Mountain West Bowl Season is Here

by Jeremy Mauss on Nov 29, 2009 3:48 PM PST in News Comment 2 comments

The regular season is over for football (wow that was fast), but now it is time to speculate the bowl scenario for the Mountain West. The lineup is not too hard to figure out with the only consideration of what BCS bowl TCU will go to or where BYU or Utah will be going. The latter will be between the Las Vegas Bowl and the Poinsettia Bowl, and even though BYU won against Utah last night and are higher in the rankings it is not a slam dunk BYU goes.

A 2009 Vegas bowl appearance by BYU would be their fifth straight and a guarantee sell out, on the other hand Utah has not been to the Vegas Bowl since they defeated USC and future Heisman trophy winner Carson Palmer back in 2001. Utah's fan base is not as huge but Vegas is only a five to six hour drive and a sell out should be in the works, especially if USC is back in that game. The Vegas Bowl gets the fifth choice --not placed-- Pac-10 which will be either Cal, USC, or Arizona; my money is on Cal.

The Humanitarian Bowl is out with TCU going to a BCS game and then no sixth MWC team to get that spot. Then the New Mexico Bowl will take Wyoming who will most likely play Fresno State or Nevada; that depends on if Boise State makes a BCS bowl or gets to negoitate another bowl game with a better matchup. Air Force will be heading back to Texas for the Armed Forces bowl to take on the Pac-10's number seven team which is UCLA.

The only other real juicy projection is who will TCU play in their BCS game. The national title is still open if Texas happens to slip up. The way the order goes it really could be any of the three, but the Sugar really wants TCU and the Fiesta would like Boise State since both are both schools are in the area.

My assumption is that TCU will play in the Sugar Bowl against Alabama in a rematch of the MWC-SEC.

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Here is how I think it shakes out:

This assumes the UF/Alabama winner is #1 in the BCS after the SEC title game, that Texas beats Nebraska, Cincy beats Pitt, and Oregon beats OSU. If that happens, Rose is full, Orange has to take GA Tech, and then Sugar picks first, Fiesta second, then Orange, Fiesta, Sugar.

National title: UF/Alabama winner v. Texas
Sugar: UF/Alabama loser (1st pick) v. Penn State (5th pick)
Orange: GA Tech v. TCU (3rd pick)
Fiesta: Cincy (2nd pick) v. Boise (4th pick)
Rose: Oregon v. Ohio State

As for the other MWC bowls:

Las Vegas: Utah v. Oregon State (I think the Holiday will take USC, Sun will take Arizona, and Emerald will take Stanford)
Poinsetta: BYU v. Cal
Armed Forces: AF v. someone from CUSA (I have no idea who they’ll pick from that conference)
New Mexico: Wyoming v. Nevada (I’m actually not sure the order of the selection for the WAC, but I assume New Mexico is 3rd behind Boise and Hawaii). This might also be Idaho.

Everyone hates a pink-shirt-wearing communist.

by displacedute on Nov 29, 2009 9:37 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Penn State

Here is the selection process after the replacements: 2010 games: Orange, Fiesta, Sugar

No way Penn State falls that low. The Sugar will replace with SEC runner up but the Fiesta will take Penn State to replace Texas and then the Orange should take Cincy but the other options are Va. Tech, TCU, or Boise.

I think if Va. Tech is going to a BCS bowl it will be the Orange which would squeeze out Boise. If for some reason the Orange passes on Va. Tech I doubt the Fiesta will take them and Boise will fit there and then TCU who has to be taken will go to the Sugar.

Mountain West Connection

by Jeremy Mauss on Nov 30, 2009 1:11 PM PST reply actions 0 recs