I hate losing bets. I lived in Las Vegas 10 years and still can’t pass a sports book without imploding over Michigan’s basketball team blowing my $20 bet against Indiana in a Big Ten game in 1987.
However, in August I made a bet I’m really hoping I lose.
I bet Karl Benson, the affable commissioner of the Englewood-based Western Athletic Conference, that if his Hawaii Warriors make a BCS bowl, I’ll buy him lunch.
I looked at their schedule. King Soopers had fewer tomato cans. I know the cynical nature of voters. Considering Hawaii’s home games begin at 11 or 11:30 p.m. in the East, any caustic East Coast voter who’s watching is too tired to focus, anyway.
Well, I was wrong. So far. Hawaii is 11-0 and stands 12th, the last spot in the Bowl Championship Series standings that guarantees a BCS bowl. If it beats Washington (4-8) at 9:30 p.m. MST Saturday, Hawaii should keep its standing and likely head to the Sugar Bowl.
I would gladly feed Benson to watch Hawaii play Louisiana State in the Superdome. I want to watch Hawaii dance the Haka in the Bayou. I want to watch Hawaii pull a Boise State.
I’ve watched sports for 45 years. I’ve covered World Series, Super Bowls, soccer World Cups, Summer and Winter Olympics and too many Final Fours to count. Yet never have I enjoyed a sporting event more, in person or from my couch, than Boise State’s overtime upset of Oklahoma in last season’s Fiesta Bowl.
It’s not just the comeback, sparked by flea-flickers and Statues of Liberty and plays coach Chris Petersen drew up on cocktail napkins. It was the David vs. Goliath theme, a story line all too rare in bowl games.
Bowl games from top to bottom pit similar schools with similar budgets with similar pedigrees. Boise State-Oklahoma offered a little, former I-AA upstart against one of the great powers in college football history.
Well, Hawaii is in position to do the same.
I don’t care if it has beaten only two teams with winning records plus two directional I-AA schools. Benson said Hawaii has been turned down by Michigan, Indiana, Mississippi State and Michigan State. This isn’t Hawaii’s fault.
Erase the opponent from your TV screen and you’re looking at the highest-scoring and most exciting offense in college football. It’s wilder than Boise State’s a year ago. Colt Brennan isn’t just a run-and-shoot-system quarterback. He’s a 6-foot-3, surefire first-round draft choice throwing to three NFL-caliber receivers who will drive LSU’s ballyhooed but slumping defense crazy.
As with me, word is spreading among the media and voters.
“They’re slowly coming around,” Benson said Tuesday. “I heard (‘ESPN College GameDay’s’ Kirk) Herb-streit yesterday acknowledge he was wrong earlier after watching Hawaii play the last few games and (believes Hawaii) is deserving of a bowl.”
It’s not guaranteed yet.
Besides beating Washington, Hawaii must hope Tennessee, 14th in the BCS, doesn’t upset No. 7 LSU in the Southeastern Conference Championship in Atlanta and hop over Hawaii. Arizona State, which hosts Arizona, looms at No. 13. If Tennessee wins, Hawaii must hope No. 8 Southern California loses to UCLA and falls below the Warriors. Waikiki getting 4 inches of snow is more likely than USC losing to UCLA on Saturday.
“It also depends on how Hawaii played,” said analyst Jerry Palm of . “If Hawaii struggles to win, voters may drop them anyway. If Hawaii puts up a basketball score, voters may move them up anyway. Computers don’t care about the margin, but voters might.”
The Sugar Bowl, with the last pick in the bowl-selection process, will surely take Hawaii. Benson isn’t taking any chances. He hobnobbed with Sugar Bowl CEO Paul Hoolahan at the Hawaii-Nevada game Nov. 16 and then went with him to Boise for two days. Fox Sports, which will televise the Sugar Bowl, has a production crew in Honolulu for potential features.
More than 15,000 Hawaii fans went to its game at Nevada-Las Vegas Sept. 15, and Benson said a minimum of 10,000 fans would be wearing Tommy Bahama shirts in New Orleans. The Sugar Bowl looks at that.
“I believe in the system,” Benson said. “I’ve trusted the system. The system was good to Boise State a year ago. For a team at this point of the year to win a game and drop would cause me to question it.”
GAMES OF THE WEEK
A farewell to Bo Pelini?
LSU is trying to rebound from last week’s triple-overtime loss, but going against Tennessee in the SEC championship game isn’t the best comeback game. The Tigers still have a shot at a BCS game, but that’s about it. The other question: Is this Bo Pelini’s last game as an assistant coach?
Big 12: No. 1 Missouri (11-1, 7-1 Big 12) vs. No. 9 Oklahoma (10-2, 6-2) — Going after its fifth Big 12 title in six tries, Oklahoma is the wily veteran. Missouri is the new kid on the block. Sooners coach Bob Stoops is 5-0 against Missouri. Prepare for a shootout: Both teams average more than 40 points per game and have a slew of playmakers.
Mountain West: No. 19 BYU at San Diego State — The Cougars, who already have the conference title in hand, are trying to make it a second straight season sweep, not having lost a league game since 2005 (a 16-game streak).
COLORADO CONNECTIONS
OU center Cooper
Jon Cooper had a busy week last week anchoring the Oklahoma offensive line as the Sooners ran the ball for 56 plays. But the center, who has only missed one start in the past two seasons and that because of injury, is ready to face No. 1 Missouri this week. The junior from Fort Collins High School says the Sooners are focusing on winning the conference title, not derailing the Tigers’ national championship hopes. “We’re not spoilers,” Cooper told reporters this week. “We’re going in to win the Big 12 championship, just like they are.” He could spoil the fun for his father, Tom, who played on the Missouri defensive line from 1972-75.
