Columnist Ron Kantowski: Give them Liberty … or another bowl game

Friday, Nov. 28, 2003 | 10:36 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

If I were Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson and were limited to one telephone call on behalf of my conference football champion, I wouldn't use it on long distance information or Memphis, Tenn.

Nothing against the Chuck Berry hit or Johnny Rivers' subsequent cover version, but "Viva, Las Vegas" and "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" are a lot more tuneful to Mountain West teams and fans when it comes to postseason bowl destinations.

Back in the day when there weren't that many bowl games, and most were named after fruit, astros and bluebonnets instead of corporate monoliths, the Mountain West would have been fortunate to send its champion anywhere. For that reason, it owes the Liberty Bowl -- the AXA Liberty Bowl, if you must -- some hearty thanks.

The last time Utah won a conference championship, "The Cat in the Hat" had just debuted as a book for kids, not a major motion picture for adults, so the Utes probably couldn't care less where they are going, just that they are going somewhere. If you ask Urban Meyer and his players, they'd probably play the Conference USA champ in Whoville, if it came to that.

In that I'm in the minority that believes Lee Oswald acted alone, I don't believe that preseason MWC favorite Colorado State conspired to lose three games in the final two minutes, just so it wouldn't have to return to Memphis for the fourth time in five years. But when Bradlee Van Pelt fumbled a perfect snap from center in the (groan) Shotgun formation with time running out at New Mexico, even the Warren Commission raised an eyebrow.

Although there's no cheering in the press box, they tell me the one in Albuquerque nearly collapsed from the CSU beat writers' collective sigh of relief when Van Pelt put the ball on the ground.

"For the sake of my e-mail server, let me mention I've been on Beale Street in the summertime, and it's hard to beat," wrote Dave Krieger of the Rocky Mountain News after the Rams accepted a bid to play in the San Francisco Bowl -- er, Diamond Walnut San Francisco Bowl -- earlier this week. "But from a strictly meteorological point of view, New Year's Eve might not be the best time to visit (Memphis)."

Even if you do like barbecue spare ribs for breakfast, there's probably never a good time to visit Memphis if you belong to the Mountain West.

As Krieger mentioned, it's too cold. It's also too far for fans. And the matchup -- the MWC champion plays its counterpart from Conference USA, another BCS outsider -- is too obscure to do your program any good.

While there's no question that Southern Miss has a decent football team, what can Utah gain by beating it? Other than an extra $400,000 in purse money (most of which will be used to cover expenses with whatever's left being divided among the other MWC teams), not very much, unless you count indigestion from consuming all that barbecue as a lovely parting gift.

New Mexico and Colorado State, on the other hand, will get another chance to put their best football forward against a college football blueblood, owing to the Las Vegas Bowl's ties to the Pac-10 and the San Francisco Bowl's contract with the Big East.

I also would argue that by playing Virginia Tech tough in a 20-13 loss in last year's S.F. Bowl, Air Force earned more respect than it would have gotten by running the table against Conference USA or running a dozen reconnaissance missions over Baghdad.

Reading between the lines, it could be that the Liberty Bowl and the Mountain West are headed for a mutual parting of the ways. The Denver media weren't the only ones counting their lucky stars when Van Pelt fumbled away the game at New Mexico, as the guys with the AXA patches on their breast pockets were said to be over Ursa Minor when CSU lost.

"Even if we won the championship, there was probably a point in the thinking that (Liberty Bowl director) Steve Ehrhart might want to take a different team anyway, just because of our fans going out there (all the time)," CSU coach Sonny Lubick said.

Insiders say there's a good possibility the Mountain West bowl lineup will be shuffled when its agreement with the Liberty Bowl expires in two years or perhaps even sooner, in which case the Las Vegas Bowl would be interested in moving up to host the MWC champion.

Well, at least kinda, sorta interested.

"There have been conversations about bringing the conference champ to Las Vegas ... it's very much alive," said Las Vegas Bowl director Tina Kunzer-Murphy. "But to do that, we would have to move up the guarantee and we're not in position to do that."

That's because the bowl is operating without a title sponsor this year. But even if it could find one, Kunzer-Murphy might be a little reluctant to give up the arrangement the Las Vegas Bowl has now.

A big reason the game has improved in stature, both in the public eye and at the turnstiles, is that the L.V. Bowl has a say in which bowl-eligible teams it chooses. Under its current setup, the Liberty Bowl is all but but obligated to take the USA and MWC champions, regardless of what they bring to the table -- i.e., fans who travel with fat wallets.

As Kunzer-Murphy said and as Ehrhart has learned, under those parameters you could get stuck with the same team year after year. That could work in Las Vegas, provided it was UNLV or BYU making the repeat showings. But how many of the other MWC teams would want to keep coming back during the holidays, particularly if they played here during the regular season?

Those are questions that the guys in the tailored suits (the conference commissioners) and the guys and gals in the brightly-colored blazers (bowl committee members) may be better equipped to answer.

But I always thought a bowl game was supposed to be a reward, not a sentence. It might be time to let somebody else have the three hots and a cot in Memphis.