Here's the absolute latest LB gossip:
<a href='http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Jul-19-Tue-2005/sports/26906506.html' target='_blank'>http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/200...s/26906506.html</a>
JOE HAWK: Two bowl games tugging league's ear
CORONADO, Calif.
A financial and political tug of war for control of the Mountain West Conference's football champion come bowl season is under way, with the richer, more influential favorite poised to raise his fist in victory as the poorer, less connected underdog seems resolved to land face-first in the mud.
Tina Kunzer-Murphy, executive director of the Las Vegas Bowl, hasn't let go of the rope yet. Let's just say one hand is reaching for the towel she will use to wipe herself off once she picks herself up.
"I fully expect them to do a deal with the Liberty Bowl," a disheartened Kunzer-Murphy said Monday of the Mountain West. "If that happens, our people will be surprised and very disappointed."
With good reason, we say.
When the Liberty Bowl's second three-year contract with the Mountain West -- the conference of which UNLV is a member -- expired in 2004, executives with the Memphis, Tenn.-based bowl began shopping their annual New Year's Eve day game around to more prominent conferences, who they say contacted them. On their end, the executives were looking to upgrade the Liberty Bowl's field of competition and, with a $1.5 million payout to offer, its recognition.
Upon hearing this, the Las Vegas Bowl, which in the past had the "second choice" of teams from the Mountain West, told the conference it would do whatever was necessary, within reason, to bring the regular-season champion to its pre-Christmas game. Among the considerations: Increasing the team's payout from $575,000 to between $900,000 and $1 million and, after this year, when the bowl's existing contract is up with the Pacific-10 Conference that sends the league's fifth-place team to Sam Boyd Stadium, to get the Pac-10 to agree to send its fourth-place finisher.
"We brought them a pretty substantial proposal, we felt," Kunzer-Murphy said.
Well, lo and behold, who should be working the room at the first of two Mountain West Conference Football Media Days on Monday at the Coronado Marriott but none other than a representative of the Liberty Bowl.
Not exactly hat in hand, after failing to work out a better deal with another conference, but with an open hand to anyone with league ties willing to shake it.
Harold Graeter is the game's associate executive director, a former Memphis television sportscaster who does a good job of selling the "tradition and 47-year story" of college football's seventh-oldest bowl game.
Graeter also can spin a pretty good tale, saying, "The Mountain West is at the top of our list of conferences under consideration. We've been contacted by every conference but the Pac-10, and we have had varying levels of conversation with the SEC, ACC, Big East, but we're looking for what will be the best matchup for our game. The fact that I'm here sends a message we are serious about continuing our relationship with the Mountain West."
Why the Liberty Bowl is so interested in the Mountain West, Graeter explains, is that the pairing of two conference champions -- the winner of Conference USA representing the other side of the equation -- makes for a more interesting and significant game.
What isn't explained, however, is why the Liberty Bowl has spent the past six months listening to offers from Bowl Championship Series conferences and why, five months before the 2005 Liberty Bowl is to be played, a contract proposal hasn't been given to Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson to share with his nine schools.
Even Graeter stressed there are only "conversations and discussions" going on between the Liberty Bowl and the Mountain West at this time. "I wouldn't characterize any of it as negotiations," he said.
Thompson, understandably, feels pinched in the middle.
On one end, he must acquiesce to the demands of his bosses -- the leaders of his Mountain West schools, who probably will see the difference between $1.5 million being offered by the Liberty Bowl and the almost $1 million by the Las Vegas Bowl and recommend signing a new deal with the Memphis game (for a difference of only about $50,000 per school per year, we note).
On the other end, Thompson has heard the groundswell of support from conference media and fans who think the league champion should play in the Las Vegas Bowl. He also is appreciative of the offer by Kunzer-Murphy and her bowl committee to step up with a sweetened deal at a time when the conference appeared to need it.
"I'd like to have had this done yesterday, but one thing I learned from my work dealing with the BCS is that you have to have patience," Thompson said. "Things eventually get done. ...
"Now, whether a difference of $500,000 to $600,000 in equity will determine which way we go, I don't know."
Minutes after Thompson arched his eyebrows as if to say, "Well, you know the answer to that one," Kunzer-Murphy was lowering hers as if to say, "Yeesh! This battle is lost."
"We're hoping to get a chance to share our proposal with the presidents and ADs. That's all we can ask for," she said. "If it doesn't work out, then we'll go shopping around.
"Heck," she added, trying to take the edge off her disappointment, "I'll be off to Nordstrom's."
To get something to replace the clothes she muddied in losing her high-stakes game of tug of war, we suppose.
Joe Hawk's column is published Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. He can be reached at 387-2912 or jhawk@reviewjournal.com.
