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New Mexico Bowl Notes - Week 9

WEEK 9 NEW MEXICO BOWL NOTES

Week 9 New Mexico Bowl Notes in PDF Format

MWC PARTNERSHIP EXTENDED: The New Mexico Bowl announced its agreement with the Mountain West Conference for the next bowl term, 2010-2013, last week. The nine-member conference will continue to provide one of its bowl-eligible teams, as it has since the New Mexico Bowl’s inception in 2006. During this term, the New Mexico Bowl will share a regional selection with the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl, a fellow ESPN Regional Television owned and operated event. The agreement assures the New Mexico Bowl access to one of the top five selections in the Mountain West. The New Mexico Bowl and the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl will make a selection with an emphasis on location, to ensure the best possible match-up is created for each local market.

BOWL PREDICTIONS: With the season half over, some college football experts are making their postseason predictions. Utah is the only Mountain West Conference team to be selected more than oncewhile Fresno State was chosen half the time from the WAC. Two predictors, College Football News and CBS Sportsline, picked at large bids, Northern Illinois and Iowa State, respectively, to fill the MWC spot in the bowl. As of Oct. 25, Northern Illinois has four wins out of the MAC, which leaves them fifth in a conference that only have three bowl ties. As for Iowa State from the Big 12, it has five wins, placing them sixth in a conference with eight bowl tie-ins.
    Currently, Boise State and Idaho are the only WAC teams that are bowl eligible while TCU, BYU and Utah are eligible from the MWC. Here is the complete breakdown of what is selected for the 2009 New Mexico Bowl:
    CollegeBowlProjections.com: Fresno State (WAC) vs. Utah (MWC)
    College Football News/Fox Sports: Fresno State (WAC) vs. Northern Illinois (at large bid)
    CBS Sportsline: Fresno State (WAC) vs. Iowa State (at large bid)
    ESPN (Mark Schlabach’s pick): Nevada (WAC) vs. Wyoming (MWC)
    ESPN (Bruce Feldman’s pick): Louisiana Tech (WAC) vs. Colorado State (MWC)
    Football-Bowl.com: Idaho (WAC) vs. San Diego State (MWC)
    Phil Steele (Operation Sports): Fresno State (WAC) vs. Utah (MWC)
    Sports Illustrated: Utah State (WAC) vs. UNLV (MWC)

BOWL ELIGIBLE: There are 22 FBS teams that are already bowl-eligible, including three from the MWC and two from the WAC. The MWC is one of four conferences (Big East, Big Ten, SEC) with three teams bowl-eligible heading into Week 9. The Utes (6-1) are bowl-eligible for the seventh consecutive season, including all five seasons under head coach Kyle Whittingham. Utah currently owns the nation’s longest postseason win streak (eight games), which dates back to 1999. The Cougars (6-2 overall) and the Horned Frogs (7-0 overall) have each earned bowl eligibility for the fifth straight year. BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall is the only coach in school history to qualify the Cougars for bowl games in each of his first five seasons. TCU has earned bowl eligibility in eight of the last nine seasons under the direction of head coach Gary Patterson. Boise State (7-0), is also eligible for the 12th consecutive year and have been eligible every year since head coach Chris Petersen took over in 2006. Idaho, at 6-2, is bowl eligible for the first time since 1999.

ESPN COLLEGE GAMEDAY AT AIR FORCE: ESPN College GameDay will broadcast live from 8-10 a.m. Mtn. at the Air Force Academy for the Army football game on Saturday, Nov. 7. The popular crew of Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso and Desmond Howard will be making their third appearance at the Academy and second appearance at an MWC school this season. The crew was here in 2001 (Army) and 2002 (Notre Dame). The appearance begins a special week of programming in conjunction with Veterans Day. The show will be on the Academy terrazzo and is open to the general public.

TCU NAMED TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL NATIONAL TEAM OF THE WEEK: TCU’s 38-7 win at BYU last Saturday earned it the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl National Team of the Week by the FWAA for games of the weekend of Oct 24. TCU QB Andy Dalton threw for 241 yards and three touchdowns, while the Horned Frog defense recorded five sacks. This is the second straight year TCU has received the honor following a win over BYU. The Horned Frogs were also selected after last season’s 32-7 victory in Fort Worth. TCU was also a 2005 recipient following a 17-10 win at Oklahoma.
    This week’s award marks the second such honor for a Mountain West team this season. BYU was named the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl National Team of the Week on Sept. 8 after the 14-13 win over Oklahoma. The FWAA has named a national team of the week since 2002. This is the sixth season the award has been sponsored by the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.

