Commissioner calls bowl matchup of two MWC teams “a travesty”

For the first time in NCAA history, an insufficient number of deserving bowl-eligible teams (i.e., 6-6 record or better) are available to fill all the bowl games which make-up the current landscape (40 bowls plus the National Championship Game). While most games are broadcast on ESPN networks, the Arizona Bowl has an online-only broadcast agreement with Campus Insiders. Well, the two teams will be none other than the Colorado State Rams and Nevada Wolfpack. Today, we have come to the unfortunate realization another dubious milestone has been reached – two teams from the same conference will face each other in a bowl game later this month.

There are only 18 other teams in the nation who can claim 10 bowl games in the last 11 years and just three of those are from non-Power 5 conferences in Boise State, BYU and Navy. “It’s going to be an exciting time for us to have another opportunity to play together with this 2015 team, and we’re looking at that as an opportunity to go 8-5”.

Colorado State also appeared in the first New Orleans Bowl (2001) and the Poinsettia Bowl (2005).

The inaugural Arizona Bowl will have a Mountain West flavor to it – and the conference commissioner is not happy about it. They played as part of cross-division play the two years prior, with Colorado State winning both games. The other 15 are: Virginia Tech, Clemson, Florida State, Rutgers, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Alabama, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU and Oregon. The game telecast by American Sports Network will be distributed across a network of stations by Tribune Media, including KWGN in Colorado.

In Nevada, the game will be carried on KAME on Northern Nevada and on KVCW in Las Vegas.

The Wolf Pack and Rams didn’t play this season and won’t play next year. Neither Colorado State nor Nevada objected to the pairing, he said. The CSU and Nevada will both represent the Mountain West Conference. He also was upset that the Big Ten was able to place 5-7 teams Nebraska and Minnesota in Big Ten bowl games rather than having to wait until all 6-6 teams were placed.

Where: Arizona Stadium (capacity, 56,029) in Tucson, Ariz.