If you've followed the raging debate over the merits of the University of Hawai'i football team's No. 10 national ranking and Bowl Championship Series berth, you're familiar with the question that critics pose time and again:

Sure the Warriors are the only unbeaten team at 12-0 — 8-0 of it in the Western Athletic Conference — but what if they had a steady diet of teams from BCS-guaranteed conference opponents? How would they fare in the Pac-10, Southeastern Conference, etc?

It has been hard to know, of course. At least until the WAC gets a guaranteed BCS berth or the Warriors get invited into a conference that does. Neither of which you want to hold your breath for.

Which is the attraction of this Sugar Bowl pairing with No. 5 Georgia. And, to be sure, the Jan. 1 game will provide a much-awaited snapshot. Not the only one, however. For UH, the Sugar Bowl also sets up as the centerpiece of a stretch of four challenging games against BCS conference opponents in five games over two seasons. It gives the Warriors a taste of what's to come and on the biggest stage UH has, or might anytime soon, see the likes of.

Beginning with the 2007 regular-season finale against Washington that punched UH's ticket to the Sugar Bowl, the Warriors have Georgia in the postseason, open 2008 at Florida and, after I-AA Weber State, play Oregon State in Corvallis. It would have been five BCS foes in six games had Michigan State not coughed up $250,000 to buy its way out of the contracted Nov. 24 game.

All in all, it lines up as the most formidable stretch of power conference opponents and should provide the best indication of where UH stands. Win a couple of those and you have a leg up in any argument. Drop the lot and there will be a lot of I-told-you-so being dished.

We've seen glimpses — and mixed results — before. The Warriors played three BCS opponents — Purdue, Oregon State and Arizona State — to close 2006, going 2-1. All were at home and none was ranked in the Associated Press poll.

Over the end of 2004 and beginning of '05, UH had Northwestern, Michigan State (twice) and Southern California in the space of five games, going 2-2. Three were at home and the defending national champion Trojans were ranked.

For the Warriors — and their fans — the Sugar Bowl, however, is the one they need to win. It is the one everybody will be watching and talking about. The one that is remembered. And the last one in which they'll have Colt Brennan's services at quarterback.

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

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