Posted on: Friday, December 3, 2004

Hawai'i Bowl needs a UH win

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

There are a lot of reasons the University of Hawai'i football team needs to beat Michigan State tomorrow night. Two of them are named Akron and Troy.

While much of the focus has been on UH needing to win the game to become 7-5 and bowl eligible, there is also the flip side: What happens if the Warriors don't deliver?

You can bet it is a question that sends chills through the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl. For UH and its fans, there would be disappointment in a 6-6 finish with no postseason. For the bowl game near you, the Hawai'i Bowl, there could be, well, Akron or Troy.

Not exactly a match made in heaven — or at the box office — when paired with Alabama-Birmingham which, as the contracted Conference USA representative, is already half of the Hawai'i Bowl matchup Dec. 24.

Because UH is 6-5 and the question of the Warriors' bowl eligibility has dragged on to the last possible hours with the Hawai'i-MSU game being the final regular-season college football game of the year, there are few remaining options.

For the bowl people, it is like being the last customer in a picked-through toy store just before the place shuts its doors on Christmas Eve. There isn't much left to choose from and you take what you can get.

With 28 NCAA-certified bowl games, there are 56 slots to be filled. And, as of today there are just 56 bowl-eligible teams (South Carolina and Clemson having removed themselves from consideration after their brawl). It would take a UH win over Michigan State or Tulane (5-5) upset of Louisville (9-1) to make it 57 or 58.

By the time the opening kickoff is in the air at Aloha Stadium tomorrow, all but three of the bowls will have their matchups cast, leaving the Hawai'i Bowl with little wiggle room in case of a UH loss.

Syracuse (6-5) was about the last "brand name" school left unattached and it appears the Orangemen will likely go to the Las Vegas or Tangerine bowls by tomorrow.

Neither Akron (6-5) nor Troy (7-4) want to be left without a chair when the music stops but ending up in the Hawai'i Bowl would be like backing into the lottery. And, you can bet they will be by their television sets tomorrow night rooting mightily for Michigan State to make it happen.

Both have had their moments this year, especially Division I-A newcomer Troy, which has knocked off Missouri and Florida Atlantic and come up short (24-20) at LSU with a touchdown called back.

But neither figure to bring fans and won't do much to inspire ticket sales here or pump up cable ratings across the country.

Indeed, Troy, perhaps the best team on the field, would be the worst matchup in all other categories since it is a two-hour drive from UAB and would turn the Hawai'i Bowl into a cross-state game better suited for Montgomery or Wetumpka than Aloha Stadium.

There is a lot riding on the outcome of the UH-MSU game and the Hawai'i Bowl knows it better than most.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.