Cliff Kirkpatrick

There are about 700 tickets left for Oregon State’s football game with Washington on Saturday in the 45,674-seat Reser Stadium.

The Beavers average a crowd of 41,739 through the first five home games, and that number will go up after this game.

Only DT Brennan Olander (back) remains out of practice of the active players who are injured. He claims he’ll be ready.

CB Brandon Hardin (finger), WR Damola Adeniji (thigh) and S Anthony Watkins (shoulder) went full speed in practice.

BCS Banter
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(AP) — The Pac-10 is ranked first in four of the six computers used by the Bowl Championship Series. It ranks third, behind the Southeastern Conference and Big East, in the other two computers.

This is a nice boost for the conference’s pride, but it may not mean much when BCS pairings are announced on Dec. 6.

The Pac-10 is hoping to land an at-large berth, worth $4.5 million to the conference. If it doesn’t, look for renewed debate about whether the conference should drop its round-robin format and go to an eight-game conference schedule.

That would allow teams to add a fourth nonconference game, and most would likely schedule an easy victory at home. Goodbye, USC. Hello, UAB.

The way some coaches see it, the round-robin format guarantees Pac-10 members a total of five extra losses, and they worry that those losses diminish the conference’s bowl prospects.

“The fact of the matter is, you’re adding five losses to the conference that other conferences avoid,” said UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel, whose Bruins played at Tennessee and against Kansas State this season and won. “You can look at the nonconference schedules in the Big Ten and the SEC, and you can realize that they aren’t asking very much of those teams on a weekly basis. That’s not the case in the Pac-10.”

Of course, if the Pac-10 didn’t play such demanding schedules, it might not rank so high in the BCS computers.

Oregon State coach Mike Riley likes the idea of settling the conference title on the field.

“I think it’s fair,” Riley said. “I think we come up with the right way to decide the conference championship. At the same time, it hurts us. We beat each other up.”

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The Oregon State football team came out of Saturday’s game without any serious injuries. There were a few dings, but nothing that will take anyone out of much of practice, if any.

• DT Brennan Olander had back spasams, which is why he didn’t play much in the second half of the game.
  CB Brandon Hardin dislocated a little finger.
  CB James Dockery sprained an ankle.
  WR Damola Adeniji bruised a thigh.

Backup S Anthony Watkins will be back to practice this week.

Coach Mike Riley was asked Sunday about a media suggestion that this year’s team has the least amount of talent since he has been coaching at OSU. Riley laughed.

“We have really good talent,” he said. “We couldn’t win these games without good talent. We can put our team talent-wise up against anybody.”

At the polls
The Beavers entered the BCS rankings at No. 23. They are still outside of the top 25 polls. They are No. 26 in the AP Poll, 12 votes behind Stanford, and No. 28 in the coaches’ poll, also behind Stanford at No. 27.

That’s odd since OSU beat the Cardinal. Yes, I know Stanford wiped the field with Oregon on Saturday, but head-to-head should carry a lot of weight.

And of course USC is ranked higher than Oregon. And the Ducks beat up on the Trojans.

“That’s not right,” Riley said. “Something is missing there. We have to put up with that stuff right now. At the end of the year it will be closer to what it should be.”

The Pac-10 has come together as a competitive conference from one through nine. Usually, it’s USC and a small group of secondary teams and a small group of sure wins.

“It’s awesome,” Riley said. “It’s what I thought about it from the beginning. You give SC its due at the beginning of the year, and then there’s a lot of good teams. We are pretty close. We won’t do this because our records aren’t that good. But we should have six teams in the top 25.”

Lines
To go along with how unpredictable the season has been, the Beavers open up as 10-point favorites over this week’s opponent, Washington. The Huskies beat USC and Arizona, two teams that defeated OSU.

Here’s a link to my Monday story in the GT on the Beavers getting ready for another one of their strong finishes.

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The Oregon State football team practiced in the indoor facility Thursday instead of the stadium, and it wasn’t even raining. Coach Mike Riley moved it inside due to wind.

“We are not going to be playing in any elements this week,” he said of Saturday’s game at Cal.

The only problem with the setup was the Beavers couldn’t practice with the stadium noise piped in. It’s a Thursday tradition, started off of a winning streak back in 2004.

“We’ll be all right,” Riley said. “And, no I’m not superstitious.”

The dinged up players returned full force with C Alex Linnenkohl (sick), who should start. CB Tim Clark (concussion) returned to practice after being out all week.

Riley said Clark won’t start, but Brandon Hardin will. “Hardin is probably going to start,” he said. “Tim has missed so much this week, that’s what’s going to happen.”

That’s not the case with Linnenkohl because he’s more of an experienced player, Riley said, and will step back into his role easily with one practice and a walkthrough. If he can’t go Ryan Pohl will take his place.

S Suaesi Tuimaunei worked in with the first string for Lance Mitchell, who has been slowed by a leg injury.

“Lance is gimpy,” Riley said. “He was late coming out today to get treatment. He’ll be all right and play in the game.”

Freshman RB Ashton Jefferson, who is redshirting, has been out recovering from a broken bone in his left foot. He should be back for spring practice. “I don’t think he’ll practice again this year,” Riley said.

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