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New Mexico Bowl Notes - Week 3
WEEK 3 NEW MEXICO BOWL NOTES
Week 3 New Mexico Bowl Notes in PDF format
NCAA PRESIDENT PASSES: NCAA President Myles Brand passed away today after a nearly year-long battle with pancreatic cancer. Brand had served as NCAA president since January 2003 and had led the Association through key initiatives including academic reform, increased emphasis on presidential leadership and broad discussions on fiscal issues in college athletics. He was 67.
BOWL PREDICTIONS: Some college football experts are already making their postseason predictions. UNLV is the only team to be selected more than once from the Mountain West Conference while Fresno State and Nevada were each picked twice. 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. UNLV (MWC)
CBS Sportsline: Louisiana Tech (WAC) vs. UNLV (MWC)
ESPN (Mark Schlabach’s pick): Nevada (WAC) vs. Air Force (MWC)
ESPN (Bruce Feldman’s pick): Nevada (WAC) vs. Colorado State (MWC)
Sports Illustrated: Utah State (WAC) vs. UNLV (MWC)
BOWL TICKETS ON SALE NOW: Tickets for the fourth annual New Mexico Bowl are on sale to the general public today. Prices remain the same as the first three bowl games, with Premium sideline seats available for $30 and North end zone seats for $23. Groups of 20 or more can purchase tickets for $25 each.
Fans have three convenient ways to purchase tickets. They are available online at www.newmexicobowl.com, at the UNM ticket office located on the Northwest corner of Avenida Cesar Chavez and University Boulevard, or by calling the Lobo Ticket Office at (505) 925-LOBO or the Bowl office at (505) 925-5999.
The game, featuring a representative from the Mountain West and Western Athletic Conferences, will be played on Saturday, Dec. 19 at 2:30 p.m. MT at University Stadium on the University of New Mexico campus and will be televised nationally on ESPN and ESPN-HD.
FOLLOW THE NEW MEXICO BOWL ON TWITTER: The New Mexico Bowl is now using Twitter to keep fans up-to-date with the latest information. By becoming a follower of our Twitter page, you will have the opportunity to receive breaking news, score updates, and special announcements. Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and can also be received on cell phones who have signed up to receive them. Sign up for a Twitter account, registration is free, at Twitter.com.
NEW MEXICO BOWL CONNECTIONS: There are currently 13 former Mountain West or Western Athletic Conference players who played in one of the three New Mexico Bowls and is on an NFL team roster. Colorado State leads the way with five, followed by four San Jose State Spartans, three New Mexico Lobos and one Fresno State Bulldog. Below is a complete list of the athletes:
Kyle Bell (2008, CSU) - RB, Jacksonville Jaguars
Quincy Black (2006, UNM) - LB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tom Brandstater (2008, FS) - QB, Denver Broncos
Billy Farris (2008, CSU) - QB, Cincinnati Bengals
Jarron Gilbert (2006, SJSU) - DT, Chicago Bears
Tommie Hill (2008, CSU) - DE, New York Giants
Gartrell Johnson (2008, CSU) - RB, San Diego Chargers
James Jones (2006, SJSU) - WR, Green Bay Packers
Dwight Lowery (2006, SJSU) - CB, New York Jets
Chris Owens (2006, SJSU) - CB, Atlanta Falcons
Marcus Smith (2007, UNM) - WR, Baltimore Ravens
Kory Sperry (2008, CSU) - TE, San Diego Chargers
Robert Turner (2006, UNM) - OL, New York Jets
MWC AND WAC REGULAR SEASON WAR: Utah (MWC) and Utah State (WAC) kicked off the battle of the conferences opening weekend with the Utes nabbing the W. In week two, Utah earned another win, topping San Jose State, giving the MWC a 2-0 series lead and pushing the scoring to 59 points for the MWC and 31 for the WAC.
There are seven more regular season match-ups between MWC and WAC members. This week there are three games as Idaho hosts San Diego State, Nevada travels to Colorado State and Hawai`i visits the mainland to play at UNLV. Week 4 sees in-state rivals New Mexico State take on New Mexico at University Stadium. The regular season series ends in week 5 with Colorado State at Idaho, New Mexico State at San Diego State and UNLV at Nevada.
