahoma received and accepted a bid to face No. 19 Stanford in the Sun Bowl Dec. 31 in El Paso, Texas. The announcement came at about 3 p.m. Sunday.
"We are excited to invite Stanford University, which has one of the hottest head coaches in the nation in Jim Harbaugh and one of the leading candidates for the Heisman Trophy in Toby Gerhart," Sun Bowl Association football committee chairman John H. Folmer said. "On the other side, how can you ever go wrong with Oklahoma? Everybody in college football would die for an opportunity to have a dynamic head coach like Bob Stoops and Oklahoma play in their bowl game."
The Sun Bowl will mark the fifth time the programs have, but the Sun Bowl meeting will be their first in 25 years.
The Cardinal (8-4, 6-3 Pac-10) finished tied for second in the Pac-10 Conference and is the only school to beat league champion Oregon. This is Stanford's third appearance in El Paso, after winning the 1977 and 1996 Sun Bowls.
The Sooners (7-5, 5-3 Big 12) finished tied for third in the Big 12 Conference south division after upending Oklahoma State, 27-0, Nov. 28. This is OU's third appearance in the Sun Bowl, after winning the 1981 and 1993 Sun Bowls.
"We appreciate the invitation from the Brut Sun Bowl and are anxious to make the trip to El Paso. We look forward to a number of our fans being there as well," OU coach Bob Stoops said. "In Stanford, we are facing a fine program. Like many others, we have been impressed by the job coach Harbaugh and his team have done this season and we understand the quality of the opponent we'll be facing."
The Cardinal is led by senior running back Toby Gerhart, who leads the nation in total rushing yards with 1,736 yards and scoring with 26 rushing touchdowns. Gerhart is a Heisman Trophy candidate and is expected to be a finalist for the award, which will be presented Saturday in New York.
Stanford will be making its 22nd bowl appearance and its first since 2001. The Cardinal are 9-10-1 (.452) in bowl games. This is the Sooners' 43rd bowl appearance and 11th straight under Stoops. The Sooners are 24-17-1 (.600) in bowl games.
CBS (KWTV-9 locally) will broadcast the game for the 42nd consecutive year, which is the longest running partnership between a network and a bowl game. Ticket prices for the game are $15, $20, $30, $40, $50 and $60. Tickets can be purchased at the Sun Bowl Association office (915-533-4416, 800-915-BOWL or ticket@sunbowl.org), online at www.ticketmaster.com or at any TicketMaster outlet.
