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Utah Utes, BYU football: MWC may begin bowling in Boise

Leave it to Craig Thompson to say "The future looks bright" because of adding the Boise Ty-D Bowl what a dweeb.

Anyone remember the days when the conference champion played in the Holiday Bowl and Utahn's complained that it wasn't high profile enough.

Anyone reading this excited about the image adding another "glitzy" bowl such as the Roady's Humanitarian? BTW, what is Roady? The ONLY thing I remember from the Humanitarian bowl is the smurf turf.

Unfortunately, even with the proliferation of "everyone and anyone has a bowl game" the MWC is stuck with the dribblings and even the championship game is at a horrible bowl game.

Can anyone say that perhaps the MWC officials need to be replaced?

Who would go to this snow bowl? Boise in December? That's a punishment, not a reward for a good season. Craig Thompson needs to be fired.

Five bowl games for the conference is a lot better than one, like the old WAC had for decades.

A game with two mid majors with records barely above .500. Fans will flock to it!

Again, this is what is wrong with the whole college bowl system. These games are starting to look like NFL preseason games minus the talent.

At least this bowl will enhance the Utes chances of planying in a bowl.

This isn't a bowl game for the conference champion. They're talking about sending the 5th place MWC team to Boise. Which means that instead of staying home this year, Wyoming will get to go to a bowl game for the first time in 40 years.

Adding an extra bowl means more revenue for the conference, provided they can sell some tickets. Boise is close enough that people could drive. From many of the MWC schools ... so selling those tickets shouldn't be that hard.

Also, with the mtn on directv i think the conference future is bright. They're talking with CBS about getting some national games ... these are good things.

The two years with only cable distribution have been a disaster, but moving forward things do look pretty good.

Why don't we just play a bowl game in Laramie in December and call it the "Intermountain Farmers Association Urine Bomb Bowl."

Five guaranteed bowls for 9 teams, assuming there are that many MWC teams who are bowl eligible, is great for the conference. Most of the bowls nowadays are locked into specific conferences so getting an at-large bid to a bowl is only available if a conference doesn't have enough bowl-eligible teams to fill it's available bowl slots.

Playing in ANY bowl is better than staying home watching games on TV. The payout may only be enough to cover travel expenses, but it gives one more conference team an extra month to practice. In the long run, that will be good for the conference.

Besides, playing in Boise, or pretty much anywhere in the West, is much better than playing in Memphis. It's much closer and easier to get to and the weather is not that much different than Memphis.

When you're a small market, non-BCS conference, you take what you can get from the bowl feast, even if it's table scraps.

"The Rebels, however, had several close misses and finished the season 2-10 overall and 1-7 in MWC play."

Anyone know who UNLV's lone MWC victim was?

Wow, that was weak. Assuming you meant that it would increase the Utes chances of "playing" in a bowl, I don't think they'll need it.

5 Years in a row.
7 Bowls in the last 9 years.
All wins.

i guess this is a substitute for the short lived r.e. bowl game that people threw up over.
this from the man who brought us the mnt "network"

Only a clown like Thompson would think that things are going well with this conference. The fact that the mtn is finally on one of major satellite systems may have quieted some of the complaining from fans, but it still will be very difficult for the average football fan to find a MWC game. And just wait until people see how bad the announcers/productions are on the mtn. It's pretty weak.

And the "maybe some games some day will be on CBS" talk is still just talk. Did you notice the fine print? The games would have to kick off at 10am. Didn't Thompson walk away from ESPN because of bad kick off times (among other things)?

And who in their right mind would think that a bowl game against a WAC team in Idaho is a positive for the conference? Seriously.

More small minded ideas from Thompson just like pretty much everything else he's ever done. They should fire him and bring in someone with executive experience at one of the BCS conferences who has some vision about what could be done to actually IMPROVE the conference. Not just try to keep it alive.

��instead of staying home this year, Wyoming will get to go to a bowl game for the first time in 40 years.�

Watch that decimal place. Wyoming played in the Las Vegas Bowl in 2004, and beat UCLA in a more convincing fashion than BYU.

Adding another guaranteed bowl slot for the MWC is a good thing. It gives us a little more exposure to the national media, provides an extra month of practice, and offers a little experience in "pressure" situations.

However...

Don't we already HAVE a post-season match-up with the WAC in New Mexico? And even that match-up is an "also-ran" unheralded MWC vs. "also-ran" unheralded WAC team. The Humanitarian Bowl is being set up to be the 2 teams that couldn't cut it in Albuquerque!

It's time to reorganize the leadership currently in existence within our conference. Our representatives have demonstrated a propensity to, in football terms, "play not to lose" rather than "play to win". Craig Thompson, et al, have not directed us forward, but rather left us stagnated. Remaining in place is falling behind. The vision for the future of the MWC had been lost. New leadership is thus being called for.

...or if the PAC-10 is on drugs, then they can have him. Nothing against the guy personally...he's just a really bad comissioner.

I would like to see a WAC championship vs. MWC championship played in the Las Vegas bowl. That is assuming either team is not BCS eligible. Last year that would have placed BSU vs. BYU instead of the 5th place PAC 10 yawner vs. UCLA. I think the MWC winner who ever it is deserves a better match up than the forth of fifth place PAC 10 team. Either renegotiate with the PAC 10 and get their 3rd or even 2nd place team or play the WAC champion who will usually be ranked. Last year BSU was in the top 25 prior to their bowl lose to ECU. Also I like that the MWC will be getting another bowl tie in but come on the conference champion should get a decent appointment in the LAS Vegas bowl. Build the Vegas Bowl into what the Holiday Bowl was and PS fire Thompson for his ineptness!!

Hey Good for the Utes,
I think you mean it will guarantee a bowl win for BYU. But let's not push it.

Forget all the trash talk about Utah and BYU, who traditionly represent the conferece other than TCU in football and UNLV in basketball. This is sad, "more revenue for playing another bowl game" I call B.S.!!! If Caig wants more revenue he needs to realize that will come from a big time T.V. deal. Who cares if the MTN is on DTV, ESPN is on every form of Television cable to sattlelite!!! What a joke future is bright my you know what. Time for the A.Ds to get a set, stand up and fix the issue.

While its true I hate our current tv situation, one has to admit espn was giving us horrible times. I mean weren't we starting games at all hours of the night on like wednesdays and stuff?

It's all about the money. The PAC-10 will send it's teams to whichever bowls pay the most money.

Right now, the PAC-10 is guaranteed one BCS spot and could get a second team in as well.

The PAC-10 has arrangements with the following bowls:

Rose: $14 million to $17 million (Big Ten vs PAC-10)
Holiday: $2.2 million (Big 12 vs PAC-10)
Sun: $1.9 million (Big East vs PAC-10)
Las Vegas: $1 million (MWC vs PAC-10)
Emerald: $750,000 (ACC vs PAC-10)
Armed Forces: $750,000 (C-USA vs PAC-10)

The ONLY way the PAC-10 will send a team higher than their 4th- or 5th-place team to Las Vegas is if the Las Vegas Bowl pays significantly more than the Holiday and Sun bowls.

That will not happen until UNLV expands their standium to around 60,000 AND ESPN (which owns the Las Vegas Bowl) feels that the bowl is a bigger draw (that is, it will make more money) than the Holiday and Sun bowls.