AKEY EARNS MIDSEASON HONOR: Idaho head coach Robb Akey was chosen the Midseason Coach of the Year by CBSSports.com’s Dennis Dowd. Akey was chosen for turning the 2-10 Vandals into a bowl eligible team in a matter of months. Idaho is currently 6-2 overall and 3-1 in the WAC.
    Akey is also one of 20 FBS coaches on the 2009 Bear Bryant Coach of the Year Watch List, which was announced earlier in the week by the American Heart Association - sponsor of the annual award. Boise State’s Chris Petersen is also up for the award, which he won in 2006. Out of the MWC, BYU’s Bronco Mendenhall and TCU’s Gary Patterson are also in the running. Finalists will be announced in December with the winner announced at the Jan. 14, 2010 awards dinner at Houston.

NATIONALLY RUNNING IN THE WAC: Fresno State junior running back Ryan Mathews rushed for 157 yards at New Mexico State and continues to lead the nation in rushing with 161.6 yards per game. Mathews leads Marshall’s Darius Marshall who is averaging 136.0 yards per contest. As a team, Nevada leads the nation in rushing with 320.1 yards per game, nearly 30 yards better than the next best team, Georgia Tech (291.6). The WAC features two teams in the top five in rushing as Fresno State is fifth with 266.7 yards per contest.

UNDEFEATED NOW AND THEN: Boise State (WAC) and TCU (MWC) are two of seven teams in the nation without a loss. The Broncos and Frogs are 7-0. It’s the fourth time since the 2004 season that Boise State has started a season 7-0. The previous three times, the Broncos went on to finish the regular season undefeated (2004, 2006 and 2008). The only other time this decade that TCU has started 7-0 was 2003, and it finished with 11 wins after winning its first 10. Boise State and TCU are the only two non-automatic qualifying BCS teams that are undefeated.

BCS RANKINGS UPDATED: The Bowl Championship Series Standings were updated on Sunday, Oct. 25 and the Mountain West has two teams in the Top 25 while the Western Athletic Conference has one. TCU leads all non-automatic qualifying teams, placing sixth. Boise State, of the WAC, is seventh and Utah, from the MWC, is 16th. For any of these teams to play in one of the BCS bowls, it must be the highest ranked non-BCS team in the top 12 of the BCS poll at the end of the regular season or rank in the top 16 and are higher than a conference champion that has an annual automatic berth.

NATIONAL RANKINGS: Boise State, the WAC’s lone representative in the AP and USA Today rankings, is the highest non-automatic qualifying BCS team. The Broncos place sixth in the Associated Press Top-25 and fifth in the USA Today Coaches Poll. Boise State has been ranked in the top 25 at least once in each of the last eight seasons. At least one team from the WAC has been in the polls every week since Sept. 17, 2006 (55 consecutive polls).
    The Mountain West Conference has two teams ranked among the top 25 in the national polls. TCU comes in at No. 8 in the AP Poll and No. 6 in the USA Today poll. It is the highest the Frogs have ever been ranked at this point in the season. Utah holds steady, ranking 19th in the AP and USA Today rankings.
    The Mountain West and Western Athletic Conferences are receiving more respect each year from the national media. The Associated Press and USA Today preseason polls put four non-BCS teams (Boise State, BYU, TCU and Utah) in the top 25 for the first time. Boise State’s No. 14 AP poll ranking was also the highest preseason nod for a non-BCS team since the Bowl Championship Series was formed. Since 2003, at least one non-BCS team has placed in the top 15 of the final Associated Press poll or USA Today coaches’ poll in every season. On three occasions -- No. 4 Utah in 2004, No. 5 Boise State in 2006 and No. 2 Utah in 2008 -- a non-BCS team has cracked the final poll top five. On average, the highest-ranked non-BCS team at season’s end has been ranked 12 spots better than the highest-ranked non-BCS team in either preseason poll.

TALE OF THE TURNSTILES: The heads have been counted and in the eighth week of collegiate football just over 242,000 fans, for an average of 30,260 per game, supported the Mountain West and Western Athletic Conferences. The most attended (64,641) MWC game was the showdown of nationally ranked TCU and BYU in Provo, Utah. For the WAC, 37,928 fans poured into Aloha Stadium in Honolulu to watch Hawai`i host Boise State. A complete breakdown of each team’s attendance figures is available in the PDF above.

--New Mexico Bowl--

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