Posted on: Tuesday, December 3, 2002

Tulane may play Warriors in bowl

Advertiser Staff

Tulane will be the University of Hawai'i's Christmas Day opponent — if Cincinnati beats East Carolina Friday night, school and conference officials said yesterday.

Otherwise, the ConAgra Foods Hawai'i Bowl will choose an at-large team from bowl-eligible entries outside Conference USA to play the Warriors on Dec. 25 at Aloha Stadium.

Tulane is 7-5 (4-4 in conference), having completed its regular season.

A Cincinnati win would make the Bearcats (6-6) bowl eligible, allowing CUSA to fill all five of its bowl slots.

Under terms of deals worked out by the Conference USA office, Cincinnati would play North Texas in the Dec. 17 New Orleans Bowl, sending the Green Wave to Hawai'i, Tulane officials said. Otherwise, Tulane will stay home and play in the New Orleans Bowl.

All the other CUSA-contracted bowls have been filled with Texas Christian going to the Liberty Bowl to play Colorado State; Louisville pledged to meet Marshall in the GMAC Bowl and Southern Mississippi committing to play a Big 12 foe in the Houston Bowl.

If the Hawai'i Bowl goes the at-large route, possible candidates would come from conferences with more teams than bowl slots, notably the Big 12, and independents.