BOWL BID GOES TO HAWAII, NOT SDSU

Aztecs lose tiebreaker to team it beat during season

How does a team that had a worse conference record than San Diego State and lost to the Aztecs during the season get a bowl ber th ahead of SDSU?

Here’s how: It wins a complicated three-team tiebreaker.

The Mountain West announced Sunday that Hawaii and Nevada had accepted invitations to the New Mexico Bowl and Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, respectively.

A berth for Nevada (6-2) was expected since it f inished among the top three teams in a conference left this season with three bowl tie-ins after the LA Bowl canceled last week.

When Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson secured a four th bowl slot, it brought Fresno State (3-3), Hawaii (4-4) and SDSU (4-4) all into play.

The tiebreaker rules f irst consider head-to-head record among all three teams, but all three did not play each other this season.

Hawaii defeated Fresno State and SDSU defeated Hawaii, but the SDSU-Fresno State game was canceled because of COVID-19 issues within the Bulldogs program.

After that, said Mountain West spokesman Javan Hedlund, “you work your way down the standings.”

All three teams did not play San Jose State (6-0) or Boise State (5-1), the conference’s top two teams. All three teams did play Nevada. “Fresno State and San Diego State lost to Nevada and Hawaii beat Nevada,” Hedlund said. “So Hawaii won the tiebreaker.”

Hedlund said this tiebreaker was set up several months ago during a meeting of Mountain West athletic directors.

Overall record was used because teams were playing an unbalanced schedule.

While nine conference teams all were scheduled for eight conference games, Boise State and SDSU played a nonconference game against BYU and Air Force had nonconference games scheduled with Army and Navy.

The Aztecs added a nonconference game against Colorado when their game against Fresno State was canceled. SDSU lost 20-10 to the Buffaloes. As it turns out, not playing that week would have earned SDSU

the bowl spot that went to Hawaii.

In that case, SDSU would have been 4-3, faced a tiebreaker with Fresno State (since both would have three losses) and won the tiebreaker (since SDSU beat Hawaii and Fresno State lost).

Such tiebreakers would not have been necessary in a normal year, when the NCAA requires a six-win minimum in order to be eligible for a bowl game.

In that instance, it becomes a beauty contest once a school has become bowl eligible.

Bowl invitations are offered to schools perceived to create the best matchup or have more fans travel to a game, among other considerations.

SDSU, which is continuing to look for a bowl oppor tunity, did not immediately have a comment.

San Jose State will host Boise State on Saturday in the Mountain West championship game. The winner is expected to be invited to the Arizona Bowl.

The runner-up, which earlier appeared headed to the New Mexico Bowl or Potato Bowl, now will go to an as yet unidentif ied bowl secured during the week by Thompson.