page_title: 2009 Sun Bowl
section_title: Team selection
hierarchical_section_title: 2009 Sun Bowl / Team selection
caption_attribution_description: Aerial view of Sun Bowl Stadium on the campus of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP).
context_page_description: The 2009 Brut Sun Bowl game was the 76th edition of the annual college football bowl game known as the Sun Bowl. The Oklahoma Sooners defeated the Stanford Cardinal 31–27 on December 31, 2009. It was the two teams' fifth meeting. The game featured two conference tie-ins: the University of Oklahoma represented the Big 12 Conference and Stanford University represented the Pacific-10 Conference. The game was played at the Sun Bowl Stadium on the University of Texas at El Paso campus in El Paso, Texas.
  The game featured Stanford's 13th-ranked offense including Toby Gerhart, a Heisman finalist who led the NCAA Division I FBS subdivision with 1,736 rushing yards and 26 touchdowns, against the seventh-ranked Oklahoma defense. The Stanford offense averaged over 440 yards per game while the Oklahoma defense had held its opponents to an average of 273 yards per game. This was the first time the two teams played each other in a bowl game. They had faced each other 4 previous times in the regular season with Oklahoma holding a 3–1 advantage. The last contest played by the schools was a 19–7 victory in Norman, Oklahoma by the Sooners in 1984.
context_section_description: By contract, the Sun Bowl Association—which produced the game—possessed the third pick from the Pacific-10 Conference. With that pick, the Sun Bowl selected Stanford over Oregon State, as both teams had been in a three-way tie for second place in the conference with Arizona (whom the Holiday Bowl selected with the second pick from the Pac-10).
  In 2005, The Sun Bowl and the Gator Bowl agreed to a four-year contract to alternate bids starting with the 2007 game which would prevent repetitive matchups. The Gator Bowl would be allowed to take the Big East's number two team or the Big 12 number three team; however, each conference would have two bids each to the Gator and Sun Bowls over the four years. Since the Gator Bowl had taken a Big 12 team the previous two years, the Sun Bowl was obligated to take a Big 12 team this year. In the Big 12, the Sun Bowl had the fifth pick, following the Alamo Bowl. When the Alamo Bowl chose Texas Tech, the Sun Bowl then selected Oklahoma.
caption: Sun Bowl Stadium, the site of the game.
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