If UH fails, LaTech may be fill-in for Hawaii Bowl

If the University of Hawaii doesn’t become bowl eligible, Louisiana Tech is emerging as a possible Sheraton Hawaii Bowl stand-in.

The 5-5 Warriors will represent the Western Athletic Conference in the Dec. 24 Hawaii Bowl at Aloha Stadium if they win two or more of their three remaining regular-season games to become bowl eligible.

"There would be no better team to help us celebrate our 10th (game) than the (UH) Warriors," said David Matlin, Hawaii Bowl executive director. "And we’re hopeful that they will finish strong."

But if UH isn’t bowl eligible, WAC commissioner Karl Benson said, "The WAC is obligated to place another team in that bowl unless there is some type of mutual agreement between the WAC and the bowl/ESPN."

Without a bowl-eligible UH, the WAC might have trouble filling its three contracted bowl slots.

The WAC has two teams currently bowl eligible: Nevada (6-3) and Louisiana Tech (6-4), with the possibility that Utah State (4-5), New Mexico State (4-6) and UH could also become bowl eligible.

Utah State, which has a 12-game schedule, needs to win at least two of its three remaining games, while New Mexico State requires three victories because it plays 13 games.

People involved in the bowl process said a Nevada victory over Louisiana Tech on Saturday to clinch at least a share of the WAC title would likely send the Wolf Pack to the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego.

If either Utah State or New Mexico State becomes bowl eligible, they would likely go to the Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise.

But Benson said, "It is way too soon to decide those things right now."

Louisiana Tech, which was beaten 44-26 by UH in September, last went to a bowl in 2008.

UH has represented the WAC in six of the previous nine Hawaii Bowls. The Warriors were absent only in 2007, when Boise State filled in for Sugar Bowl-bound UH, and in 2005 and ’09, when Nevada replaced the bowl-ineligible Warriors.