Notre Dame in Sin City? Possibility intrigues college football fans and officials alike
There is life outside the Bowl Championship Series cartel each holiday season, life beyond those five games worth millions and millions of dollars to the conferences fortunate enough to have member schools selected.
Countless other college football bowl games need support. Seats need to be filled. Tickets to be sold. Sponsors to be signed. Buzz to be created.
Notre Dame still does all that, mediocre as its program has been of late. It is still a beast when it comes to drawing interest, still the team most postseason games covet, still a cash cow for whichever bowl is fortunate to land the guys who play under Touchdown Jesus.
Eyeing the Fighting Irish is no different for the folks at the MAACO Bowl Las Vegas. Should the stars align and Notre Dame be available for the Dec. 22 game and if a deal can be struck, executive director Tina Kunzer-Murphy and her selection committee should be willing to walk barefoot from here to South Bend, Ind., to make it happen.
My guess is they would crawl if asked.
It’s not a done deal. Far from it. Specific results must still transpire for Notre Dame to play a Mountain West Conference opponent at Sam Boyd Stadium.
But it’s possible.
There is a chance.
“Everything that comes with a university like Notre Dame would be great for Las Vegas,” Kunzer-Murphy said. “To experience when those types of teams come — a Wisconsin, a Texas, a Notre Dame — is exciting in terms of how many people come and all that goes with it. We have had five straight sellouts because the Brigham Young fans have been great. We’ve had some great games.
“But when you have a team that hasn’t been in your game and there is a chance you could see them here, I just think that might be something a lot of people in Las Vegas would enjoy. When you have a team like (Notre Dame) and all that it brings, it would be an amazing feeling for us to have all of that in our bowl game.”
Kunzer-Murphy knows first there are contracts to be honored, a pecking order to consider, long-term relationships to respect. The Las Vegas bowl receives the first selection from the Mountain West and the fifth from the Pac-10.
One part isn’t so clear this season.
Texas Christian has again proven itself the class of the Mountain West, but should it be invited to a BCS game, Kunzer-Murphy would have her choice of the league’s remaining bowl eligible teams.
The Pac-10 isn’t so nice and tidy. Today, just three teams (Oregon, Stanford and Arizona) are bowl eligible not counting Southern California (on probation and ineligible), and all are heading to postseason games other than the Las Vegas bowl.
Oregon State is 5-5 but ends with games at Stanford and home against No. 1 Oregon. California is 5-6 and hosts Washington this week. The Huskies, UCLA and Arizona State own four wins apiece.
It’s not a given that the Pac-10 will qualify five teams. Even if it did, bowl officials have been known to get together and make deals and shake hands on agreements that benefit their games now or in the future.
But none of this matters to Notre Dame, which still dictates most decisions when it comes to where its football team plays.
Anyone wishing to see the Irish here should immediately become fans of Southern California, because if Notre Dame beats the Trojans on Saturday and finishes 7-5, the chance of those golden domers making this city home for the holidays ranks right up there with the odds of UNLV’s football team shutting out San Diego State this weekend.
Notre Dame at 6-6 would consider the Las Vegas bowl and have a big say as to which opponent (see Air Force or BYU) it played.
A rematch with Utah wouldn’t inspire the Irish and, just a guess, neither would the thought of playing a team (TCU) that would probably dominate it on the scoreboard.
Notre Dame at 7-5 is probably headed to the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Fla., but other games are also longing for a chance at Notre Dame at 6-6, among them the Holiday Bowl in San Diego should the Pac-10 remain at just three eligible teams.
There will be competition for the Irish as an at-large team. Plenty of it.
Tennessee could be another possibility in Las Vegas, but while it would arrive carrying a Southeastern Conference banner, it’s not Notre Dame.
No one is.
That’s what makes the possibility here so intriguing.
Things must happen. Results must fall specific ways. A back-room deal might have to be struck.
But there is a chance today.
For all Notre Dame would bring a Las Vegas Bowl and the city, that’s exciting.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday and Thursday on “Monsters of the Midday,” FOX Sports Radio.