The Mountain West and Western Athletic Conferences have gone head-to-head the last three years in the New Mexico Bowl with the MWC holding a 2-1 advantage thanks to Colorado State’s come-from-behind win over Fresno State last year. Last year the MWC also came away with a 5-2 edge in the regular season series. In the breakdown, the MWC outscored the WAC 236-166. Five MWC teams played against four different WAC teams. Utah State (WAC) played the most contests, taking on UNLV (L, 27-17 on Aug. 30), Utah (L, 58-10 on Sept. 13) and BYU (L, 34-14 on Oct. 3). San Diego State and UNLV played the most WAC teams for the MWC, both going 1-1. The Aztecs played San Jose State on Sept. 13, falling 35-10, and Idaho (W, 45-17) on Sept. 27. UNLV, besides facing Utah State to start the 2008 season, also played Nevada in the annual Fremont Cannon game, falling 49-27.
ON THE SAME PLAYING FIELD: Many ciritcs claim that it is unfair to consider making the Mountain West Conference or the Western Athletic Conference automatic qualifiers for BCS Bowl Games because the level of competition in their leagues is weak, providing them an easier schedule week-in and week-out. Say what you want, but both conference’s members have gone above and beyond scheduling current automatic qualifiers from the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and SEC. For the season, there are 27 games slated with 15 already in the books. Boise State opened its season Thursday, Sept. 3 with the Pac-10’s Oregon, handing the Ducks a 19-8 loss in front of the nation on ESPN. Two days later, BYU stunned Oklahoma (14-13), last year’s runner-up in the BCS Championship Game. Colorado State wrapped up the weekend on Sunday, knocking off the Big 12’s Colorado Buffaloes on their home turf, 23-17. This past weekend, two more victories were recorded over the automatics as TCU went into Virginia and came away with a 30-14 win and Hawai`i cruised past Washington State in Seattle, 38-20.
So far, the BCS automatics do hold the advantage this season with a record of 5-10 and have outscored the MWC and WAC 434-258. With 12 more games remaining, the underdogs will be looking to even the score. This week BYU hosts Florida State, Utah is at Oregon and San Jose State is at Stanford. In week 4, TCU is at Clemson, Louisville visits Utah, Fresno State travels to Cincinnati, and Missouri takes on Nevada in Reno. New Mexico plays at Texas Tech on Oct. 3, New Mexico State visits Ohio State Oct.31, Louisiana Tech takes on LSU Nov. 14 and Fresno State and Hawai`i conclude the regular season at Illinois and vs. Wisconsin, respectively.
NATIONAL RANKINGS: The Mountain West Conference has three teams ranked among the top 25 in the national polls for the tenth straight week, dating back to last season. BYU is the highest-ranked non-BCS automatic qualifying team in both polls, coming in at No. 7 in the Associated Press Poll and No. 9 in the USA Today Coaches Poll. TCU stayed at No. 16 in the AP rankings and rose to No. 15 in the USA Today poll. Utah follows, placing 17th and 16th, respectively. Colorado State, which is 2-0, received two votes in both polls, which is one more than the previous week.
Boise State, the WAC’s lone representative in the AP and USA Today rankings, climbed from 14th and 16th to 10th in both. The Broncos’ finished the 2008 season ranked ninth in both polls, their highest regular season showing ever. 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 (49 consecutive polls).
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 opening week of collegiate football over 500,000 fans supported the Mountain West and Western Athletic Conferences. Wyoming had the highest home attendance for the MWC at 31,017, which nearly doubled their attenance from the week before (18,016). Boise State welcomed the most fans for the WAC, seating 32,228. On the road, Air Force played in front of the most fans as 50,805 witnessed the Falcons play at Minnesota. The WAC’s Fresno State followed in the week 1 footsteps of Louisiana Tech, Nevada and San Jose State, playing before a crowd over 80,000 (80,353). See the attached PDF for a complete breakdown of each team’s attendance figures.
NATION’S LONGEST ACTIVE WIN STREAK: No. 17/17 Utah defeated San Jose State last week, extending the nation’s longest active win streak to 16 games. Dating back to the 2007 Poinsettia Bowl victory over Navy, the Utes have won 16 consecutive games, and 23 of their last 24 contests.
THIS WEEK’S PREVIEWS: This week’s action is kicked off Friday night on national television as ESPN airs 10th-ranked Boise State at Fresno State in each team’s first Western Athletic Conference contest of the season. ESPN continues its coverage the next day, airing No. 17/16 Utah at Oregon to start the weekend’s play for the Mountain West Conference. All nine teams from each conference are on the field this weekend. See the attached PDF for a brief breakdowns of each game slated for this week.
--NEW MEXICO BOWL--
MWC Headings
WAC Headings
