Columnist Steve Guiremand: November the month of memories

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Nov. 14, 2003 | 10:18 a.m.

Steve Guiremand covers college football for the Sun. He can be reached at steveg@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-2324.

Former Fresno State coach Jim Sweeney once coined a phrase that would fit in very well in the Mountain West Conference this year.

It was, "The games you remember are in November."

With just three weekends of Mountain West play remaining, all eight teams remain bowl eligible. And that should make for some very interesting games down the stretch.

Going into Saturday's action, Utah (7-2, 4-1) is the only team that appears to have a bowl bid locked up. The Utes will earn a share of the MWC title with a win against Wyoming (4-5, 2-2) at Rice-Eccles Stadium and will likely represent the conference at the Liberty Bowl on New Year's Eve.

After that, however, it's still anybody's guess.

Air Force (7-3, 3-2) has the second-best overall record in the conference but one of those wins came against Division I-AA Wofford, which means the Falcons are just 6-3 in the eyes of bowl officials. Chance Harridge and company must finish with back-to-back road games against the two best run defenses in the conference, New Mexico (6-4, 3-2) and San Diego State (5-5, 2-3), and must also overcome the knock that they don't travel well.

Rocky Long's Lobos, who also have a I-AA win to their credit, must defeat either the Falcons or Wyoming to become bowl eligible. Both Colorado State (5-5, 2-3) and UNLV (5-5, 1-4) also need to win one of their final two games to meet bowl criteria.

Wyoming, San Diego State and BYU (4-6, 3-3) also can become bowl eligible if they win two more games.

"(To have) every team still be able to become bowl eligible at this point of the season is really phenomenal," Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson said. "What that does is drive up attendance. Attendance is up around the league, and interest is high all the way around."

Obviously Thompson didn't attend UNLV's snorefest with San Diego State at Sam Boyd Stadium last week. But the Rebels are still averaging a healthy 26,660 fans per game with conference heavyweight Colorado State visiting next weekend.

Even Wyoming, bad weather and all, is averaging almost 20,000 (19,261) this year thanks to energetic new coach "Cowboy" Joe Glenn.

The Mountain West Conference has only three guaranteed bowl berths this year which means there could be some bad feelings for those schools who have to stay home.

After the Liberty Bowl, the Las Vegas Bowl gets second choice for its Christmas Eve matchup with the Pac-10's No. 5 squad. Then the San Francisco Bowl has third pick and will match that MWC team against a Big East team at Pac Bell Stadium on New Year's Eve night.

Think things are wild now? If San Diego State upsets Colorado State and BYU upends Notre Dame this weekend, every Mountain West team still would be in the race for a bowl game heading into the final full weekend of conference games on Nov. 22. And if Wyoming can upset either Utah or New Mexico in the next two weeks, the Cowboys and UNLV could very well be playing for a Las Vegas Bowl berth on Nov. 29 in balmy Laramie.

Stay tuned.

Once around the MWC