UH snub magnifies need for Hawai'i bowl game
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
In the end, Brigham Young University's football team left as it had come, railing against the inequities of the Bowl Championship Series and blasting the curious college bowl structure.
On their way out of Aloha Stadium yesterday, the Cougars were still bitterly spitting out the words "travesty," "injustice" and "miscarriage."
Only this time they were speaking on behalf of the University of Hawai'i, which is being shut out of the postseason bowl picture, not themselves.
This time they'd taken up the cause of their 72-45 tormentors, the Warriors.
"Without a doubt they deserve a bowl," said Reno Mahe, a BYU wide receiver. "They deserve a BCS bowl."
A resounding, record-setting drubbing by the Warriors on national cable had rendered moot any case the Cougars might have cared to press regarding their own exclusion by the multi-million dollar BCS cartel and exile to the low-end Liberty Bowl.
In the process, however, it underlined the depth of the snub of the Warriors by the bowl industry.
Twenty-five bowls between Dec. 18 and Jan. 3 and no place for UH to go. Fifty teams — 43 percent of all Division IA teams — going bowling, including 10 schools at 6-5, and the Warriors are not one of them.
Hawai'i is the only Division IA team with nine or more wins that is not going to a bowl game. The only one to upset two Top 20 teams and be earmarked for a postseason in front of the TV set instead of on it.
"It's a travesty these guys aren't in a bowl game," said Gary Crowton, BYU's head coach.
"This sucks," said Channon Harris, UH wide receiver. "They did us wrong."
Finally, something both BYU and UH, those most heated of rivals, can agree upon.
Some of the assembled 46,958 at Aloha Stadium — the largest UH home crowd in a decade — took up the chant "bowl ... bowl ...bowl" in the fourth quarter. But, by then, the ESPN2 cameras had cut away to the Syracuse-North Carolina State basketball game.
There was symbolism in that for the Warriors, who might have been the best team to go unrecognized this season.
Most their games are played after America has gone to sleep. Their scores rarely make the Sunday newspapers and their stars, such as Ashley Lelie and Nick Rolovich, are often overlooked.
And, now, there is no place in the post-season for them, much as we might wish otherwise.
UH President Evan Dobelle steadfastly promised to look into the possibilities of resuscitating the Aloha Bowl. UH and its promotional godfather, Leigh Steinberg, are scheduled to talk to Aloha Sports Inc. owners today.
Again, unfortunately, it has the appearance of being too little, too late. The odds of pulling this rabbit out of the hat are longer than UH going a whole game without a celebration penalty.
"It would be highly unlikely for the NCAA to certify a game at this late juncture," said Karl Benson, the WAC commissioner.
Steinberg diplomatically conceded, the chances are, "unlikely, improbably but not yet impossible."
The efforts of UH, the WAC and Aloha Sports Inc. over these next few months would be well spent in putting together a plan that makes sure this doesn't happen again. All would be served by putting their heads together to find a safety net that ensures a bowl-worthy UH team has a place to hang its helmet in the future.
It is too bad it comes too late for the 21 lei-bedecked UH seniors who played their last game yesterday or the growing legion of fans who have come to adopt them.
It is hard to imagine some bowl somewhere and some network wouldn't be brightened by the Warriors and their point-a-minute offense. Or, that Chad Owens couldn't light up somebody's holidays. For sure, a UH appearance this postseason would have been a jackpot for any bowl operator here.
Although, as offensive guard Manly Kanoa III put it, "I'd hate to be the team that had to play us the way we're rolling now."
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@ honoluluadvertiser.com
