UH a winner, but won't go to bowl game
By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
Desperate attempts to place the University of Hawai'i football team in a postseason bowl have unraveled, leaving Western Athletic Conference officials surprised and UH officials contemplating "what if" scenarios.
Although the WAC has financial investments — and guaranteed berths — in the Silicon Valley Football Classic in San Jose, Calif., and Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho, conference commissioner Karl Benson had hoped to place up to three more member teams in postseason bowls. To do so, Benson would have had to engineer trades using as bait the two at-large berths in the Silicon and Humanitarian bowls.
But Benson lost a bargaining chip when the Silicon bowl extended an invitation to WAC member Fresno State Friday night. The Bulldogs accepted immediately.
A day later, three other bowls expressed an interest in Fresno State, Benson said.
The Silicon and Humanitarian bowls had agreed to wait until Dec. 1 before extending invitations. The waiting period would have given Benson time to negotiate with other bowls and conferences, and also allowed WAC champion Louisiana Tech to voice where it wanted to play. The WAC champion is assured a bowl berth.
"Unfortunately, the Silicon (officials) elected to go on their own," Benson said. "They felt like they had to do what they had to do. I wish they would have waited."
Silicon bowl director Ken Berry did not return messages left at his office.
Fresno State's RSVP ended UH's slim hopes of playing in the Silicon bowl. Unless a trade can be worked out, Louisiana Tech will play in the Humanitarian Bowl. One possibility is two WAC schools — Louisiana Tech and Boise State — will meet in the Humanitarian Bowl, which is played on Boise State's home field. That would give the WAC three postseason teams, but would not benefit UH, which was counting on Fresno State going to a non-WAC-controlled bowl.
Benson said the Tangerine Bowl had inquired about UH, but was not willing to wait for the outcome of the Warriors' regular-season finale against Brigham Young Dec. 8.
The UH-BYU game, originally scheduled for Dec. 1, was moved so BYU could reschedule a game against Mississippi State that was postponed following the Sept. 11 attacks. In agreeing to the move, UH received a $75,000 inconvenience fee from BYU and the assurances the UH-BYU game would be televised nationally on ESPN2.
"This is a going-away party for us," UH athletic director Hugh Yoshida said. "It's an opportunity to showcase our football team."
But UH's generosity also hurt its chances of competing for a bowl berth. Most bowl slots will be filled by Sunday.
If UH did not approve the move and defeated BYU Saturday to improve to 9-3, "it would have given us a better chance of placing Hawai'i" in a postseason bowl, Benson said.
Benson said he was notified of BYU's request to move its game against UH. "My only advice to the University of Hawai'i was to make the best possible deal you can get," Benson said.
Yoshida said it shouldn't matter when it plays BYU.
"We're bowl eligible now," Yoshida said, noting UH has met the NCAA requirement of a winning record. "We're attractive. What this shows is we need to look at getting a bowl game here. We need something to play for. If we win the WAC championship, that's not a problem. Other than that, we can go 11-1, but if we lose that one game in conference, we may not get a bowl bid because we may not be as attractive (to bowls) based on our location."
Last year, the Warriors had an agreement in which, if they had at least seven regular-season victories, they would be guaranteed a berth in either the Aloha Bowl or O'ahu Bowl. But Fritz Rohlfing, who owns both games, moved them. The O'ahu Bowl was moved to Seattle; the Aloha Bowl, after not finding a home on the Mainland, will not be played this year. It has received certification to resume in San Francisco next year.
Two weeks ago, Yoshida asked Rohlfing about the possibility of playing the Aloha Bowl in Hawai'i next month.
But Rohlfing said there was not enough time to secure financial support, although he added, "They're an exciting football team and they really do deserve to go to a bowl."
Said Yoshida: "It was a reach, but it was something we had to try. We wanted to give it a shot, even for only one year."
Although he is making plans to play the Aloha Bowl in San Francisco next year, Rohlfing said he would not rule out restarting the game in Hawai'i next year. Yoshida said he would look into whether UH could contribute financially to the game.
"Our roots are here," Rohlfing said. "We don't want to close a discussion that could be fruitful."
