CATCH OF THE DAY:
Some great choices for MAACO Bowl

November 9, 2009 by Sage Sammons 

The Las Vegas Bowl gets the first pick from the Mountain West Conference and either the fourth or fifth from the Pac-10

With the end of the college football regular season looming, teams are now finding out if they are considered bowl eligible. A team must have at least six wins to become bowl eligible, but not every team with six wins will make it into a bowl game. It is college football’s version of a playoff.

Right in Las Vegas there is one of the better non-BCS bowl games that is played every year. The MAACO Bowl (Las Vegas Bowl) gets the first pick from the Mountain West Conference and the fourth or fifth pick from the Pac-10, conference depending on whether other teams have qualified for a BCS bowl game.

As most people know the TCU Horned Frogs have a great chance of making a BCS bowl game, from the Mountain West Conference so the second place team will most likely win the bid.

Right now, TCU and Utah are tied for first in the MWC, but they will play each other next week in Fort Worth, Texas. Both teams also are coming off big wins against the weaker opponents in the MWC. TCU beat up on San Diego State to stay perfect on the season and Utah crushed a dreadful New Mexico team that is looking for direction.

So here is the scenario. If the Horned Frogs can beat the Utes next week, it will give sole possession of first place in the MWC, a perfect season to date and most likely a shot at a BCS game, maybe even the national championship game.

But if the Utes upset TCU, then a whirlwind of things can happen. Utah would have first place, but they would then have to travel to Provo, Utah to face BYU who quietly sits in third place. If BYU beats Utah then, there would be a three-team tie for first place in the MWC, and most likely no one would go to a BCS bowl game. So to avoid that messy situation, the TCU Horned Frogs need to take care of business and they will.

That brings us back to who will play in the Las Vegas Bowl. Since TCU is going to take care of business next week, and if they can avoid losing to Wyoming and New Mexico in their final two games of the season, they will play in a BCS bowl game. That will give the MAACO Bowl officials the chance to pick another team to play, most likely the winner of the BYU-Utah game. BYU has played in the previous four Las Vegas Bowls, almost giving them a second home. My pick for the Las Vegas Bowl is BYU.

But who will they play? And if you thought the MWC was jumbled up, after Saturday, the Pac-10 became the most competitive and mangled conference in the nation.

Oregon sits at the top of the conference, even though they did lose on Saturday to Stanford, the third place team. Arizona sits in second after they rolled over Washington State, but next week they play at Cal, and then they host Oregon right before their instate rivalry game against Arizona State.

From fourth on is where the mess comes into play. USC won against Arizona State to hold their tie with Oregon State for fourth place, but USC still has face off against Stanford next week. Cal sits at sixth in the conference, and unless some great comeback from ASU or Washington, the Pac-10 will only have six teams in bowls this season. My pick for the team to come out of the Pac-10 and play in the Las Vegas bowl is USC. I think they lose one more time this year, and the choice will be obvious.

So that means USC will travel to Las Vegas to play in the BYU invitational. If this is the case, Sam Boyd Stadium will be filled for the first time since U2 was in town and the ratings for the game will be huge on ESPN. It will be a battle of teams that were supposed to do big things this season, but fell flat on their faces.