Nov. 22, 1999

Nov. 22 - LARAMIE - Beat San Diego State this Saturday, and Wyoming will bring closure to an improbable season-ending run of four straight victories. Two of those came against BYU and Utah, which at the time were threatening to make the Mountain West Conference their own private war.

If it's a case of what you have done lately, Wyoming and Colorado State (should they win out) would seem the teams to represent the MWC in the Liberty and Holiday bowl games.

Stretch runners may excite racing fans, but apparently mean little to bowl committees. What apparently excites those men is that chaching cry of "teams that travel well."

Since the Cowboys average fewer than 20,000 per home football contest, and have since 1993, "travel well" would certainly seem not to apply to them. The most they have averaged was 24,831 for the 1977 season. That was to watch a 4-6-1 team. But, then, that was during the oil boom years.

Wyoming officials have begun taking pains to point out that Wyomingites travel better than one might expect. They just don't travel to Laramie. But give them a San Diego or Las Vegas ...

Wyoming sports publicist Tim Harkins was offering up pro-Cowboy figures earlier last week concerning the three WAC championship games played in Las Vegas. Last year, Air Force-BYU drew just over 30,000, two years ago CSU-New Mexico was attended by only 12,000, but in 1996 more than 40,000 were there for Wyoming-BYU.

So life is not always fair, and if you live in the stark harshness of Wyoming, you can appreciate that maybe better than others. For certain, Cowboys fans have come to understand there's no square dealing when it comes to bowl invites. A success Saturday, and the Cowboys will have won 10, eight, eight and eight games the last four seasons. The seniors on this team have played at about a 75 percent winning clip, yet have spent the holidays back home in South Dakota, Texas, Colorado or - anywhere but at a bowl venue.

But before the wailing or exuberance begins, the Cowboys have to deal with San Diego State. Although the Aztecs are a sub-.500 club, they are a tricky bunch. More talented than they often play, they can (and did) go into Kansas and win by four touchdowns or into Fort Collins to subdue the Rams.