By Steven Barrus
The college football season hasn”t even started, and already there”s talk about bowl games.
The Mountain West Conference kicked off its annual Football Media Day July 29 by giving reporters a chance to talk with officials from the league”s four postseason partners: The Liberty Bowl, the Las Vegas Bowl, the Seattle Bowl and the San Francisco Bowl.
The latter two games are new for MWC teams.
Still, the Seattle Bowl hopes to one day claim the right to the conference”s top team at season”s end, a right currently held by the Liberty Bowl.
“We have the best facilities in the country,” Seattle Bowl Executive Director Terry Daw said, adding that his bowl will give attending players a week full of fun.
Events will include a trip to the Seattle Seahawks training facility and performances from live bands.
The Liberty Bowl, meanwhile, isn”t interested in giving up the MWC”s best.
“The Liberty Bowl has forty-four years of history and is the seventh oldest bowl,” Liberty Bowl Executive Director Steve Erhart said. “The Seattle Bowl needs to take care of itself first.”
MWC Commissioner Craig Thompson is fine with the bowls competing for the league”s schools.
“I hope all sorts of people are bidding for our services,” he said.
Still, just attending a bowl game is different from winning it.
In its three-year history, the MWC hasn”t had great postseason success, and winning the games would boost the conference”s national prestige.
“At the end of the day we need to step up and beat people,” Thompson said.
Whether or not MWC teams win their bowls, though, they will still have plenty of chances to showcase themselves on TV.
Also on July 29, the MWC released its 2002 season TV schedule.
It looks to be a record year as MWC teams are already slated to have 33 games broadcast regionally and nationally.
ESPN/ESPN2 alone will air 17 games involving Mountain West teams.
During the first weekend of the regular season, six games featuring league teams will air on network television.
BYU will be broadcast on ESPN or one of its regional affiliates in eight of its first 10 games with options to air the other two.
All that coverage is one of what Thompson called “progressive steps” that the conference is taking on the national stage.
“One major component of the recognition that the MWC has created in three short seasons has been national and regional television coverage,” he said in a news release. “From the opening national telecast of our first conference football game in our inaugural season until the present, each step in our growth has been documented by our television partners.”
The MWC Football Media Day continues July 30 at the Coronado Island Marriott near San Diego.
