Air Force invitation put on hold

Steve Guiremand

Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2002 | 10:01 a.m.

Air Force's expected bid to the Las Vegas Bowl was put in a holding pattern on Tuesday afternoon after a one-hour conference call by the bowl's selection committee failed to yield an invitation to the Falcons.

Although Air Force (8-4, 4-3) is still thought to be the front-runner to represent the Mountain West Conference in the Christmas Day bowl game, Las Vegas Bowl officials elected to wait and see what happens in Saturday's game between New Mexico (6-6, 4-2) and Wyoming (2-9, 1-6) before making a final decision.

"We had a great conversation for the past hour," said Las Vegas Bowl director Tina Kunzer-Murphy late Tuesday afternoon. "Most of our committee people were on there. We had a unanimous decision to wait until Monday (before picking the Mountain West team)."

Why?

"Basically, the reason that happened is because New Mexico is 4-2 in the conference and 6-6 overall," Kunzer-Murphy said. "If they win Saturday night against Wyoming at home, they'll actually be the second-place team (for the Mountain West Conference).

"Air Force has had a great year. They're sitting there at 8-4 overall and 4-3 in conference. (But) the committee felt very strongly we needed to wait out the season before making our choice."

Kunzer-Murphy said she "didn't get a feel either which way the committee was leaning. Nobody wanted to make the decision (Tuesday)."

Although the Las Vegas Bowl will likely make its Mountain West pick on Monday, Kunzer-Murphy said it will probably be another week before a Pac-10 opponent is determined. The Las Vegas Bowl gets the fifth-place team from the Pac-10.

"The Pac-10 is so jumbled right now that we don't believe we'll have a Pac-10 team until after the 7th (of December)," Kunzer-Murphy said.

Best bets at the moment for the Pac-10 are Washington, which upset Washington State in overtime in the Apple Cup last Saturday; and Oregon State, which defeated Oregon and has a number of Las Vegas prep products on the roster, including star tailback Steven Jackson.

However, there's still a possibility that a team such as Arizona State, which appears to be headed to the Sun Bowl, could drop into the equation if the Sun Devils are upset by Arizona on Friday. Another long shot is UCLA, which still must play Washington State on Dec. 7 in the Rose Bowl.

Oregon State officials met with Las Vegas Bowl officials on Tuesday night to discuss the logistics of the game just in case the Beavers wind up in Las Vegas on Christmas Day.