Vegas bowl to get top MWC pick

Beginning with the 2006 football season, the Pioneer PureVison Las Vegas Bowl will get the first choice of which Mountain West Conference bowl-eligible teams will play in postseason, bowl officials said Thursday.

This could be the first step in Las Vegas becoming the site where the league's champion will go — although, for the next four years, the bowl committee does not have to lock itself into taking the league champion.

In a joint announcement, bowl executive director Tina Kunzer-Murphy and MWC commissioner Craig Thompson declared the payout for the bowl will increase to $1 million from $575,000 this season.

The announcement came one day after the Fort Worth Bowl announced an official tie to the MWC with the understanding Texas Christian, if eligible for a bowl, could be taken in any year.

This doesn't mean the Liberty Bowl in Memphis is out of the picture in 2005, according to MWC assistant commissioner Javan Hedlund.

"But with the league's new bowl ties and contracts like this one with Las Vegas, the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego, Emerald Bowl in San Francisco and Fort Worth Bowl, the league has an option of making a team available to the Liberty Bowl if five league teams are bowl eligible," Hedlund said.

Or, in other words, there are four other choices before the Liberty if the league doesn't want to send its champion to Memphis.

The Liberty Bowl and MWC have not come to an agreement for 2005 and beyond. "Negotiations are continuing, and a clear picture may not be available until later in the season when the Liberty Bowl sees what MWC teams are available," Hedlund said.

This year the Las Vegas Bowl is scheduled for Dec. 22. The Emerald Bowl will be Dec. 29 and the new San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl is Dec. 22. The Fort Worth Bowl is an option if Conference USA does not qualify a No. 4 or 5 team or if the Big 12 is unable to provide its No. 8. for 2005, Hedlund said.

If the MWC has five bowl-eligible teams this season, the Liberty's $1.5 million payout would be a natural choice to pursue, Hedlund said.

"You'd hate to leave that money on the table," he added.

Barring a repeat of Utah's Bowl Championship Series crash in 2004, the MWC and Las Vegas Bowl looks like a target bowl for the league's top team next season through 2009. The Las Vegas Bowl, owned by ESPN, has the first pick of taking the MWC champion or another attractive team.