ALBUQUERQUE — For the first seven or so hours of the 2013 bowl season, the Mountain West will take center stage. Conference teams are in the opening three games Saturday, with Colorado State vs. the Pac-12’s Washington State in the New Mexico Bowl (noon, ESPN), Fresno State vs. the Pac-12’s USC in the Las Vegas Bowl (1:30 p.m., ABC) and San Diego State vs. Buffalo of the Mid-American Conference in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (3:30 p.m., ESPN).
CSU coach Jim McElwain said it would be impossible to place a value on that kind of publicity for the Mountain West — with, in effect, a captive national audience.
Of the four bowls Saturday, only the 7 p.m. New Orleans Bowl doesn’t involve the Mountain West.
“People are aching for college football to start up again with the bowls,” said Javan Hedlund of the Mountain West office, “and to have Mountain West teams going back to back to back, what a great promotional vehicle for our conference and for those schools. The TV ratings for the first day (of the bowls) are amazing. If Mountain West teams win those games, all the college football talk on Sunday will be about our league.”
Footnotes. CSU senior linebacker Shaquil Barrett accepted an invitation to the East-West Shrine Game and senior offensive tackle Jared Biard to the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl. … CSU’s most recent postseason game also was the New Mexico Bowl, in 2008, when Rams tailback Gartrell Johnson galloped for 285 yards and clinched a 40-35 win over Fresno State on his 77-yard TD run with less than two minutes left. … A victory Saturday by CSU (7-6) would give the Rams their most wins since the 2002 team went 10-4.
