Columnist Ron Kantowski: MWC should forsake its Liberty

Thursday, Nov. 16, 2000 | 11:37 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's column appears Thursday. His notes column appears Tuesday. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or 259-4088.

In that his team has become the class of the Mountain West Conference and one can only visit Graceland so many times before one sequined suit begins to look like the next one, Colorado State's Sonny Lubick needs to ask a favor of MWC commissioner Craig Thompson.

The avuncular Rams coach should implore Thompson to quash the deal that exiles -- er, sends -- the MWC champion to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis to do battle with the Conference USA winner.

Because from a prestige standpoint, it doesn't benefit the Rams or the conference to vanquish Southern Mississippi or Louisville or Tulane or whoever runs the table in C-USA.

Not that those teams don't play respectable football. Remember the 1991 Fiesta Bowl, when Howard Schnellenberger's Louisville team routed Gene Stallings and vaunted Alabama 34-7? And don't forget that Brett Favre played at Southern Miss, which had the audacity to dump CSU 23-17 in last year's Liberty Bowl.

But it wouldn't have mattered if the score were reversed. And provided Colorado State beats a terrible Wyoming team as expected tonight on ESPN (I'll bet Lee Corso is thrilled over having drawn that assignment) and Louisville wins at Houston on Saturday, virtually nobody residing off the two campuses with the possible exception of Beano Cook will be paying attention when the Rams and Cardinals tee it up Dec. 29.

The only thing worth relishing about a trip to the Liberty Bowl (besides the blues and the barbecue) is that the $1.1 million check that will be paid to the order of the participants is slightly more than other lower-tier bowls can scrape together ($750,000).

But a conference shy of TV sets and national exposure would be much better served by a more enticing matchup -- such as the one the Las Vegas Bowl may stumble into, provided Bear Bryant and the other college football gods comply.

Air Force or UNLV vs. Michigan State or Illinois or even Minnesota would provide the Mountain West with a much more attractive stage on which to improve its role as Bowl Championship Series bit player.

I challenge you to disagree. Colorado State could blow out Louisville 56-0 and it still wouldn't do as much for the Mountain West from a credibility angle than Air Force taking Notre Dame to overtime before losing in South Bend this season.

In defense of Thompson and the MWC, there weren't many bowls in the postseason cabinet left to choose from when it seceded from the Western Athletic Conference two years ago. Given the new league couldn't nail down an automatic NCAA Tournament basketball bid until this year, Thompson should be commended for pulling strings -- or at least the NCAA's leg -- in getting bowl tie-ins for two MWC teams and a handshake agreement with the new Silicon Valley Classic to invite a third.

Then again, had the MWC presidents put a little more thought into making their hasty exodus from the WAC -- I've seen 7-Eleven holdups that were better planned -- perhaps these football beggars could have positioned themselves to be a little more choosey.

Because given the bowl hierarchy, with Liberty there is no justice for all who play football in the Mountain West.

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