Looking back, WAC performs well in bowl games
With Super Bowl Sunday nearly upon us, it’s a good time to look back at this year’s college bowl season, one that was particularly kind to the Western Athletic Conference.
One month and one day ago, the Boise State Broncos won the 2007 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, beating the Oklahoma Sooners 43-42 in overtime. The exciting game, which had one of the greatest endings to a college football game ever, capped off a bowl season that saw the WAC post a 3-1 record.
Along with Boise State, the University of Hawaii and San Jose State University turned in impressive bowl wins, beating Arizona State and the University of New Mexico, respectively. The University of Nevada was the only WAC bowl team to lose. They suffered a one-point loss to Miami University (Fla.) in the MPC Computers Bowl.
The 3-1 mark tied the WAC for second, with the Mountain West Conference, for the best record by a conference in bowl games this season. The three wins gave the WAC as many bowl wins as the Pac-10 and Big 12 Conference and one more win than the Big Ten Conference.
This shouldn’t have surprised anyone. According to a WAC press release, the conference’s bowl teams had a combined winning percentage of .776, which was the best record for any conference’s bowl teams this year.
“I think the WAC is a conference that’s on the rise,” USU linebacker and WAC Freshman of the Year, Paul Igboeli said.
But the success didn’t come out of nowhere.
According to a WAC press release, over the last five years the WAC has the best bowl winning percentage of any conference in the nation. The conference has an 11-7 record in that five-year span and is 6-3 against teams from BCS conferences – the Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Pac-10, Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference.
“It’s been building over the last few years,” Dave Chaffin, WAC assistant commissioner, said.
Chaffin said it began with Boise State joining the WAC in 2001. The national recognition they have garnered has added a lot to the WAC, he said. Boise State finished this year as the only undefeated team in Division I football and was ranked No. 5 in the season’s last poll.
The future looks bright for the WAC, with the possibility of two teams, Boise State and Hawaii, being ranked in the top 25 in the preseason polls, Chaffin said. Although he’s optimistic, Chaffin said it could be very hard to get back into a BCS bowl.
But, with players like Colt Brennan of Hawaii and coaches like Boise’s Chris Petersen, optimism still abounds.
Brennan, who decided to stay for his senior season instead of entering the NFL draft, led the nation in passing yards, efficiency and completion percentage, and set an NCAA record with 58 touchdown passes. Petersen was named the Paul “Bear” Bryant College Coach of the Year.
And, according to a WAC press release, the conference can also boast the nation’s top receiver in yards and catches – New Mexico State sophomore Chris Williams – and the nation’s interception leaders, Idaho junior Stanley Franks and San Jose State junior Dwight Lowery. Franks and Lowery had nine picks each.
“The WAC will just keep getting better and better,” Igboeli said.
-dabake@cc.usu.edu