BYU, Utah bowl invites will have to wait for BCS

PROVO — The BCS, a controversial way of determining who is who in college football, will keep BYU, Utah and all bowl games tied to the Mountain West Conference hostage for another week.

With the Cougars' 17-10 win over Utah on Saturday, BYU will have to wait until after its game at San Diego State on Saturday to make bowl arrangements. The win lifted the Cougars to 9-2 overall and 7-0 in the Mountain West. The victory also gave BYU its second straight undisputed conference title.

But the Las Vegas Bowl, which has first pick of MWC bowls, will wait until the end of the college football regular season before extending an invitation to anyone. Holding up that choice also affects the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego, the New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque and the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, which have to wait for Las Vegas to make a choice.

"It really puts our conference bowls in a tough situation," BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe said. "Everyone wants to get started planning and inviting and identifying, but right now everything is on hold, and it could be until next Saturday or Sunday."

The Cougars were ranked No. 25 in the BCS standings before defeating Utah. The next BCS standings come out at 2:30 p.m. today. If No. 15 Hawaii loses to Washington in Honolulu next weekend, it could open the door for the Cougars to move up.

While the Cougars might make a move in the BCS, depending on how teams ahead of them fare, it is unlikely they would move into position to be in a BCS game — unlikely, but not mathematically impossible, so everyone must wait. The BCS this year expanded its window from the top 14 to the top 18 teams, because of all the teams that have two losses.

"They have to wait," MWC Commissioner Craig Thompson said. "If an invitation is extended now and something happens, you couldn't go back and un-invite someone. We'll have to wait this out."

Gary Rectenwald from the Poinsettia Bowl and John Saccenti from the Las Vegas Bowl were both in the press box at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday.

---

E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com