UNLV, Ole Miss could reprise thriller Dec. 21

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2000 | 10:10 a.m.

Battle of the Rebels, Part II?

Although sequels are rarely as good as the originals, there's a chance that UNLV and Mississippi, who played an exciting overtime game last month in Oxford that was won by Ole Miss, 43-40, could have a rematch on Dec. 21 in the Las Vegas Bowl at Sam Boyd Stadium.

"That's a possibility," Tina Kunzer-Murphy, director of the Las Vegas Bowl, said Monday night following a meeting of the Las Vegas Bowl committee. "But right now we're still in a holding pattern on who we will invite."

But since the possibility of inviting a Big Ten Conference team fizzled out over the weekend when both Illinois and Michigan State lost their finales, the Las Vegas Bowl now has set it sights on trying to bring in a Southeastern Conference squad.

The two best bets there are Ole Miss (6-4), which concludes its season on Thanksgiving in the annual Egg Bowl against in-state rival Mississippi State, and Arkansas (5-5), which sprung last weekend's biggest upset with an overtime victory over Mississippi State. The Hogs must win their season finale against LSU on Friday in Fayetteville to garner the necessary six wins needed to be bowl eligible.

"There are some good football traditions in the SEC," Kunzer-Murphy said. "I wouldn't say that those teams are the front-runners, but we're looking very closely at those schools."

Syracuse (5-5) of the Big East Conference, which concludes its season against lowly Rutgers (3-7) on Saturday, also is a possibility if the Orangemen can close out their season with a win. Another Big East possibility, Boston College, is all but a lock to play in the Aloha Bowl.

Kunzer-Murphy said she thought there was a good chance the Las Vegas Bowl committee could extend its at-large bid when it meets again next Monday.

As for which Mountain West Conference team will be picked, Kunzer-Murphy made it very clear the Las Vegas Bowl is willing to wait until Dec. 2 if need be to see if UNLV can qualify. If not, Air Force (8-3) would be the pick.

"If UNLV pulls off a win Saturday (at San Diego State), then we will wait another week to see what happens," she said.