Florida State will play UCLA in Emerald Bowl

Florida State is headed to San Francisco for the first time, to take on UCLA in the Emerald Bowl.

The Seminoles (6-6) play UCLA for the first time on Dec. 27 at AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants.

Bowl season gets off to a running start Dec. 19 when the nation's leading rusher -- Northern Illinois' Garrett Wolfe -- goes against one of the best run defenses in TCU in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego.

No. 21 California accepted an invitation to play in the Holiday Bowl for the second time in three seasons. The Golden Bears, 8-3 going into Saturday's rivalry game against Stanford, will play a Big 12 team, likely to be No. 22 Texas A&M, on Dec. 28 in San Diego.

Oregon State (8-4), the only team to beat Southern California this season, agreed to play in the Sun Bowl. The Beavers will face either Missouri or the second-place team from the Big East on Dec. 29 in El Paso, Texas.

Dirk Koetter, fired Sunday by Arizona State, will coach his team against No. 24 Hawaii (10-2) in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl on Dec. 24. Koetter was fired after the Sun Devils (7-5) beat Arizona.

Oregon (7-5) will play Brigham Young (10-2) in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 21.

In addition to Northern Illinois, two other Mid-American Conference teams were picked for bowls, as well as three teams from Conference USA.

From the MAC:

• Western Michigan (8-4) will play in the inaugural International Bowl in Toronto on Jan. 6.
• Central Michigan (8-4) will play in the Motor City Bowl on Dec. 26,

From C-USA:

• Tulsa (8-4) will play Utah (7-5) of the Mountain West Conference in the Armed Forces Bowl on Dec. 23.
• Rice (7-5) will make its first bowl appearance since 1961 when the Owls play in the New Orleans Bowl on Dec. 22.
• East Carolina (7-5) accepted a bid to play in the first PapaJohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., on Dec. 23.

Southern Mississippi and Houston will play Friday for the C-USA championship -- the winner goes to the Liberty Bowl and the loser heads to the GMAC Bowl.

Also, San Jose State will play New Mexico in the New Mexico Bowl on Dec. 23.