Air Force foe still sought

Tim Graham

Monday, Dec. 1, 1997 | 10:42 a.m.

Michigan State's trajectory was set too high.

Heading into the weekend, the Spartan football program appeared on target for Las Vegas Bowl VI. But that was before it tore through No. 4 Penn State, causing it to sail past Sam Boyd Stadium and straight to the Aloha Bowl.

It must have been a heat seeker.

In pulling off the major upset, Michigan State, now 7-4 and ranked No. 25 in the nation, dropped a bomb on the Las Vegas Bowl selection committee.

Michigan State was eager to play in Las Vegas, but the committee refrained from extending an invitation last week to possibly land a bigger team. The Spartans felt snubbed and, immediately after beating the mighty Nittany Lions 49-14 Saturday, accepted an invitation to play in Honolulu.

That means the Las Vegas Bowl still needs an at-large opponent to face Air Force Dec. 20 at Sam Boyd Stadium.

The committee met Sunday and pared its want list to five. Iowa, Mississippi, Mississippi State and Virginia are 7-4, while Oregon is 6-5. None are ranked.

Notre Dame (7-5) and Southern Cal (6-5), despite their prior objections to the Las Vegas Bowl, could become re-interested as the at-large slots fill up. Both, however, are deemed long shots to come here.

"We'll have a decision made no later than Tuesday afternoon," said committee member Rob Dondero of R&R Advertising.

"We're waiting to get some last-minute information from the Bowl Alliance committee. We need to know who they're going to release. Supposedly, there will be a meeting with the the Alliance committee Tuesday morning. Then we'll have some more direction. A lot of our decision is based on that information."

Because appearances in the three Alliance Bowls -- Fiesta, Orange, Sugar -- do not count toward a conference's obligations to its affiliated bowls, some teams on the Las Vegas Bowl's short list may be affected.

For example, Penn State's loss eliminated it from an Alliance opportunity. Because the Nittany Lions will be assigned to another of the Big Ten's tie-ins, Iowa could become available if Ohio State is released by the Alliance.

But Ohio State virtually is guaranteed to replace Penn State in an Alliance Bowl, making Iowa off limits.

Regardless, Michigan State's victory leaves the Las Vegas Bowl in a holding pattern and its selection committee open for second guessing.

In a Detroit News story last week, committee member Branan Allison said the reason the Las Vegas Bowl would not commit to the Spartans was the possibility of wooing a better team.

"We don't want it to become a negative thing for us, particularly because it's our first year," Allison was quoted. "The committee is concerned about getting beat up by the local papers if it turns out we could have gotten a team that's perceived as being better (than Michigan State) if we had waited."

But the reverse has occurred. None of the teams on the committee's short list are perceived better than Michigan State.

"In hindsight, we're not sad we didn't select Michigan State," Dondero said. "We just wish we had that last minute to talk to (Michigan State before it agreed to the Aloha Bowl). They made the decision to take the first bowl that came along."