Columnist Ron Kantowski: The ins and outs of the Las Vegas Bowl

Thursday, Oct. 27, 2005 | 6:56 a.m.

Ron Kantowski can be reached at 259-4088 or at ron@lasvegassun.com.

Although the site of this year's Las Vegas Bowl kickoff ticket drive luncheon was slightly less pretentious than last year (Cili at the Bali Hai Golf Club instead of The Stirling Club at Turnbury Place), Tina Kunzer-Murphy still looked as nervous as Charlie Sheen walking into church.

Will Brigham Young become bowl eligible? Would TCU fans make the sojourn from Fort Worth to Southern Nevada just three days before Christmas? Will any of those doctors and lawyers and tree-hugging engineers from Stanford buy tickets on the 50-yard line should the Cardinal represent the Pac-10 in the (kinda) big game?

Those are the questions that give Kunzer-Murphy, the hardest-working woman in the bowl business, a bad case of toejam football -- or whatever used to put John Lennon on the disabled list -- this time of the year.

"You do everything you can," the LV Bowl's executive director said about her strategy for making the game a success. "Then you cross your fingers."

Kunzer-Murphy worries more than a parent on prom night. But if the past is any indication, she might as well not wait up. Depending on your point of view, the Las Vegas Bowl is either a tradition worth preserving or a bad house guest on the local sports scene.

Either way, it's not going away.

The last time I saw Kunzer-Murphy running around like the Famous Chicken with his head cut off was last year at this time, when she was trying to spin a matchup featuring UCLA and Wyoming into postseason gold.

That's just what she got, although a lot of brown came with it.

With thousands of brown-and-gold-clad Wyoming fans using their Get-Out-of-Laramie-Free cards, the Las Vegas Bowl set an all-time attendance record.

And the game was nearly as impressive as the crowd of 27,784 on a brisk December evening, as the upstart Cowboys showed the Bruins their mud flaps during a 24-21 come-from-behind victory.

In the bowl business, a great crowd is always preferable to a great finish. But as long as you've got one or the other and are agreeable to playing whenever ESPN tells you to, chances are your spot on the fluctuating bowl calendar is secure.

How else does a game that once featured Ball State against Utah State find itself preparing for a 14th installment?

If the season ended today, that 14th installment could result in a Colorado State vs. Oregon State Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 22.

So it's a good thing the season isn't ending today.

But on the day it does, if travel-happy Wyoming or New Mexico or BYU are bowl eligible, and should some Pac-10 member such as Arizona State stop underachieving long enough to get the required six wins, then the Las Vegas Bowl could be looking at another winner.

As Mountain West associate commissioner Brett Gilliland said at Tuesday's luncheon, "We're not going to be able to answer those questions for a few more weeks."

About all that has been decided is that 2-6 UNLV won't be representing the Mountain West. Pac-10ers Arizona and Washington, both 1-6, won't be coming either.

But if Pac-10 spokesman Dave Hirsch is right, it should be an entertaining game -- regardless of which USC wanna-be accepts the bid.

"Six of our teams are in the top 22 in the nation in scoring offense," Hirsch said as platinum ticket applications were passed around to chief executives and bank presidents. "The average score of our games last week was 43-29.

"Paris Hilton might be the only one who scores more than one of our teams."