In 2005, Oregon had success behind senior quarterback

Kellen Clemens Kellen Vincent Clemens (born June 7, 1983) is a former American football quarterback who spent eleven seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the New York Jets in the second round of the 2006 NFL Draft. He played colle ...

and a new spread offense. During a game at Arizona, Clemens suffered a broken ankle. At that point Oregon was 8-1 (their only loss was to #1 ranked USC 45-13, the loss was vacated in 2010), and still in the hunt for a BCS game. Oregon won their final three games and their success led them into contention for a bid to the Fiesta Bowl. The Ducks finished the regular season with a 10-1 record, their best finish since their

Joey Harrington John Joseph Harrington Jr. (born October 21, 1978) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons, primarily with the Detroit Lions. He played college football at Oregon, where he wa ...

-led,

Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area. From its beginning in 1971 until 2006, the game was hosted at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has been playe ...

-winning 2001–2002 team. They finished 5th overall in the BCS ranking system, which would in many years have been high enough to earn them a bid to a

BCS Bowl The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of American college football, including ...

. In 2005, however, there were no at-large bids available to Oregon.

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

finished just ahead of the Ducks, in 4th place, guaranteeing them one of the at-large berths (although they had an inferior 10-2 record). Notre Dame finished 6th in the BCS, also securing a BCS bid due to a pre-existing clause in the BCS contract. Many college football fans were outraged that two teams with worse records were selected over the Ducks. Moreover, for the second consecutive year, the Pac-10 conference had a team that finished with a one-loss season snubbed by the BCS (the

Cal Bears The California Golden Bears are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as ''California'' or ''Cal'', the university fields 30 varsity athletic programs and various club te ...

finished 10-1 in 2004). It was later demonstrated that Oregon drew the highest bowl ratings in college football, calling the argument that TV ratings hurt the Ducks' BCS chances into question. The situation (and others like it in recent years) has led to more calls for a playoff system to replace the BCS, which has received widespread criticism from college football fans. Instead of a BCS game, they were assigned to the

2005 Holiday Bowl The 2005 Holiday Bowl was a college football bowl game. The game was held at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego on December 29, 2005, with the Big 12 Conference's 2005 Oklahoma Sooners football team, Oklahoma Sooners defeating the Pac-12 Conference, Pa ...

versus the

Oklahoma Sooners The Oklahoma Sooners are the athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to a nickname given to the early participants in the Land Run ...

. Playing without their starting quarterback, Kellen Clemens, and combined with a strong showing from the Sooners, the Ducks fell in a close game, 17-14.

Before the season

Recruiting

Schedule

Game summaries

Stanford

*Source:''
ESPN

References

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Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

Oregon Ducks football seasons

Oregon Ducks football The Oregon Ducks football program is a college football team for the University of Oregon, located in the U.S. state of Oregon. The team competes at the NCAA Division I level in the FBS and is a member of the Pac-12 Conference (Pac-12). Although ...