Mountain West Bowl Notes
Over the last seven years, the Mountain West has earned 22 bowl bids, including a record four in 2005.
The Poinsettia Bowl will mark the fourth time since 2000 that a Mountain West Conference team will participate in an inaugural bowl game.
Three of the four league teams will be making their first appearance in their respective bowl games (BYU-Las Vegas, Colorado State-Poinsettia, Utah-Emerald), while TCU is making its second trip to the Houston Bowl.
Mountain West teams will be in unfamiliar territory during the postseason, as Conference teams are a combined 4-0 all-time against their four bowl opponents. TCU and BYU are each 2-0 against their respective opponents (Iowa State and California), while Colorado State and Utah have first-time match-ups against Navy and Georgia Tech, respectively.
Utah has won four consecutive bowl games. The Utes last loss was to Wisconsin in the 1996 Copper Bowl (38-10).
The Mountain West will attempt to win its second straight ESPN Bowl Challenge Cup by Cooper Tire in 2005. The MWC won the trophy in 2004 after posting the highest winning percentage of any league with three or more teams in bowl games.
Collectively, eight of the nine members have participated in a bowl game the last six years, led by Colorado State and TCU with five appearances each in that span. Six of the nine members have won bowl games since 2000, including victories by Utah (Tostitos Fiesta Bowl) and Wyoming (Pioneer PureVision Las Vegas Bowl) last season.
TCU Claims Mountain West Title
TCU's outright Mountain West Conference title is its first in nearly 50 years. The Horned Frogs (10-1, 8-0), are playing their first season in the MWC and last won an outright league title in 1958 as member of the Southwest Conference. TCU shared SWC titles in 1959 and 1994 and won a piece of championships in the Western Athletic Conference (1999, 2000) and Conference USA (2002).
TCU Posts Perfect Mark in Mountain West Play
TCU is just the third team in Mountain West Conference history to go undefeated in league play (BYU-2001 and Utah-2004). The Horned Frogs posted their first undefeated conference record since the 1938 national championship team that competed in the Southwest Conference. It's also just the fourth perfect league mark in school history.
Did You Know....
TCU became just the fourth team since the inception of the Mountain West Conference in 1999 to win the regular-season football title. BYU, Colorado State and Utah shared the 1999 crown. BYU won the 2001 title, while Colorado State won outright championships in 2000 and 2002. Utah claimed its own championships in 2003 and 2004.
TCU Boasts Nation's Third-Longest Win Streak
TCU currently has the third-longest active win streak in Division I-A behind only USC (34) and Texas (19). The Horned Frogs' nine-game win streak is their longest since winning 12 in a row in a stretch that spanned the final two games in 2002 and the opening 10 contests in 2003.
Attendance Records
The Mountain West Conference set an attendance record in 2005, averaging 35,275 fans in 48 home contests. The old mark was 35,213 set in 2004. This is the first time in league history the MWC has posted back-to-back season attendance averages of 35,000-plus. The total attendance of 1,693,216 for all games also ranks as the highest in conference history, surpassing the 2003 mark of 1,667,548 in 49 home contests.
