Hawai'i's bowl future in doubt

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer

With the University of Hawai'i football team's victory over Brigham Young University winding down to its 72-45 conclusion in 2001, the Aloha Stadium crowd took up a spirited chant of "bowl ... bowl ... bowl ..."

It was a scene that dismayed UH officials on the Aloha Stadium turf vowed would not be repeated, eventually bringing the school, Western Athletic Conference and ESPN Regional Television together to start what has become a Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl that heads into its fourth season.

Sometime during the three-day WAC meetings that begin today in Arizona, conference athletic directors will take up a suddenly complicated bowl situation that now has the potential to shut the Warriors out of their own backyard bowl, the Hawai'i Bowl, even with a bowl-qualifying seven wins or more.

That's because the NCAA's decision not to relicense the Silicon Valley Football Classic last month left the WAC with but two guaranteed bowl openings, the MPC Computers Bowl in Boise, Idaho, and the Hawai'i Bowl, for a nine-team conference. Bowl industry sources said the Silicon Valley's request for reconsideration was turned down Friday.

It has been WAC policy to guarantee berths to the top two teams in the regular-season standings and assure UH of a berth in the Hawai'i Bowl if the Warriors are bowl eligible.

But with only two bowls to work from at the moment ...

"I'm sure we will discuss these issues at our meeting, (but) I cannot predict what will happen," said Boise State's Gene Bleymaier, the conference's senior athletic director.

When the Hawai'i Bowl was created, the parties — UH, the WAC and ESPN Regional Television, the owner and operator — agreed that for at least the first two years UH would receive an automatic berth if it had the requisite seven or more victories to be bowl eligible.

"They are definitely guaranteed a bowl game in the first two years if they are eligible," Pete Derzis, ERT vice president, said at the State Capitol press conference in 2002. "And, in theory, (they) could be selected all four years under certain circumstances."

After 2003, Derzis had said decisions would be based upon, "the best collective decision of what is best for the game and the (participating) conferences."

The thinking was that a UH presence was needed to build a foundation and following for the bowl but that sometime the game would have to be able to stand on its own without an annual Warrior presence. Moreover, the bowl didn't want to invite charges of the game being a de facto "14th game" for UH.

Guarantee in jeopardy

Last year, WAC athletic directors voted not to continue the guarantee of a place for UH in the Hawai'i Bowl. But that was overridden a month later by the conference Board of Directors, which is composed of presidents and chancellors. UH, which finished fifth in the WAC at 4-4 and 7-5 overall, went on to beat Alabama-Birmingham in the bowl.

Now, with just two bowls and the potential for someone to be left out, the issue figures to be back on the table. The fear among some is sure to be that a Boise State or Fresno State could finish ahead of UH in the conference standings but be squeezed out of a bowl.

"How would you feel if you were, say, 10-1 or 9-2, and a team that went 7-5 got the bowl instead?" said one WAC member. "There'd be a riot."

"I always knew when the number of bowls dropped below three this discussion was going to resurface," said John McNamara, UH associate athletic director. "You can see it from both sides. I mean, you can certainly see it from the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl side. But you can see it from the side of the conference as a whole, too. So, it will be interesting to see how big-picture people can be in terms of what's in the best interests of the conference and the bowl partners."

"I don't think I'd want to speculate what will happen right now," commissioner Karl Benson said diplomatically.

Complicated situation

The situation is complicated by the changing landscape, both in NCAA criteria and WAC membership.

First, said Jim Donovan, executive director of the Hawai'i Bowl, "there is now a 25,000 minimum attendance (average)."

Bowls must average the 25,000 or 70 percent of stadium capacity over a three-year cycle or risk losing their NCAA license. The NCAA cited the Silicon Valley's drooping crowds (just 5,494 in 2004) as a factor in failing to relicense the game.

Since the Hawai'i Bowl agreement was signed, a third of the schools and most of the athletic directors and presidents of WAC members have changed.

Ernie Nishizaki, executive vice president of Kyo-ya, which operates five Waikiki hotels under the Sheraton banner, said, "If Hawai'i is not in it then it becomes a problem for us. But, at the same time, our goal is to make the bowl game a success for the state of Hawai'i one way or the other so we're going to do our best."

Find other bowls

In the meantime, Benson said the conference, which has had four bowl teams the past two seasons, is attempting to find other bowls in which to place qualifying teams. "We're in discussion with the Liberty Bowl about a possible WAC option," Benson said. "We're continuing to have discussions with San Diego (home of the new Poinsettia Bowl)."

San Diego would be a natural, but the Poinsettia Bowl, which is operated by the Holiday Bowl, has locked in one side of its match with the Mountain West, hoping for hometown team San Diego State, and has an interest in keeping the other half open in case Navy is eligible.

As for the Hawai'i Bowl, "(for) ESPN, the WAC and everybody involved there is a business element to this," Nishizaki said. "So, hopefully, one side is a sense of fairness but also the other side is let's look at what's good for business so bowl games like Hawai'i can continue to exist."

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

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