MWC champ earns ‘Liberty’

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, May 18, 1999 | 10:21 a.m.

The motto for the new Mountain West Conference?

How about, "Give me Liberty!"

As in the Liberty Bowl, where the Mountain West Conference has decided to send its football champion for the next three years to play the winner of Conference USA.

A formal announcement, featuring UNLV coach John Robinson and Colorado State's Sonny Lubick, is scheduled to be made Thursday in Memphis.

The move is considered a minor setback for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which had also made a bid to host the Mountain West champion in the Las Vegas Bowl this year but will now likely have to settle for the conference runner-up.

"We had expressed interest in hosting the Mountain West basketball tournament and part of that proposal was that we would also host the football champion," Rossi Ralenkotter, vice president of the LVCVA said. "We'll wait and see how they counter back to us. They haven't told us (that the football champion would go to the Liberty Bowl)."

But new Mountain West Conference Commissioner Craig Thompson confirmed to the Sun on Monday that the champion would be headed to Memphis.

"I don't want to say too much to take away from the press conference on Thursday," Thompson said. "But there is a chance the Mountain West champion could still possibly play in the Las Vegas Bowl because there will be a no-repeat clause in the contract (with the Liberty Bowl)."

Ralenkotter said the Las Vegas Bowl is bound to invite the champion of the Western Athletic Conference to Las Vegas for the Dec. 18 contest to fulfill the final year of its original three-year deal with the WAC.

But will the Las Vegas Bowl settle for hosting the No. 2 team from the Mountain West the next three years?

"I think it would really depend on the response we get on our proposal to host both events," Ralenkotter said. "It was a strong proposal and we're waiting to see what happens from here as far as our future involvement with the Mountain West Conference."

"We hope (the Las Vegas Bowl) will still be interested," Thompson said.

Thompson said he hoped the Mountain West Conference could land berths in as many as three bowls this year.

Besides the Liberty and Las Vegas bowls, Thompson has had discussions with the Music City Bowl in Nashville and the Motor City Bowl in Pontiac, Mich. The Humanitarian Bowl in Boise and the Christmas Day doubleheader (Aloha, Oahu) are long shot possibilities.

"I don't know if we'll get that many (three) bowls this year," Thompson said. "But there could be as many as four new bowl games in 2000 in places like Houston, Toronto and San Francisco. Hopefully, we can work something out with one of those bowls."