Special section: MWC schools shoot for bids to four bowls

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, Aug. 29, 2002 | 8:48 a.m.

Other bowls

The Las Vegas Bowl still has three years remaining on its contract to get second choice among Mountain West Conference bowl-eligible teams. For the next two years, it will pit that team against the Pac-10's No. 5 team on Christmas Day at Sam Boyd Stadium.

Though there is speculation the Las Vegas Bowl one day could house the Mountain West champion -- most coaches and fans would rather head to Las Vegas at Christmas than spend New Year's Eve in chilly Memphis at the Liberty Bowl -- LV Bowl director Tina Kunzer-Murphy says she is happy with the current setup.

"We like the flexibility we have right now," Kunzer-Murphy said. "We're not interested (in hosting the MWC champion) right now."

However, one of two new Mountain West Conference bowl partners -- the Dec. 30 Seattle Bowl -- is making no bones that it wants to become top dog on the MWC's bowl-pecking list.

Formerly known as the Aloha Bowl, the Seattle Bowl gets fourth pick of Mountain West teams against a No. 6 team from the ACC. The game will be played at the new Seahawks Stadium and is scheduled to pay each team $1 million.

That's $200,000 more than the Las Vegas Bowl and not too far behind the Liberty Bowl ($1.3 mil.), which once again will host the MWC champ against the winner of Conference USA on Dec. 31 on ESPN.

The MWC's third-place team will play in the new San Francisco Bowl on New Year's Eve night against a Big East team with a $750,000 payout.

Seattle Bowl executive director Terry Daw raised a few eyebrows at Mountain West media day when he said his new bowl would seek the Mountain West champ when the conference's deal with the Liberty Bowl expires in 2004.

"We want the champion of the Mountain West," Daw said. "When the Liberty Bowl contract is up in three years, we will be bidding aggressively."

To which Liberty Bowl executive director Steve Ehrhart replied: "The Liberty Bowl is the seventh-oldest bowl game and we're in our 44th year. There's a lot of tradition and history there. ... The Seattle Bowl ought to take care of its own business. It will have enough challenges."

Kunzer-Murphy agrees.

"It's his first year (with the MWC)," she said. "Let's see how it goes. ... He doesn't even live in Seattle."

Daw said Seattle should be the No. 2 MWC bowl because it has the second-highest payout.

"Ask yourself this: What tie is there to Memphis? Nothing against Memphis, it's a nice town. But this is a western-based conference," he said. "I'm not sure Las Vegas is the right image for the Mountain West. They play in an old stadium. We're better suited for this conference. It will come down to us and San Francisco (to host the league's No. 1 bowl)."

Oh, my. Let's hope the football turns out to be half as competitive as the bowl games.

Here's a look at this year's Mountain West bowl tie-ins: