Posted on: Tuesday, November 2, 2004
Warriors still on Hawai'i Bowl wish list
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Advertiser Staff
The Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl hasn't written the University of Hawai'i football team off its invitation list despite the lengthening odds the Warriors face to qualify for the Christmas Eve afternoon game.
"We haven't written anything off yet," said Pete Derzis of ESPN Regional Television (ERT), which owns and operates the game. "Hopefully, Hawai'i will turn it around and have a strong run. But whoever it is, we think we're going to have a very viable bowl game."
UH, which is 3-4, must win four of its five remaining games to have a winning season, the minimum standard for bowl eligibility. ERT has said if UH finishes 7-5 the Warriors will meet a team from Conference USA.
Derzis said: "We want to have an opportunity for the Warriors to participate in the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl, when they have success. But I don't want to place an unfair burden on June (Jones) or his team. We are in this for the long haul and we realize that the long-term growth of this game cannot be dependent, year in and year out, on Hawai'i."
Derzis declined to discuss who might represent the WAC if UH doesn't qualify but speculation in the bowl community has been that 25th-ranked Texas-El Paso (6-2) would be the front runner with Fresno State (4-3 with four games remaining), if it becomes bowl eligible, or No. 16 Boise State (8-0) also possibilities.
Boise State, which blasted UH 69-3 on Friday, might be in line for a Liberty Bowl showdown with No. 14 Louisville (5-1) if the Broncos and Cardinals both win out. Louisville has five games remaining and Boise State three.
The Memphis, Tenn.-based Liberty Bowl is contracted to take the champions of Conference USA and the Mountain West Conference, but MWC front runner Utah (8-0) could end up in a Bowl Championship Series game instead.
Boise State is a longshot to be selected for a BCS game as long as Utah remains unbeaten. Although Boise State is 12th in the BCS ratings, a position that would put it in consideration, Utah is sixth and it is unlikely the BCS would select two at-large teams from non-BCS conferences.
