BYU football: Destination is unknown for Cougars

PROVO — After taking Thanksgiving week off, the BYU Cougars return to work this week in preparation for a bowl game.

Their postseason destination, and their opponent, are expected to be announced this week, though perhaps not until Sunday, after the Bowl Championship Series pairings are released.

The Cougars will be headed to either the Las Vegas Bowl or the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego. The Las Vegas Bowl has the first choice among bowl-eligible Mountain West Conference teams while the Poinsettia Bowl has second choice.

With No. 7 Utah (12-0) headed to the BCS, the Las Vegas Bowl will have to choose between No. 11 TCU (10-2) and No. 20 BYU (10-2). While the Horned Frogs have never played in the Las Vegas Bowl, the Cougars have played there the past three seasons, selling out Sam Boyd Stadium all three times.

Question is, will the Las Vegas Bowl committee base its decision on how many tickets it thinks it can sell, or taking the highest ranked team available?

Opposing the MWC selection in the Las Vegas Bowl will be the fourth- place team from the Pac-10, which could be California (7-4 overall, 5-4 in the Pac-10). The Golden Bears close out their regular season this Saturday at home against winless Washington.

Cal is in fourth place in the Pac-10 behind Southern California (10-1, 7-1), Oregon (9-3, 7-2) and Oregon State (8-4, 7-2). Behind the Bears in the league standings are Arizona (6-5, 4-4) and Arizona State (5-6, 4-4), which meet this weekend.

If BYU and Cal meet on Dec. 20 in the Las Vegas Bowl, it would mark the second meeting in four years between the two teams. In the 2005 Las Vegas Bowl, the Golden Bears defeated the Cougars, 35-28.

The Poinsettia Bowl, scheduled for Dec. 23, pits a MWC team against the No. 7 Pac-10 team. However, there aren't enough bowl-eligible Pac-10 teams to fulfill the commitment to the Poinsettia Bowl, opening the door for a Western Athletic Conference team to go to there — likely Nevada (7-5) or Fresno State (7-5).

There's also been talk that the Poinsettia Bowl is trying to broker a deal that would set up a matchup with either BYU or TCU against No. 9 Boise State (12-0). Meanwhile, there's a possibility that the Broncos could earn a bid to the BCS, along with the other undefeated non-BCS team — Utah.

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E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com