BYU, Arizona team figure to play in Las Vegas Bowl

Here come the Cougars — again.

No. 20 Brigham Young is expected to make its fourth consecutive appearance in the Las Vegas Bowl, a source on the game’s executive committee said Thursday.

The source did not want to be named because the official announcement isn’t until Sunday, and the Mountain West Conference asked its affiliated bowls not to make their intentions publicly known until then.

Las Vegas Bowl executive director Tina Kunzer-Murphy would not confirm the choice of BYU over No. 11 Texas Christian but said the Pacific-10 Conference side most likely will be filled by the winner of Saturday’s Arizona-Arizona State game.

The bowl is Dec. 20 at Sam Boyd Stadium.

BYU (10-2) shouldn’t have any trouble finding its way to the stadium considering its frequent trips there. The selection of the Cougars, though not unexpected, will draw controversy.

TCU (10-2) routed the Cougars 32-7 on Oct. 16, and the Horned Frogs have looked more impressive.

But TCU can’t match BYU’s ability to bring fans, and in troubling economic times it’s difficult for a bowl to pass up a full stadium over one with plenty of empty seats.

The bowl could get a boost from the Pac-10 representative, be it Arizona (6-5) or Arizona State (5-6).

"We’ve never had any of the Arizona teams, and the fact they can jump in their cars and drive up, we felt it made a lot of sense this year," Kunzer-Murphy said.

The bowl was slated to take the fourth-place Pac-10 team but made a deal with the San Francisco-based Emerald Bowl, which will select California (7-4).

"The 4-5 agreement is set up to do just that," Kunzer-Murphy said. "The Emerald Bowl has never had a team that could drive to the game. They asked us, and Cal asked if they could stay at home. We looked at the economic factors, and business is down … and it looked like the best thing for a lot of reasons."

Kunzer-Murphy said the only thing that could spoil the arrangement would be if UCLA upsets Southern California on Saturday because that would jumble the Pac-10 standings.

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914.