SAN DIEGO - Along with the high scores and wild finishes, the trips to the zoo and Sea World, there is another more recent Holiday Bowl tradition of note.

And that tradition? Teams that really wanted to be elsewhere this time of year - namely, Bowl Championship Series contenders bounced by a late-season loss or an inexplicable snub - usually end up having their lack of enthusiasm exposed for all to see.

Just ask Mack Brown, who leads No. 17 Texas (9-3) against No. 12 Arizona State (10-2) tonight at Qualcomm Stadium in the 30th Holiday Bowl.

That's because it was a Brown-coached Texas team that appears to have started the trend.

In 2003, the Longhorns entered December thinking they were BCS locks. But No. 1 Oklahoma's shocking loss to Kansas State in the Big 12 title game changed all that, leaving Texas on the outside looking in.

The Longhorns wound up carrying their disappointment all the way to San Diego, where they were stunned 28-20 by Washington State.

"It was really interesting - we had great practices up until (two days before) that game out here, and then Thursday's practice just stunk," Brown recalls. "It was like they just gave out. They wanted to go to the Fiesta Bowl. They wanted to play Ohio State. They thought they deserved that right.

"I never saw a practice as bad as that Thursday. I should have just had them stop and go back over and say, 'What in the world is going on here? You've already gone home.' "

The following season, it was once-beaten California that missed out on the Rose Bowl when the BCS chose Texas. Dropped to the Holiday Bowl, the Bears were steamrolled by Texas Tech 45-31. In 2005, BCS bridesmaid Oregon, also with only one loss, fell to Oklahoma 17-14.

Could history be on the verge of repeating? This year, it's Arizona State which enters the game with a perceived reason to gripe. The Sun Devils had hoped their strong record would be enough to get them into the hometown Fiesta Bowl, and it might well have been had Hawaii not staged a remarkable comeback on the last day of the regular season to force its way in.

Have any ill feelings lingered?

"Missing a BCS bowl kind of sucks," admitted Sun Devils linebacker Travis Goethel, a Vista High alumnus. "But we're going to play a good opponent and we're still in a good bowl."

Texas also enters tonight's game with cause to be a little miffed - just more at itself than the system.

Two years removed from their national title run, the Longhorns appeared to be in the conversation for a BCS berth until a season-ending upset loss at the hands of archrival Texas A&M.

Since their arrival, both the Longhorns and Sun Devils have been saying all the right things, with folksy coaches Brown and Dennis Erickson dishing out platitudes at every opportunity. Nice weather. Well-run bowl. Beautiful city.

BCS? What BCS?

On Wednesday, the Sun Devils' Erickson was asked how long his team dwelled on the snub.

"About two seconds," he said. "I've said many times that Missouri is the team that got snubbed. We didn't deserve to be in a BCS bowl, to be honest with you. We had two chances to get ourselves in (losses to Oregon and USC) and we didn't take advantage of them."

And Texas?

"We've got to get back to work so we can go out and get our 10th win," said running back Jamaal Charles.

If motivation is not an issue, this matchup of two teams that were in the national spotlight for much of the year appears to be one of the most intriguing Holiday Bowl pairings in a while.

The game features two notable quarterbacks in Arizona State's third-year junior starter Rudy Carpenter, who has come into his own as one of the best passers in the Pac-10, and highly-touted Texas sophomore Colt McCoy.

Plus, both teams allowed late-season defensive numbers that seem to indicate a high-scoring affair is in the offing - a longstanding theme with this game.

Now back to that more recent one.

"We're happy we're in the Holiday Bowl," Carpenter insisted. "We're looking forward to playing Texas."

Holiday Bowl history indicates they'll need to be.

- Contact staff writer Michael Klitzing at mrklitzing@gmail.com.