Friday, Oct. 25, 2002 | 10:22 a.m.
Steve Guiremand covers college football for the Sun. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-2324.
The folks at the Mountain West Conference offices, not to mention UNLV, sure hope the people at CBS SportsLine.com know a thing or two when it comes to making bowl game predictions.
That Internet site, which has a pretty good track record when it comes to projecting bowl matchups, has the Mountain West Conference actually filling all four of its bowl slots although the league is holding its breath. Perhaps even more stunning is CBS SportsLine's San Francisco Bowl prediction: UNLV vs. West Virginia.
No doubt MWC commissioner Craig Thompson, not to mention Rebel head coach John Robinson, would take that to the bank right now.
Thompson this week addressed the possibility the MWC will not have enough bowl eligible teams to fill its four commitments. Other than Air Force (6-1) and Colorado State (7-2), the conference will need a couple of its six sub-.500 teams to catch fire to fill the final two slots.
UNLV (3-4) must win three of its final five games to get to the magic six-win mark. The erratic Rebels must accomplish that feat against red-hot San Diego State, Wyoming, a Utah squad that has overwhelmed them physically each of the last two years, 22nd-ranked Air Force and at Colorado State, which rarely loses in November under Sonny Lubick.
Still, the Rebels might have the best chance of the remaining MWC teams of getting to a bowl.
BYU (3-4), badly outplayed by both UNLV and Air Force the last two weeks and a 37-10 loser at Colorado State on Thursday night, must win three of its final four games. New Mexico (3-5) has to win four of its final five games while San Diego State, which plays 13 games this season and has to have seven victories to go bowling, must win five of its last six.
Utah (2-5) and Wyoming (1-6) could still make it into the postseason if they win the rest of their games. In the case of the Cowboys, there's a better chance of pigs flying over War Memorial Stadium.
The folks at the Las Vegas Bowl, which gets the MWC's No. 2 team, can rest easy. They're in position to likely get the loser of next Thursday night's Colorado State-Air Force matchup to play the No. 5 team from the Pac-10 Conference, which could be the winner of Saturday night's Washington-Arizona State contest in Tempe. And if BYU were to suddenly catch fire, they'd be more than happy to host the Cougars and their large local following on Christmas Day.
The Mountain West champ, probably the winner of Thursday night's Colorado State-Air Force game, goes to Memphis to play the Conference USA winner in the Liberty Bowl on New Year's Eve.
Thompson is keeping his fingers crossed the conference can fill its other two bowl obligations, the San Francisco Bowl and the Dec. 30 Seattle Bowl. If not, those two games will be forced to scramble for at-large teams from other conferences and the Mountain West will have some egg on its face.
"It would be frustrating to the programs, certainly, those people who came in with ambitions of playing in a bowl game who didn't quite have the season they anticipated," Thompson said. "But no, it won't hurt us. ... I think it means that we either played demanding schedules or there's a lot of parity in the league, and I think it's probably a combination of both."
Thompson said he believes it is important for Mountain West teams to continue emphasizing playing schools from the BCS (Bowl Championship Series) conferences.
"I think we need to continue playing the schedule we're playing," Thompson said. "In some cases, there may have been a tad of overscheduling. We're going to continue to do this. We're going to play probably two BCS-type opponents in the non-conference, and then, from there, you can do what you want with your schedule. I don't think it's overly demanding to play two BCS people in the non-conference."
No, the problem is that Mountain West schools just aren't winning enough of those contests.
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