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Oregon gets rematch with Colorado The Associated Press PORTLAND -- Three years after being embarrassed by Colorado in the Cotton Bowl, Oregon has a rematch. The Ducks (8-3) on Sunday accepted a bid to play the Buffaloes (7-4) in the Aloha Bowl in Honolulu on Christmas Day. The game, which kicks off at 12:30 p.m. PST and will be televised by ABC, is the undercard of college football's first postseason doubleheader. Air Force (11-1) plays Washington (6-5) in the Oahu Classic at 8:30 p.m. Oregon, ranked No. 21 in the latest Associated Press poll, is riding an unprecedented wave of success. A drought of 25 seasons without a bowl ended in 1989 with a win over Tulsa in the Independence Bowl. Since then, Oregon has been to six bowl games in nine seasons, including a loss to Penn State in the 1995 Rose Bowl. The following year, coach Mike Bellotti took what may have been his best Oregon team to the Cotton Bowl, where Rick Neuheisel's Buffaloes trampled the Ducks, 38-6. "We're excited about the opportunity to play Colorado," Bellotti said Sunday night. "We would like to settle the score." Oregon fans may wonder how their team, which has one of the highest-scoring offenses in the country and a first-round NFL prospect in quarterback Akili Smith, wound up in the Aloha Bowl, considered relatively low on the postseason pecking order. The Ducks actually were invited to the Holiday Bowl to play Nebraska, but under the condition that UCLA, ranked No. 2 in the Bowl Championship Series rankings and headed for the national championship game at the Fiesta Bowl, beat Miami on Saturday. UCLA lost to the Hurricanes 49-45, and the Bruins had to "settle" for the Rose Bowl, which they had clinched earlier in the season. The aftershocks of the defeat knocked Arizona, which had never been to a Rose Bowl, to the Holiday Bowl. Oregon, with a reputation for bringing large numbers of fans to bowl games, seemed in line for the Sun Bowl. But when the Ducks accepted the Holiday's conditional invite, the Sun took Southern Cal (8-4), even though the Trojans lost to Oregon. "Any bowl that does that loses out by not having Oregon, because we travel so well, and they know we're going to score points and put people in the stands," Bellotti said. Missing out on the Holiday Bowl was particularly tough for Smith and receiver Tony Hartley, both of whom are from San Diego. It will also hurt Oregon's recruiting efforts in California, Bellotti said. "But the exposure on Christmas Day in Hawaii will be awesome," Bellotti said. "It's nice for some of our seniors to go to Hawaii. It's a great payoff for them." The Ducks, still smarting from their season-ending 44-41 double-overtime loss to intrastate rival Oregon State, are anxious for another chance at the Buffaloes, even though few players remain from the 1995 team. "I asked a show of hands from those who played in that game, and I was surprised that there weren't very many," said Bellotti. ``I think the biggest thing is just to secure a ninth win, and get the taste of the Oregon State game out of our mouths." Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford,