Columnist Ron Kantowski: Tough to get excited about football finale

Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2002 | 11:19 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's insider notes column appears Tuesday and his Page One column appears Thursday. He can be reached at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

Remember the question posed by the rock group Chicago "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" And the question in response to the question: "Does Anybody Really Care?"

Sounds a lot like Saturday's UNLV-Colorado State football game to me.

In keeping with the Chicago theme, maybe the Mountain West Conference and its television partners, who apparently couldn't decided if the game should be played in the morning, afternoon, evening, or at all, should have just set kickoff at 25 or 6 to 4, instead of noon Las Vegas time.

In other notes:

Kudos to UNLV's Charlie Spoonhour for improving UNLV's nonconference basketball slate. It's not exactly the toughest schedule this side of Continental Trailways, but at least you've heard of many of the schools against which the Rebels plan to pad their record.

This year's cannon fodder consists of Portland State, UAB, Washington, Nevada-Reno, Wisconsin, Bradley and Tennessee Tuxedo -- er, Martin -- followed by Stanford, West Virginia, SMU, Indiana-Purdue John Wayne (actually Fort Wayne), Santa Clara, DePaul and Southern Cal.

Spoonhour has only a couple of bona fide cupcakes on the schedule,whereas predecessor Bill "Hostess" Bayno seemingly played four or five every year.

Remember Monmouth, Chicago State, Southern Utah, Florida Atlantic, High Point, Austin Peay, Fairfield, Mississippi Valley State, Troy State, Sacred Heart and Wofford?

Now you know why Bayno was the third-winningest coach in UNLV history when he was asked to resign.

Forget the Masters or the U.S. Open or the Windmill Hole at the local putt-putt. The most difficult shot in golf is a 10-footer for 36th place on the final day of the PGA Tour's pressure-packed Qualifying School.

Five Las Vegans will be playing to acquire or keep their coveted PGA Tour cards during next week's Q-School finals at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif.

Those that will be hitting the Pepto-Bismol as well as their short irons leading up to the event are Bob May, Eric Meeks, John Riegger, Edward Fryatt and Asian tour regular Dean Wilson. Former LVI winner Bill Glasson also will be teeing it up, with the top 36 and ties from a field of 170 earning spots on the 2003 PGA Tour.

Here's an idea that would make postgame celebrations in college football a little safer while preserving the time-honored tradition of tearing down the goal posts.

Prior to the season, each school is allowed to designate only one game after which fans will be allowed on the field to act like buffoons. Otherwise, it's trespassing.

If you want to take it a step further, when Ohio State plays Michigan the traditional metallic goalposts that sport jagged edges when uprooted could be replaced with some constructed from more forgiving material, such as foam rubber.

Or even better, nerf.

Around the horn: The only preseason polls that count are the Sports Illustrated ones for college football and basketball, because it gets your team on the cover of the magazine. That distinction for college hoops goes to Arizona, while SI projects Wyoming (No. 26) and the Rebels (No. 49) to represent the Mountain West in the NCAA Tournament field of 65. ... It's way early, but I predict that much of the box office momentum generated by Linda Frohlich and the Lady Rebels last year will be hard to recapture, now that Fraulein Frohlich is riding the pine in the WNBA. ... Add Las Vegas High to UNLV among local sports "franchises" that cannot get a crowd into the seats by kickoff. There were reports that many fans did not make it into last Friday's Las Vegas-Desert Pines playoff game until the second quarter. ... Autograph seekers, don your armor: NASCAR champion Tony Stewart is planning to honor a commitment to race USAC midgets at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring on Saturday night. But don't be too apprehensive. If Stewart is in a good mood, he can be quite charming.