Columnist Ron Kantowski: Mountain West basking in perfection

Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2001 | 11:16 a.m.

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

If you thought the fireworks salesman on the Las Vegas Strip had a Happy New Year, what about Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson?

Air Force's 37-34 victory over Fresno State in the inaugural (and remarkably attended) Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif., gave the Mountain West a perfect 3-0 record in the postseason.

Combined with UNLV's 31-14 rout of Arkansas of the Southeast Conference and Colorado State's 22-17 conquest of Conference USA kingpin Louisville, you would think the bowl wins would be enough to give the lightly regarded MWC a little respect.

You would think so, but probably not.

Sun reader Tim Roehrs suggested my helmet was strapped on a little too tight when I suggested last Thursday that UNLV was good enough to line up with any of the pre-New Year's Day's teams, perhaps even Nebraska.

Wrote Roehrs:

Pretending I didn't read the part about the Rebels giving the Cornhuskers a tussle, if Nebraska brought their second team to Las Vegas for a scrimmage against the UNLV Rebels:

His blind allegiance aside, give Roehrs a little credit. He e-mailed me before Nebraska destroyed Northwestern 66-17 in the Alamo Bowl.

But Tim, I did concede that you'd have to give me some points before I'd take the Rebels against the Huskers.

I just didn't say how many.

Just for grins, I scheduled the Rebels against each of the 49 other bowl teams and then let the computer spit out the results. UNLV went 20-29 -- about what you might expect.

The Rebels' biggest upset probably was a 35-7 victory over Notre Dame (but not a total shocker given that Air Force, which UNLV whipped 34-13, should have beaten the Irish in South Bend this year and that Notre Dame looked positively awful Monday night) followed by a 31-26 win over Texas.

The lowlight of the computer simulation was a 67-14 blowout at the hands of Florida. In other matchups against marquee opponents, UNLV lost 42-10 to Oklahoma, 30-7 to Florida State, 34-18 to Virginia Tech, 37-3 to Oregon State and 37-10 to Miami.

In a computer replay of the Las Vegas Bowl, the Rebels downed Arkansas 26-12 (the real score was 31-14).

It should be noted the computer used only regular season statistics and did not figure in bowl results in determining the outcomes.

As recently as 1973, college football's national champ was crowned before the postseason.

It's hard to fathom a team that loses its last game being recognized as the national champion but it used to happen with regularity. The last national champion to lose its final game was 1973 Alabama, which lost to Notre Dame 24-23 in a memorable Sugar Bowl game on New Year's Eve.

The following season, UPI (coaches poll) joined the Associated Press (football writers) in crowning its champion following the bowl games.

Why is it that football games played in the snow -- regardless of the matchup -- are impossible to pass up? They are like wrecks on the highway in that you simply can't ignore them.

In addition to a special halftime appearance by The Yehti and all those points, the Independence Bowl was decided by college football's most exciting play -- a return of a missed extra point the length of the field for two points.

And Mississippi State did it the hard way -- blocking a PAT in overtime, then scooping up the loose ball and adding a lateral about 50 yards down the field.

That sent the Rebels on the road for a six pack of Old Dominion as UNLV picked up an easy 82-67 win in Norfolk, Va., on New Year's Eve.