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New Mexico Bowl Notes - Week 10
Week 10 New Mexico Bowl Notes
Week 10 New Mexico Bowl Notes in PDF Format
NEW MEXICO BOWL-UNM GAME DAY COMBO: The New Mexico Bowl and the University of New Mexico are teaming up to provide quality entertainment at a discount price with a combo ticket for the games on Saturday, Dec. 19. The $40 ticket gives you admission to the fourth annual New Mexico Bowl at 2:30 p.m. and the UNM men’s basketball game against Creighton at 7 p.m.
This year’s New Mexico Bowl, featuring a representative from the MWC and WAC, will be played at University Stadium. The game, which kicks off the FBS postseason, will be televised nationally on ESPN and ESPN HD. New Mexico and Creighton face off across the street from the stadium in The Pit. The game is part of the Mountain West Conference/Missouri Valley Conference Challenge.
The seating location for the combo ticket is a premium sideline ticket for the football game and in any bench section, row 1-10 for the basketball game. Regularly priced football tickets are $30 and basketball tickets are $15 in their respective locations. Only 500 tickets are available so reserve them today. Call (505) 925-LOBO or go to GoLobos.com to download a purchase form.
BOWL PREDICTIONS: With just a few weeks to go, some college football experts are making their postseason predictions. San Diego State is selected the most from the Mountain West Conference despite the fact that it is not yet bowl eligible and needs to win two of its final four for six total wins. Fresno State was chosen 70 percent of the time from the WAC, but it too needs another win to become bowl eligible. Three predictors, College Football News, CBS Sportsline and Football-Bowl.com, picked at large bids, Kansas and Iowa State (twice), respectively, to fill the MWC spot in the bowl. As of Oct. 31, Kansas is 5-3 overall and 1-3 in the Big 12, which leaves them tied ninth in a conference that has eight bowl ties. As for Iowa State, also from the Big 12, it is 5-4 overall and 2-3 in conference play, placing them eighth.
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. Kansas (at large bid)
CBS Sportsline: Fresno State (WAC) vs. Iowa State (at large bid)
ESPN (Mark Schlabach’s pick): Fresno State (WAC) vs. San Diego State (MWC)
ESPN (Bruce Feldman’s pick): Louisiana Tech (WAC) vs. Colorado State (MWC)
Football-Bowl.com: Idaho (WAC) vs. Iowa State (at large bid)
MSNBC/College Football Talk: Fresno State (WAC) vs. San Diego State (MWC)
Phil Steele (Operation Sports): Fresno State (WAC) vs. Utah (MWC)
Rivals.com/Yahoo! Sports: Fresno State (WAC) vs. San Diego State (MWC)
Sports Illustrated: Utah State (WAC) vs. UNLV (MWC)
BOWL ELIGIBLE: There are 32 FBS teams that are already bowl-eligible, including three from the MWC and two from the WAC. Utah (7-1) is bowl-eligible for the seventh consecutive season, including all five seasons under head coach Kyle Whittingham. The Utes currently own the nation’s longest postseason win streak (eight games), which dates back to 1999. BYU (6-2 overall) and TCU (8-0 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 (8-0), 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 7-2, is bowl eligible for the first time since 1999.
In the WAC, the remaining seven programs are still alive in the hunt for the postseason. Fresno State and Nevada each need one more victory out of their final four games to post the required six wins needed for eligibility. Louisiana Tech must win three of its final four while New Mexico State (4-of-4), Utah State (4-of-4), Hawai`i (5-of-5) and San Jose State (5-of-5) must win out to be in the running for a postseason game. In the MWC, Air Force needs just one more win over its final three game and both Wyoming and San Diego State need two of their last four to be bowl eligible. UNLV and Colorado State must win their final three games to be in the running while New Mexico is already eliminated.
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.
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 8-0. It’s the fourth time since the 2004 season that Boise State has started a season 8-0. 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 8-0 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, Nov. 1 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 14th. 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.
