Options abound for Las Vegas Bowl
Tuesday was Las Vegas Bowl executive director John Saccenti's 40th birthday, a milestone day that he didn't have much time to celebrate.
His phone was going crazy, and it had little to do with well-wishers, but more to do with the comments the day before by Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson.
The commish told the Idaho Statesman he didn't expect the Las Vegas Bowl to take a Mountain West team this season. Las Vegas' hometown game, scheduled for Dec. 19 at Sam Boyd Stadium, has the option of taking a Mountain West team with the first choice or Brigham Young.
One of those teams will play the bowl's sixth choice of the Pac-12 Conference.
Saccenti insisted a Mountain West school (San Diego State) is still very much under consideration. He hopes to make an announcement before Sunday as to what the bowl will do, and the committee meets tonight to discuss its options.
Boiling it down, Saccenti and the committee are most seriously considering two scenarios. One would be to invite UCLA, which means likely choosing San Diego State on the Mountain West side because the Bruins already have played BYU. The other would be going with California, which makes BYU the likely opponent because San Diego State already has played the Golden Bears.
"No matter what, we're trying to avoid any repeat games this year," Saccenti said.
Nothing is locked in, however, and this weekend could change the picture.
San Diego State hosts Air Force in the Mountain West title game on Saturday, and Southern California plays Stanford for the Pac-12 championship. A Stanford victory with some upsets nationally could get the Cardinal in the playoffs and cause a trickle-down effect for the bowls aligned with the Pac-12.
So Saccenti and the Las Vegas Bowl likely will have to wait until Sunday before making any announcement.
His dream scenario would be to invite BYU and Utah, but Saccenti isn't holding his breath. He said the Pac-12 has a guideline about not repeating in a bowl — the Utes were in Las Vegas last year — but it isn't a set-in-stone rule.
Regardless, Utah agreeing to play BYU in Las Vegas would be a long shot because the Utes wouldn't gain much in facing their old and fiercest rival. BYU would be the independent that knocked off the Pac-12 team with all the inherent advantages.
But it doesn't hurt to dream.
"I'm averaging about two emails a minute from BYU and Utah fans that they want to play each other," Saccenti said. "I have not talked to (Utah coach) Kyle (Whittingham) and I have not talked to (Utes athletic director) Chris Hill ... but I imagine they would not be all that thrilled to play them.
"If we did get that, we'd have to find a way to get a second deck on Sam Boyd."
— Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow him on Twitter: @markanderson65
