New Mexico to play in Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 25.

Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2002 | 1:22 a.m.

LAS VEGAS AP) - The Lobos are going to Las Vegas for Christmas.

The University of New Mexico was picked Monday to represent the Mountain West Conference in the 11th annual Las Vegas Bowl.

New Mexico (7-6, 5 (2)- will play the fifth-place team from the Pac-10 conference, but that team won't be decided until after play concludes Saturday.

News that the Lobos received the SEGA Sports bowl invitation came as a surprise because bowl officials had been talking up the Air Force Academy. The Falcons 8-4, 4 (3)- had the better overall record and, until Saturday's win, New Mexico wasn't even assured of finishing the regular season with a winning record.

Also, the Falcons beat the Lobos on Sept. 7 in overtime 38-31. Now the Falcons are headed to the new San Francisco Bowl on New Year's Eve.

Lobos Head Coach Rocky Long said he wasn't sure that his team would get tapped to play in the Christmas Day bowl that could draw more than 30,000 people to Sam Boyd Stadium. The game will be televised on ESPN, and each team will get an $800,000 payout.

"I thought it was up in the air, but we deserved to be there," Long said in a Monday conference call. "Our players will play hard. We are going to have a good time in Vegas."

The Lobos clinched the school's third bowl bid in 41 years Saturday with a 49-20 win over Wyoming. The win left New Mexico in sole possession of second place in the Mountain West behind Liberty Bowl-bound Colorado State. The Lobos' most recent bowl appearance was the 1997 Insight.com Bowl.

Tina Kunzer-Murphy, executive director of the SEGA Sports Las Vegas Bowl, said she wanted the team that was playing the best football.

"We wanted to let the teams finish out the season," she said. "New Mexico won it on the field. We think that New Mexico is playing good football."

So did Mountain West Conference Commissioner Craig Thompson, who said he pushed for the Lobos. Thompson said the Lobos have a lot going for them.

"New Mexico is probably one of the hottest teams in the country," he said. "I'm always hoping that the second place team goes to the second bowl. I've always pushed for a second place finisher."

New Mexico wasn't on anyone's bowl list in October when the Lobos were struggling.

After losing 45-44 in overtime to Utah State, New Mexico was 3-5 and had to win four of its last five games to be bowl-eligible.

"Our football team has been faced with some major challenges over the past four months, so it is very satisfying to be in this position," Long said. "To be picked sixth in the preseason and then finish in second place says a lot about the character of the kids in our program. We finished in second place and we're going to the bowl that has the second pick. That's the way it should be."

Depending on the outcome of Saturday's games, New Mexico will likely face either UCLA, Oregon State or Washington.

Last year on Christmas Day, Mountain West representative Utah defeated USC 10-6 before a record crowd of 30,894 and a national television audience on ABC. The second selection from the Mountain West has appeared in the Las Vegas Bowl since the conference's inception in 1999 and won all three games.

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