LAS VEGAS -- Today's WAC championship game isn't getting much attention in Glitter Glutch. There's too much competition for headlines -- namely the massive National Finals Rodeo, UNLV's hiring of former USC coach John Robinson and the upcoming Billboard Music Awards.
"I was totally expecting to stand here before you this morning and say it was sold out," WAC commissioner Karl Benson announced at a press conference Friday. "BYU and Air Force is a game that should sell out this stadium."Instead, as many as 2,000 tickets may go unsold for the contest at 36,000-seat Sam Boyd Stadium.
CALE-BONDING: Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry reiterated Friday that he has confidence in junior quarterback Cale Bonds, who will start in place of injured Pacific Division offensive player of the year Blane Morgan.
Morgan suffered an ankle sprain two weeks ago and has been practicing sparingly this week. DeBerry said Morgan, a senior, will probably see action against BYU. If Bonds plays well, he added, Morgan may not play at all.
The decision to start Bonds was made Wednesday in Colorado Springs before the team left for Las Vegas. "I talked to both of Cale and Blane after practice," DeBerry said. "I thought it was fair to tell them and the team to know who is starting."
HARVEY REMEMBERED: Terrence Harvey, the BYU cornerback who was killed in a car accident in September 1997, hailed from the Las Vegas area -- a fact that wasn't lost on BYU linebacker Rob Morris.
"Terrence was a big part of the team last year," he said. "He was a great guy to be around. We want his parents to know we're thinking of him while we're down here. It's kind of hard to talk about. He was just a great person. When we do talk about Terrence, it's about him as a person, not a player."
TV TALK: Benson jokingly asked coaches LaVell Edwards and Fisher DeBerry to keep the game interesting so that the WAC's television ratings won't suffer. The commissioner is hopeful ABC's national broadcast of the WAC finale can hold its own in competition against Army-Navy and UCLA-Miami.
And with BYU and Air Force involved, he thinks it will. Benson, however, isn't expecting to reach the 1996 rating of 6.7. That was the year the WAC title game was broadcast between the SEC and Big 12 championships.
MWC HEADQUARTERS: Colorado Springs -- home of the Air Force Academy -- has been announced as the new host city for the Mountain West Conference headquarters, beating out finalist Las Vegas with its community support and commitment to intercollegiate athletics.