Las Vegas Bowl director: Scandal-tainted Penn State deserves bowl game

Tina Kunzer-Murphy is not one to pause when asked a question. She is executive director of a bowl game, which means she can talk on her event and its history and positive effect on the community like the finest of filibusters delaying a vote.

But a toxic issue is surrounding college football today that would make even the most communicative of sorts think before speaking.

"The Sandusky pause," Kunzer-Murphy said Wednesday after the telephone line went silent for several seconds.

She was mulling this over: Should the Las Vegas Bowl find itself with an at-large berth for its Dec. 22 game at Sam Boyd Stadium, would she and her selection committee consider inviting Penn State amid the sex abuse scandal of former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky?

"Obviously, there would be a lot of distractions," Kunzer-Murphy said. "It would be a very, very difficult call. We are all angry about what is a tragedy. But I would have to say yes.

"It would be a chance to allow student-athletes and alumni and others who had nothing to do with any of those terrible things to celebrate a little, to try and make the best of a horrible situation. How could you just summarily dismiss players who had nothing to do with it?"

Kunzer-Murphy likely won't spend another second considering the option because the possibility rivals that of UNLV losing to America's worst team.

Oops.

Her bowl receives the first choice from the Mountain West Conference, meaning you will see either Boise State or Texas Christian here for the holidays, and the fifth from the Pac-12, meaning you could see for the second time in five years a UCLA side searching for a new head coach.

Penn State is part of a Big Ten Conference with eight bowl tie-ins, and the Nittany Lions at 8-2 are solidly eligible for the postseason. But there also could be more than eight Big Ten teams to qualify for bowls.

It has made many wonder.

From the multitude of daily stories that have come out of State College, Pa., the past several days, a few have focused on whether any bowl would desire the distractions of hosting this year's team.

Rick Santorum went as far as saying the Nittany Lions should finish their regular-season schedule and pass on a bowl, that as a Penn State alum, the presidential candidate is "not sure if I was on a bowl committee, I would be too anxious about inviting Penn State given the situation up there."

It's a tough call, and then it isn't. Bowl games depend on fans traveling to a particular city and spending money and celebrating their team's season. How festive could anyone at Penn State feel today?

The last thing you want as a bowl committee is every question directed at either team being about an alleged pedophile and the young boys he is charged with assaulting. A week's worth of bad publicity makes for bad business. For some, mentioning Penn State and a bowl game today seems unconscionable.

But it's not that simple. Kunzer-Murphy is correct in thinking about those players, those seniors, who have earned the right to compete in a postseason game and whose only ties to the scandal are the uniform they wear and the university they represent.

"I'm sure there will be a bowl that embraces those kids," Kunzer-Murphy said, "and it will be the right thing to do."

At this point, she is more worried about her game's matchup.

Boise State became an at-large team for the Las Vegas Bowl last year, when the Pac-10 couldn't fulfill its allotment of eligible teams. That shouldn't be an issue next month, when California and UCLA appear to be the best bets for landing here from the new Pac-12.

The Bruins still must win one of their final two games to become bowl eligible, and there is the issue of Rick Neuheisel's job status, much like when UCLA played here in 2007 under an interim head coach after the firing of Karl Dorrell.

It's not a distraction near the size of Penn State, but it's also not the greatest circumstance for a bowl director.

Kunzer-Murphy's committee also will debate inviting Boise State or TCU, but such discussion shouldn't last long if most brain cells in the room are working.

Boise State, understandably upset its Bowl Championship Series options again seem to have exploded in a second of shoddy place-kicking, brings thousands of people wherever it goes.

It fills seats, hotel rooms, restaurants.

It traveled more than 10,000 to watch the Broncos play UNLV a few weeks ago, which is like coming 10 hours by car to see Beethoven compete against a kid who can only play "Chopsticks."

TCU might win the Mountain West, but the uncertainty of it delivering a Boise State-type crowd should be enough for Kunzer-Murphy to dream first and foremost about a stadium blanketed in blue and orange.

Look at it this way: A week of Boise State against Cal or UCLA at least would arrive free of any Sandusky pauses.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday on "Monsters of the Midday," Fox Sports Radio 920 AM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.