By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

It was suggested the other day by one of its employees that the folks who own and operate the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl might want to light some candles — or at least say a prayer — on behalf of the University of Hawai'i football team.

At the time, he was kidding, we thought.

But no longer, not after a 41-29 loss at Rice plunged UH to an 0-2 start and the bowl game into some anxious weeks ahead.

For after UH, the two-year-old Hawai'i Bowl has both the most invested and the most to lose if the Warriors don't soon pull out of their tailspin and finish with a winning record.

What seemed a fairly attainable goal of winning seven of 12 regular-season games to qualify for the Hawai'i Bowl has suddenly become an adventure for UH.

Now, after losses to Florida Atlantic and Rice, the Warriors must win seven of their 10 remaining games or forget the postseason for the first time in three years.

Suddenly, the margin for error is scant for a team whose schedule gets tougher and whose weaknesses have now been exposed.

This is both the risk and reward of building a bowl game around one team as ESPN Regional Television, the owner and operator of the Hawai'i Bowl, has done with UH. Among the 25 NCAA bowl games, perhaps only the Boise-based Humanitarian Bowl is as closely tethered to its local team.

In the best of times, such as the 2002 season, there is a built-in draw and guaranteed success. The flip side is what is happening now: If UH doesn't win the seven games that the NCAA requires for bowl eligibility, the bowl faces a bleak Christmas and tougher future.

Under NCAA rules, a bowl must average a minimum turnout of 25,000 over a three-year period or face loss of certification. The NCAA has put two bowls on notice, something not lost on the Hawai'i Bowl. Last year, when UH didn't clinch a berth until the 11th game, the bowl barely made its magic number.

Without UH this year, the bowl could go into 2005, the final year of its four-year contract, with a considerable mountain to climb.

And that would be too bad for all concerned. For as much as the Hawai'i Bowl needs UH, the Warriors also need the bowl. We saw in the 9-3 season of 2001 that ended with the demolition of Brigham Young and no bowl bid what the absence of a backyard bowl game means to Hawai'i.

Without a hometown bowl, UH might have played in just one NCAA bowl, the 1992 Holiday Bowl in San Diego, in its history instead of five.

"We can still do what we said we were gonna do and that's get in that bowl game," UH coach June Jones said. "We said all along that we had to win one or two on the road and maintain the home-field advantage. It is still there, it just makes it a little harder."

Just in case, they might want to light those candles at bowl headquarters.

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