Wanna bet the University of Hawai'i football team can run the table this season?

Or, that the Warriors can't?

Either way, the Las Vegas Hilton has a deal for you. The sports book has set a line of 11 regular-season victories and is taking bets on the over (meaning a 12-0 season) or under (two or more losses).

It is an intriguing proposition and one sure to entice more action as the season approaches its Sept. 1 kickoff. More than that, it says a lot about the expanding interest in the Warriors and their bid for a run-the-table season as several books add UH propositions.

Never before has a Warrior campaign carried such a spark beyond these shores. People who couldn't have told you a season or two ago what UH's nickname was now know not only who its quarterback is but where the soft spots and potential trap doors are in its schedule. Oddsmakers who found little appeal in UH games except by Hawai'i fans and gamblers hoping to close out the day with a make-back bet now have a following for Warriors' games.

Clearly, if Vegas is posting odds on some of your games — and season win total — a month before the campaign starts, people care.

And the word is spreading. Colin Cowherd, whose ESPN radio show airs on 350 stations, including here, has been preaching UH as the team to keep an eye on. "I talked to guys in Vegas who set the lines and they told me Hawai'i is the darkhorse in the country to be in a (Bowl Championship Series) game," Cowherd said.

Not as a blue moon long shot, either. "I think if you follow college football, it is not out on the limb (as a pick)," Cowherd said. "You look at returning lettermen, the schedule and their returning quarterback ... I actually got a couple dozen e-mails (from listeners) and people who follow college football and who thought the same thing. Boise State and Utah have done it (going unbeaten into a BCS game), so it isn't that far-fetched."

Significantly, according to Jay Kornegay, the Hilton's sports book director, the over-under on a season win total is offered only on about 30 teams. And of them, Kornegay said, just two have a line set at 11 — UH and Southern California.

Moreover, the Hilton has tabbed two of UH's games — Nov. 16 at Nevada and Nov. 23 with Boise State — among its so-called "games of the year" already posted. You might be surprised UH is already an 8-point pick over five-time WAC champion Boise State and a 5-point favorite over Nevada.

But be amazed that UH's quest is generating a following? That should be no surprise, not here.

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