page_title: 2012 Alamo Bowl
section_title: Teams
hierarchical_section_title: 2012 Alamo Bowl / Teams
caption_attribution_description: Alamodome, San Antonio
context_page_description: The 2012 Valero Alamo Bowl, the 20th edition of the game, was a postseason college football bowl game between the Texas Longhorns and the Oregon State Beavers at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, held on December 29, 2012 at 5:45 p.m. CST and was broadcast on ESPN. The game was the final contest of the 2012 NCAA Division I-Football Bowl Subdivision football season for both teams, and ended in a 31–27 victory for Texas. Texas represented the Big 12 Conference in the game, while Oregon State represented the Pac-12 Conference.
  Texas was selected as a participant in the 2012 Alamo Bowl following an 8–4 regular season, during which they won their first four games before losing two games. Texas then won four straight games before losing the final two contests of the season. Facing the Longhorns were the Oregon State Beavers with a regular season record of 9–3, highlighted with wins against two top–25 teams in a six-game winning streak to start the season, including then-No. 13 Wisconsin. However, the Beavers lost three of their final six games.
  The first half of the game featured a dominant performance by Oregon State.
context_section_description: The Alamo Bowl had contracts with the Big 12 and Pac-12 Conferences that allowed them to select one team from each conference to participate in their annual game. By virtue of being the Big 12 champion, the Kansas State Wildcats were awarded an automatic Bowl Championship Series (BCS) bowl berth; they would play in the 2013 Fiesta Bowl. Although the Oklahoma Sooners finished the season as Big 12 co–champions and qualified for selection in a BCS bowl berth, they were not selected for at-large positions in the Fiesta Bowl or the Sugar Bowl. No. 4 Oregon and No. 3 Florida took the at-large BCS positions, respectively. As a result, Oklahoma was selected to play in the Cotton Bowl. This caused Texas, ranked third in the conference at the end of the season, to be selected to play in the Alamo Bowl.
  Oregon State finished fourth in the Pac-12 at the end of the season. As Pac-12 champion, the Stanford Cardinal was awarded an automatic invitation to the Rose Bowl after defeating the UCLA Bruins in the 2012 Pac-12 Football Championship Game. Despite not participating in the conference championship because of its loss to Stanford, Oregon was selected to fill the at-large position in the BCS. UCLA was instead selected to play in the 2012 Holiday Bowl. This left Oregon State, the only remaining ranked team in the Pac-12 conference, to be selected to play in the Alamo Bowl.
  On December 2, 2012, Texas and Oregon State accepted invitations to play in the 20th edition of the Alamo Bowl on December 29, 2012. The Longhorns and Beavers have faced each other twice, in 1980 and in 1987; Texas won both games. In the first meeting, the Texas team shut out Oregon State, 35–0; in the second meeting, Texas won 61–16. The bowl game will be Oregon State's 15th bowl game, with their last being a 20–44 loss to the BYU Cougars in the 2009 Las Vegas Bowl. The game will be Texas' 51st bowl appearance, which is second-most in the nation. Texas has played in the Alamo Bowl once before, when they defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes 26–24 in the 2006 Alamo Bowl.
caption: The Alamodome is the site of the 2012 Alamo Bowl.
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