Trevone Boykin, Shawn Oakman

TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin was once a Heisman Trophy favorite but now gets to play against Oregon's defense on Jan. 2 in the Alamo Bowl.

(Tony Gutierrez/The Associated Press)

For the second time in three years, Oregon will finish the college football season by playing a Texas team in San Antonio.

In 2013, it was the Texas Longhorns. On Jan. 2, it will be TCU that faces Oregon in the Alamo Bowl in a matchup of programs ranked in the AP preseason poll's top seven that saw their national championship dreams fade after injuries to their star quarterbacks.

The Ducks finished 15th in Sunday's final College Football Playoff standings, while TCU was 11th.

"We always talk about ending the season on an exclamation point instead of a period," UO coach Mark Helfrich said Sunday.

The Ducks are 9-3 and finished second in the Pac-12 after winning six consecutive games thanks, in large part, due to running back Royce Freeman, who with 1,706 rushing yards is 99 away from tying a UO single-season record, and quarterback Vernon Adams Jr., who finished the regular-season as the most efficient passer in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

The Horned Frogs started 8-0 behind one-time Heisman Trophy front-runner and quarterback Trevone Boykin. But an ankle injury to Boykin and a wrist injury to star receiver Josh Doctson contributed to two losses in the Horned Frogs' final four games as they finished 10-2 in coach Gary Patterson's 16th season. TCU finished third in the Big 12 standings but make their way to San Antonio -- a four-hour drive from TCU's Fort Worth campus -- after Oklahoma was chosen for the four-team College Football Playoff and Oklahoma State earned a berth in the Sugar Bowl.

"I think for us this is a playoff game," Patterson said. "I think if Oregon is a team that didn't have injuries, that would have been a top-four team and would have been able to do some things. And we feel like without a couple that we had, we would be like that."

Boykin, who played Nov. 27 in a victory again Baylor, is expected be fully healthy to play in the bowl game, Patterson said, which establishes this matchup as one potentially dominated by offense. Oregon ranking sixth nationally with 43.2 points per game, and TCU eighth with 41.7. Oregon ranks 113th in points allowed, while TCU is tied for 59th.

These teams have a brief history with one another. In 1977, Oregon's first season under coach Rich Brooks, UO beat the Horned Frogs in Eugene. The next season, TCU won. They haven't played since, though trips to Texas are familiar by now for Oregon, which is making its third consecutive appearance in the state for a bowl game after playing in Arlington for the College Football Playoff national championship last January.

The game will be played in the Alamodome, and will be broadcast on ESPN, with kickoff at 3:45 PT.

-- Andrew Greif

agreif@oregonian.com