(04-14-2018 03:07 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  

(04-10-2018 11:59 AM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  Screw the Sun Bowl.

Has to be the only on-campus bowl game sans Arizona Bowl (which nobody wants) that doesn't have the conference that is represented by the home team as part of the bowl tie in.

The Sun Bowl is dead to me.

UTEP and the Sun Bowl committee aka Sunnies are two different entities. Yes, UTEP owns the stadium but unlike most Bowl games, the Sun Bowl is a year round event that has the community involved. From a parade to a golf tournament to a basketball tournament and a beauty pageant, it is an event El Pasoans look forward to. It is the only time they’ll get to see a high profile P5 team in town and as it happened in 2010 or 2011 when the Notre Dame-Miami game was sold out in minutes. UTEP could use its influence but it knows the way it is set up makes money so why even mess with it? The only time I know UTEP used its influence with the Sunnies was in 1998 when WAC left behind TCU was picked over defectors Wyoming, Utah and Colorado State to face Pac-10 rep USC (the Big Ten could not meet its tie-in obligation with the Sun, that why a WAC school was considered). Six months prior that game, an airport meeting in Denver formed the MWC and long time WAC member UTEP wasn’t invited. Other than that, I don’t know if UTEP has ever interfered with the Sun Bowl committe.

Yep. TCU of the WAC 16 spanked USC that game.
The year before (1997) I was at the Sun Bowl to watch Iowa lose to Arizona St. I was shocked that far away Iowa fans outnumbered close by Az St fans 10 to 1. I love that bowl game.