Mats, El Toro Bowl prepared for all scenarios

Arizona Western stays at No. 2 in polls; national championship picture remains unclear

Several postseason scenarios are in play for the Arizona Western football team heading into the final weekend of the regular season.

In this week’s NJCAA Rankings, the Matadors (8-0 overall) remained No. 2 for the fourth week in a row. There was movement at the top, though, as previous-No. 1 Iowa Western (91) and No. 3 East Mississippi (9-1) traded places. That raises a multitude of questions: Will AWC finish below No. 1 despite being the only unbeaten team in the top 10? Is a drop to No. 3 possible? And if still No. 2, how would that affect the El Toro Bowl?

“We’re preparing for whatever,” AWC athletic director Jerry Smith said Wednesday. “Who knows what’s going to happen?”

Though technically not obligated to do so, standard procedure is that the top two teams agree to meet in a bowl game that is then designated as the NJCAA National Championship Game. If No. 1 has its own bowl game — as AWC does with the El Toro Bowl — then it is up to No. 2 to accept an invite to that bowl.

Last year, AWC finished the regular season ranked No. 2 but was able to host No. 1 Garden City for the title because GCCC doesn’t have its own bowl game. This year the Matadors might not be so lucky, because current No. 1 East Mississippi has the Mississippi Bowl in Perkinston, Miss.

If the order of the top two holds, AWC could theoretically turn down a Mississippi Bowl invite and elect to stay in Yuma and play in the El Toro Bowl for the seventh year in a row — which would be financially beneficial for both the program and the bowl, but per NJCAA rules would leave the national champion to