Friday, May 2, 2003 | 10:27 a.m.
UNLV's chances of making a bowl game in 2003 may have shrunk by 25 percent Thursday.
The NCAA Football Certification Subcommittee decided not to re-certify the Seattle Bowl, which had been under contract to take the Mountain West Conference's No. 4 team and against the No. 6 team from the Atlantic Coast Conference.
A two-year-old bowl game, the Seattle Bowl was played at Safeco Field in 2001 and at Seahawks Stadium last year. It has been beset by financial problems.
Operators of the game missed two deadlines last fall for providing a $1.5 million letter of credit.
If that isn't bad enough, the Mountain West is suing Aloha Sports Inc., which ran the game, for $250,000 its says it still is owed from last year's game. Terry Daw, a Hawaii businessman who owns Aloha Sports, is attempting to sell the company to Pro Sports & Entertainment Inc., based in Santa Barbara, Calif.
"Right now I don't know what we are going to do," Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson said about getting into a fourth bowl game at such a late date.
"I mentioned that this could happen to the athletic directors during our meetings in Santa Fe (N.M.) two weeks ago. We've had some conversations with the Humanitarian Bowl. There seems to be some interest there. But we could have just three bowl games this year."
The Humanitarian Bowl, played on the blue "Smurf Turf"' in Boise, Idaho, features a Western Athletic Conference team as host and is looking for a new opponent. The Big 12 Conference, which sent Iowa State to play Boise State last year, elected to switch to the inaugural Fort Worth Bowl on Dec. 23 where it will be matched against a Conference USA team.
"Our athletic directors and football coaches meet next week in Phoenix," Thompson said. "Obviously our options for a fourth bowl will be a topic. The timing is right in that regard."
Thompson believes that with new ownership there's a good chance the Seattle Bowl could return in 2004.
"I'm really disappointed that this has happened," he said. "It was such a great venue and played in a state-of-the-art facility. I really think that it has the makings to be a very successful bowl site in the future."
"I think having three bowls is still good," UNLV athletic director and head football coach John Robinson said. "If you finish in the top three in conference, you'll get rewarded."
But Ole Miss recently sent UNLV a check to exercise its buyout option for the 2006 rematch in Las Vegas. On top of that, the University of Albama-Birmingham, which was to play at Sam Boyd Stadium in 2005 and then host the Rebels in 2006, also has asked out of its deal.
That means UNLV senior associate athletic director Jerry Koloskie must scramble to find replacements for three games in the next four years, no easy task considering many teams are already booked through 2010.
One coach who has been very vocal about wanting to play UNLV is Fresno State coach Pat Hill.
"We'd love to come out there and play them," he said this week. "It seems like a natural. And we'd bring a lot of people to that town." There seems to be some interest there. But we could have just three bowl games this year."
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