MWC and Insight Bowl talking about the future

PHOENIX — The Mountain West Conference might be coming to Arizona on a more permanent basis if things work out in new bowl negotiations.

MWC commissioner Craig Thompson said the Insight Bowl, which was played last night at the Bank One Ballpark in downtown Phoenix, is a bowl his league is looking at for the future.

"We're just talking," Thompson said. "They have a contractual agreement with the Big East and Pac-10 for another year."

The MWC has deals with the Liberty Bowl, Las Vegas Bowl and Emerald Bowl in San Francisco, but the former two have contracts that run out this year.

That leaves the MWC with just the Emerald Bowl for next year. Thompson said the league is looking at renewing deals with the Liberty and Las Vegas bowls but is also looking at the Insight Bowl, a new bowl in San Diego, a new bowl in Denver and the Plains Capital Fort Worth Bowl.

Besides the Insight Bowl (formerly known as Copper Bowl), the Fort Worth Bowl has a contract through 2005 and the San Diego and Denver bowls haven't been approved and may not be approved by the NCAA Certification Committee.

So what is the MWC likely to do? Thompson doesn't know, but he indicated that the league isn't likely to keep the Liberty Bowl for its league champion.

"Our people have said pretty loud and clear that they would like to stay out West," he said. "They'd like Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego, SanFrancisco . . . Fort Worth is a non-stop flight from most of our cities and Denver is drivable from most places. So that's the bulk of the selection among those six. The question for us is, how long do you structure them, when do you start them."

Utah's appearance in a BCS bowl game has helped the league tremendously, and Thompson is confident the league will come out just fine in whatever is worked out.

"We just have to put all the pieces together and decide what's real and what's not," he said.

---

E-mail: sor@desnews.com