Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Columnist Steve Guiremand: Las Vegas Bowl won’t be feeling blue if BYU comes to town

Steve Guiremand covers college football for the Sun. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-2324.

PROVO, Utah -- Depending on the outcome of tonight's game here at LaVell Edwards Stadium, Las Vegas Bowl executive director Tina Kunzer-Murphy could very well be enjoying a blue-and-white Christmas this year.

It's no secret that the Las Vegas Bowl has long coveted BYU. The Cougars, despite their recent problems, still are the marquee name in football in the Mountain West Conference from a national perspective (UNLV gets the nod in hoops). And with a large LDS Church population in Las Vegas, the Cougars would be a huge draw, especially now that the game has been moved to Dec. 23.

And if Gary Crowton's revitalized Cougars (2-3, 1-0) can get by UNLV (1-4, 0-1) as expected -- they're 10 1/2-point favorites -- BYU will be in position to make a strong run at a Las Vegas Bowl berth.

After tonight's game with the Rebels, BYU plays three of its final five games at home against Wyoming, San Diego State and New Mexico. They hit the road for an Oct. 23 game at slumping Air Force and end of the year with their annual Holy War against 11th-ranked Utah just up I-15 in Salt Lake City.

A win tonight would put the Cougars at 3-3. They would need to win just three of their final five games to make it to Las Vegas.

One thing could mess up this scenario, however.

What if the Cougars, who lost 3-0 last year to Utah, were to upset the Utes in their season finale and claim the MWC title and a trip to the Liberty Bowl in the process?

If that were to happen, I'm sure Kunzer-Murphy and the Las Vegas Bowl folks would be more than happy to take Urban Meyer's entertaining squad as a consolation prize.

Is anybody out there?

You've got to feel a little for energetic Wyoming coach Joe Glenn and his Cowboys.

Wyoming, picked to finish last in the Mountain West Conference, is 3-1 and scored one of the biggest victories in school history two weeks ago when it upset defending Cotton Bowl champ Ole Miss, 37-32.

You'd think that victory would be enough to get the folks in Laramie excited to attend some Cowboys games before the cold winter winds and blizzards hit. But a crowd of just 12,125 fans turned out to watch Wyoming defeat Louisiana-Monroe, 31-10, Saturday at War Memorial Stadium.

What the heck else is there to do in Laramie these days? Well, it was the start of deer hunting season on Saturday.

Wyoming is now just averaging 15,887 fans per game with three home games remaining. And one of the five requirements to maintain Division I-A status in football is to average 15,000 fans for home games each year.

Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson didn't seem too concerned, however, when asked about that topic on this week's media teleconference call.

What would happen if the Pokes fell below the 15,000 mark this year?

"You get yelled at," Thompson said. "You get a strong letter from the NCAA. There has to be two in a 10-year period before there are any sanctions. It doesn't have a whole lot of teeth."

Still, with the possibility of bad weather for Wyoming's final two home games against Air Force (Oct. 30) and Utah (Nov. 13), MWC officials will be keeping their fingers crossed.

Say what?

According to the El Paso Times, UTEP athletic director Bob Stull scoffed at a scenario that Miners coach Mike Price would want to leave El Paso to coach at UNLV.

Said Stull: "Yeah, that's a good move for him, go from where they're averaging (38,091) fans per game to where they're averaging (23,512) per game."

Huh?

If you haven't been to El Paso -- and consider yourself lucky -- just picture East L.A. in the middle of a desert.

While covering USC a few years back, I got the opportunity to spend about a week there covering the Sun Bowl. The activities for the players included a team barbecue, a trip across the border to watch bloodless bull fights and, arguably the highlight for most players, a trip to the Tony Llama boot factory!

Let's see: bloodless bullfights vs. a night at the Hard Rock Hotel, a tour of a boot factory vs. The Strip ...

My goodness, Bob Stull has a point there. For the life of me, why are 275,000 people foolishing spending their hard-earned money and coming to Las Vegas each weekend when they could be heading to El Paso!

Guess it must be the water, huh Bob? And to think I actually thought Laramie was a better place to visit than El Paso!

Once around the MWC

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