Silicon Valley Bowl falls

The game, which provided
a bowl game for the WAC,
was not licensed

The Sheraton Hawaii Bowl was cleared, but the Silicon Valley Football Classic will take at least one year off as the NCAA met with bowl game officials to determine which games will be licensed for the upcoming postseason yesterday in Scottsdale, Ariz.

The Silicon Valley Classic has been dogged by poor attendance since its inception five years ago. It reached a low last year with a gathering of 5,494 to watch Northern Illinois and Troy play. The small attendance made it impossible to reach the NCAA's three-year requirement, even with a sellout this year.

The game was supposed to match representatives from the Pac-10 and Western Athletic Conference, but last season the Pac-10 did not have enough teams to go around, and Texas-El Paso of the WAC went to the Houston Bowl instead.

The WAC now has two games with guaranteed spots for its teams: the Hawaii Bowl and the MPC Computers Bowl in Boise, Idaho, which was also granted its license yesterday.

"I guess I didn't predict that very well," said WAC commissioner Karl Benson, who anticipated that the Silicon Valley Classic would be cleared for this year despite its attendance and financial woes. The game has lost money each year, and the conferences involved have had to absorb the deficit.

Benson said he has already started looking for other bowl game tie-ins for the WAC.

"The San Diego (Poinsettia) bowl was certified, so that's a positive," Benson said. "I've had discussions with them leading up to this and talked to them again today."

The Mountain West Conference will supply one of the teams to the Poinsettia Bowl, he said. The bowl, expected to have a 7 p.m. Pacific time kickoff, will be shown on ESPN2.

"I've also talked with the San Francisco Bowl," Benson added. "They haven't had a Pac-10 team the past two years (despite a tie-in), so there's a possible opening there. We also continue to have discussions with the Liberty Bowl about possibly arranging something there."

Hawaii Bowl operations manager Dave Matlin said he doesn't expect the non-renewal of the Silicon Valley game to affect the Hawaii Bowl.

"To our knowledge it doesn't, but everything is interrelated and can change quickly," he said.

The Hawaii Bowl has matched the University of Hawaii and a Conference USA opponent the past three seasons. This will be the final year of the initial contract involving the WAC, Conference USA and game owner ESPN Regional TV.

"We met with both conferences in separate meetings and they basically said the Hawaii Bowl has been a very positive experience," Matlin said.