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.