WAC, Boise State, hope to avoid a repeat of BCS snub

Karl Benson has a cartoon hanging above his desk in his Denver-area office that's an ugly reminder of one of the Western Athletic Conference's most painful days.

It's a drawing of a Brigham Young football player with the calendar page "Jan. 1" draped over him. The caption reads, "All dressed up and nowhere to go."

It's from 1996, when the WAC was a 16-team league. BYU stood 13-1 and appeared headed to the lucrative Fiesta Bowl. That was also the year of the first Big 12 championship game and the first time anyone cursed a conference championship game.

Remember? No. 20 Texas stunned third-ranked Nebraska 37-27 in St. Louis. That sent Texas to the Fiesta, Nebraska took an at-large bid to the Orange and BYU plummeted to the Cotton.

"That's the one thing that scares me," said Benson, the WAC commissioner.

When Benson looks at his current calendar, it says 2009 but it could read 1996. He has a Boise State team that's 12-0 and sixth in the BCS standings — and headed for a BCS bowl if, Benson cautions, it beats 3-9 New Mexico State at home Saturday.

Also that night, 21st-ranked Nebraska (9-3) meets third-ranked Texas (12-0) in the, you guessed it, Big 12 championship. If Nebraska wins, the Cornhuskers go to the Fiesta Bowl, Texas gets an at-large bid and Boise State plummets to a bowl only Idahoans will care about.

Also gone will be the $17 million payday to the WAC. It's 1996 in reverse.

One other slight nudge: It would likely push fourth-ranked Texas Christian of the Mountain West Conference into the BCS championship game.

If the Fiesta Bowl wants to avoid a TCU-Boise State rematch from last year's Poinsettia Bowl, it may take Iowa with its first at-large pick after the Sugar Bowl takes the loser of the SEC championship game.

The Orange, which follows the Fiesta, would then take TCU to play the ACC champion and the Fiesta would follow with Boise State. The Sugar, with the last pick, would take the Big East champion.

Iowa vs. Boise State? I thought the WAC champion was supposed to be David, not Goliath.

Mangino fans flames.

If former players had willed their family fortunes to Mark Mangino last week instead of accusing him of verbal abuse, he'd still be in hot water for the mind-numbing play-calling at the end of Kansas' 41-39 loss to Missouri.