Columnist Ron Kantowski: LV Bowl keeps eye on BYU, AFA

Ron Kantowski's insider notes column appears Tuesday and his Page One column appears Thursday. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.

The hardest-working woman in the college football bowl business is back at it.

Of course, longtime Las Vegan Tina Kunzer-Murphy is the only woman who serves as executive director of a bowl game. But she does work -- and sometimes prays -- hard to ensure the Las Vegas Bowl winds up with a football game worth watching.

In that it moved to Christmas Day last year from some frigid weekday night during shopping season, that's easily said and done. With little to choose from in the way of televised sports and with virtually the entire nation staying home, Utah's 10-6 victory over USC produced higher ratings than Bo Derek in her prime.

This year, the game switches from ABC to big little brother ESPN, so the numbers will drop off somewhat. But in that most households now come cable ready, the ratings should remain as solid as week-old fruitcake.

The Las Vegas Bowl, to its credit, has evolved to where it isn't just a viewing alternative to "Miracle on 34th Street."

Last year, the game also was a big hit at the box office. Bolstered by a caravan of USC fans who jammed I-15 on game day, the game attracted a crowd of 30,894, surpassing the record attendance of 29,112 set the previous year when the hometown UNLV Rebels were involved.

Can the Las Vegas Bowl do it again?

The guys and gals in the LV Bowl blazers get the second pick among Mountain West bowl qualifiers but have to wait in line for the fifth choice from the more prestigious Pac-10.

Barring an upset of Buster Douglas proportions, the best bet is that Brigham Young or Air Force will represent the Mountain West against one of the following from the Pac-10: Oregon, Arizona State, Oregon State, Washington or UCLA. And should Cal somehow be successful in convincing the NCAA to lift its bowl ban, you could add the Golden Bears to the laundry list.

The talk around the press box at LaVell Edwards Stadium is that if BYU should beat either New Mexico this week or Utah in its season finale to gain the required six wins to go bowling, it is signed, sealed and delivered to Sam Boyd Stadium.

But when that was suggested to Kunzer-Murphy, she imitated one of Woody Hayes' old fullbacks: Not so fast, she said.

"A lot of things can happen. But I think we need to have a team that is playing great football in November."

At this point, that wouldn't be BYU or Air Force. But another LV Bowl source said that if the 5-5 Cougars win out and 7-3 Air Force should lose to either UNLV or San Diego State, it would be a lot easier to bypass a Falcons team that beat the pants off BYU for a Cougars squad that has a big following both at home and here.

Besides, BYU didn't play here this year while Air Force fans (outside of Nellis Air Force Base airmen) would be required to make two trips to Las Vegas within a six-week span.

But the TV guys also will have their say. And the BYU fans' reputation for procreating notwithstanding, there are a lot of guys with bad haircuts who served in the Air Force that will be watching TV on Christmas.

Nobody over at the LV Bowl office would say it, but BYU vs. Oregon might be the dream matchup from a business standpoint, in that both teams travel better than Charles Kuralt.

Only one thing is for certain. Upon hanging up the telephone, it dawned that neither Kunzer-Murphy nor I think very much of UNLV's remote bowl chances. Because neither one of us so much as mentioned the need-two-more-wins Rebels as a wild card.

archive