Columnist Dean Juipe: New Mexico poor choice for LV Bowl

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2002 | 9:22 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

New Mexico? Are you kidding? In the Las Vegas Bowl when a far better choice, the Air Force Academy, was equally available?

I almost didn't believe it when word came down Monday that the Las Vegas Bowl committee had picked New Mexico to fill the Mountain West's spot in the annual Christmas Day football game. I was so certain it was going to be Air Force that I had the piece ninth-tenths written.

But this isn't about bitterness. It's about common sense.

The Lobos "travel well" as the saying goes, in that they'll bring a few people up from Albuquerque for the game.

Yet they're an extremely dull team, so much so that every conversation I participated in or overheard relating to the selection process include a series of stifled yawns as New Mexico's prospects were discussed.

To me, Air Force held all the better cards.

For starters, Las Vegas is at least an ancillary military city in that Nellis Air Force Base is located here. So there was a chance to sell a few tickets for a game that ordinarily has a tough time attracting local interest.

It won't attract much with New Mexico involved, that's for sure. The Lobos had to win their final game to finish 7-6 and become bowl eligible, but they also lost to in-state rival New Mexico State and dropped a game to Utah State that seems embarrassing from a distance.

They were also slaughtered by Texas Tech, 49-0, in a game that almost cost coach Rocky Long his job.

And they were beaten by Air Force, albeit in overtime.

The best thing New Mexico can say for itself is that it finished second in the conference, a game ahead of Air Force and one behind league-champion Colorado State, which is headed for the Liberty Bowl.

But the Las Vegas Bowl was under no obligation to choose New Mexico; it has the right of the "second choice" from the Mountain West but it does not have to take the league's second-place team.

Did the committee members forget how Air Force bedazzled UNLV Nov. 16 in a game at Sam Boyd Stadium that was well-attended (and included a Thunderbirds flyover)? Or that the Falcons were nationally ranked as late as midseason? Or that awarding the bowl bid to Air Force would be a way of making amends for the poor way in which some drunken UNLV fans mistreated the Falcons' band and cheerleaders during the game here?

I'd be in shock if I wasn't so thoroughly disgusted.

Air Force had a better record, 8-4, than New Mexico and is a natural fit to be profiled on a national holiday. The Academy's presence in the bowl game would have at least assured a relatively interesting afternoon and some passable TV ratings, no matter which Pac-10 team emerges a week from now as the Dec. 25 opponent.

If the Falcons can be faulted at all it's for losing their Mountain West finale to San Diego State, 38-34, two Saturdays ago. A win there and it would have taken the indecisiveness out of the Las Vegas Bowl committee's horrendous decision.

I'm just one guy and I'm committed to attending the game no matter what, but I'm reasonably sure I can say I won't be seeing you there.