NFF ANNOUNCES SCHOLAR-ATHLETE CLASS: The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) today late last week the 2009 National Scholar-Athlete class, who will vie as the finalists for the William V. Campbell Trophy, endowed by HealthSouth. Selected as the best and the brightest from the college gridiron, from a nationwide pool of 154 semifinalists among all NCAA divisions and the NAIA, the 16 members of the 2009 class include Matt Bauman (LB, BYU, 3.91) and Moses Harris (S, Fresno State, 3.56). Each finalist will receive an $18,000 post-graduate scholarship, and one of the 16 will be announced as the recipient of the 20th Anniversary William V. Campbell Trophy, endowed by HealthSouth (and formerly known as the Draddy Trophy).
ESPNU PICKS UP TWO GAMES ON NOV. 14: Boise State’s home game against Idaho on Nov. 14 has been picked up by ESPNU and will kick off at 1:30 p.m. (MT). The game originally was scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. This is the third of four conference games (as stipulated in the WAC’s new ESPN contract) that will be selected by ESPNU during the season. Louisiana Tech’s game at LSU has also been selected to be shown on ESPNU that day and will kick off an hour earlier at 6:00 p.m. CT/5 p.m. MT.
NATIONALLY RUNNING IN THE WAC: Fresno State junior running back Ryan Mathews rushed for 185 yards against Utah State and continues to lead the nation in rushing with 164.5 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 319.1 yards per game, 15 yards better than the next best team, Georgia Tech (304.1). The WAC features two teams in the top five in rushing as Fresno State is fifth with 259.6 yards per contest.
WIN STREAKS FROM THE MWC: TCU has won 10 games in a row dating back to last season and has the fourth-longest win streak in the country (Florida 18, Iowa 13, Texas 12). The Frogs have their longest win streak since a 13-game run over the final 10 contests in 2005 and the opening three games in 2006.
Utah has won 15 consecutive home games, while TCU has won 12 straight. The Utes’ 15-game streak ranks second in league history, while the Frogs’ 12-game streak is third.
Utah has won 12 straight Conference games dating back to Nov. 24, 2007. The Utes’ current streak is the second-longest in the country behind Florida’s 13 and one ahead of Boise State’s 11.
IDAHO MOST IMPROVEMENT: With seven victories this season, Idaho currently has the nation’s best turnaround. The Vandals were 2-10 last year and have recorded five more wins this year. Washington, SMU and Iowa State are tied for second with three more victories this year. Idaho was picked last in the WAC preseason coaches’ poll and is currently tied for third with a 4-1 record in conference play.
THIRD-DOWN OFFENSE: BYU is making the most of its third-down opportunities this season and currently leads the country with a 59.81 conversion rate. The Cougars have been successful on 64-of-107 third-down conversions. UNLV is eighth nationally, converting 49.61 percent (64-of-129) third-down chances.
100 PERCENT SCORING: For the second consecutive week, San Jose State is the only program in the Football Bowl Subdivision to score every time it moves the ball inside the red zone (an opponent’s 20-yard line) this season. San Jose State is 14-of-14.
NCAA’S ACTIVE CAREER COACHING LIST: Nevada head coach Chris Ault, in his 25th season as a head coach, is 203-94-1, making him the sixth winningest active coach in FBS. San Jose State’s Dick Tomey is the seventh winningest active coach. In his sixth year with the Spartans and 29th overall, Tomey holds a record of 182-141-7. Tomey previously won 63 games at Hawai‘i from 1977-86 and 95 games at Arizona from 1987-2000. He has coached 330 games, the fourth most among active coaches.
THIS WEEK’S PREVIEWS: It’s a busy weekend ahead for both the Mountain West and Western Athletic Conferences. The WAC is in the limelight all weekend with fifth-ranked Boise State at Louisiana Tech on ESPN2 Friday night, Fresno State at Idaho on ESPNU Saturday night and Nevada at San Jose State on ESPN Sunday night. All nine MWC teams are in action on Saturday. New Mexico State, after playing a non-conference game at Ohio State last week, take a break this weekend. Don’t forget links to all the games audio and stats are available at www.NewMexicoBowl.com. Some games are even available to view online. A brief breakdown of each game slated for this week is available in the PDF above.
--NEW MEXICO BOWL--
MWC Headings
WAC Headings
