Mountain West musical chairs is impacting Hawaii Bowl

A Boise State Christmas in Hawaii?

The Broncos football team looms as a strong possibility to appear in the Dec. 24 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl at Aloha Stadium and join the men’s basketball team, which will compete in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic at the Stan Sheriff Center on Dec. 22, 23 and 25.

But the football team’s showing here is still far from a done deal due to an overflow of bowl-eligible Mountain West Conference teams, people in the bowl industry say.

An announcement on the pairing for the 12th Hawaii Bowl, which matches representatives from the MWC and Conference USA, should come this week.

“It is still too early to say how all this could shake out,” said David Matlin, executive director of the Hawaii Bowl.

The process is complicated by the fact the MWC has seven bowl-eligible teams for six guaranteed bowl slots and is desperate to place all of them in a year when there are more bowl-eligible teams (77) than bowl slots (70). Depending on the outcome of Saturday’s games, as many as 80 teams could be bowl eligible.

In addition, the MWC plays its first championship game Saturday, matching Fresno State (10-1) and Utah State (8-4), and its top two contracted bowls, the Las Vegas Bowl and the San Diego-based Poinsettia Bowl, may wait until then to make their selections.

“In the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl’s existence with the WAC and the MWC, this is the most volatile year we’ve been a part of,” Matlin said.

Boise State, which went 8-4, figures to be the most attractive team the MWC could deal to an outside bowl to assure all seven of its teams find games to play in.

Nevada-Las Vegas, which finished 7-5, is also a possibility for the Hawaii Bowl, while Rice (9-3) and East Carolina (9-3) are among the possibilities from Conference USA.

The MWC’s other bowl-eligible teams are San Diego State (7-5), Colorado State (7-6) and San Jose State (6-6).

Boise State played in the 2007 Hawaii Bowl as a WAC runner-up when the Rainbow Warriors were booked for the Sugar Bowl.