Bowl selection: Texas headed to Alamo Bowl to play Oregon State

The Texas Longhorns are headed to the Alamo Bowl and will play Oregon State after North Illinois crashed the BCS party and bumped Oklahoma into the Cotton Bowl.

For the last several days, the Longhorns had appeared set to play in the Cotton Bowl as long as Oklahoma won, but the Huskies will apparently finish high enough in the BCS to earn an at-large bid and a pairing with Florida State in the Orange Bowl.

Perhaps the bigger shocker? The Aggies appeared headed to the Capital One Bowl in recent days, but Georgia ended up there instead, sending A&M to the Cotton Bowl to face none other than Oklahoma.

But back to the Texas match-up -- there was a chance that UCLA could have been the opponent, but reports on Sunday evening had the Bruins staying in California to play Baylor in the Holiday Bowl.

The Beavers had an impressive season, rising from unranked to 15th in the final AP poll with a 9-3 record. Victories over Wisconsin and UCLA highlight the resume, as well as a close contest against Stanford that saw the Cardinal have to rally from a 23-14 3rd-quarter deficit.

So while Oregon State may not appear to be as formidable an opponent as LSU, Georgia, or Texas A&M would have been, Mike Riley is an excellent coach and the Beavers defense that is among the top 20 in the country in S&P+ and defends the pass extremely well.

Texas underestimates them at their own peril.

The Alamo Bowl will be played on Saturday, December 29th at 5:45 pm on ESPN.