WAC may double pleasure in bowl game

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist

The conventional wisdom is that teams from the same conference do not oppose each other in a bowl game.

But, then, history tells us the Western Athletic Conference is nothing if not unconventional.

Remember, these are some of the same folks who gave us the first 16-team conference and a league that, even at the present 10 members, reaches a fifth of the way around the world.

The reasoning apparently goes that when you've stretched conference geography — and travel budgets — across five time zones, what's another push of the envelope?

So we probably shouldn't be too surprised the conference is seriously mulling the curious move of doubling up on at least one of its bowls this season.

Commissioner Karl Benson confirms: "It has been considered. I think that as we evaluate all the possibilities and all the possible matchups, it would appear that would at least be on our list of considerations."

Desperation is the mother of invention for the WAC, which finds itself in the quandary of having five bowl-eligible teams — Boise State (7-4), Fresno State (9-2), Hawai'i (7-3), Louisiana Tech (6-4) and Rice (8-3) — and only two guaranteed bowls.

Try as he might — and no commissioner wants three disgruntled members on his back at bowl time — Benson is finding few postseason homes for the teams at this point.

The WAC is obligated to provide a game for its champion which, if Louisiana Tech beats last-place Tulsa this week, would be Tech. The problem is that the bowls are in San Jose, Calif. (Silicon Valley Bowl) and Boise, Idaho (Humanitarian Bowl) and Tech isn't likely to sell many tickets to either.

What the WAC would like to do, since it is a financial partner in both bowls, is send Fresno State up the road to San Jose, have Boise State in its hometown game and make a deal to place Louisiana Tech in a bowl in the Central Time Zone, using at-large berths in both the Silicon and Humanitarian games to sweeten the offer.

Failing that, it would be stuck with Tech in one bowl and having to turn away either its only nationally ranked team, Fresno State, or its only hometown bowl team, Boise State.

So it wouldn't surprise anybody if the WAC paired Boise State and Louisiana Tech in a rematch of Tech's Nov. 3 48-42 win in Ruston, La., a game that would sell in Idaho and leave the conference free to match Fresno State and possibly UCLA in San Jose, provided the Bruins beat Arizona State.

A UH-Tech game, which would not only match two of the top five teams in NCAA passing stats but schools that have not met this season, is not likely.

Apparently, some things are out of reach, even in the WAC.