AZTEC NOTEBOOK / SCOTT MILLER : Holiday Bowl Still Waffling on Big Ten

Although the Big Ten consists of Michigan and not a whole lot else this season, the Holiday Bowl still is not ready to abandon ship on its deal with the conference for the third pick.

The bowl, which gets a team after the Rose Bowl and Florida Citrus Bowl slots are filled, has an option to go elsewhere to get a team if certain criteria are not met. However, Dick Howard, Holiday Bowl president, said Saturday he isn’t thinking in those terms yet.

“I think it’s awfully early to say if we will or if we won’t,” Howard said. “I think it is awfully early to start being concerned.”

The Holiday Bowl can pass on its Big Ten pick if the third team in line is not ranked in the CNN-USA Today top 20 (the coaches’ poll) or if it does not have eight victories against Division I teams. At this point, it is certainly not a sure thing that there will be three Big Ten teams in the top 20.

Before Saturday, there were eight teams tied for second in the Big Ten. Now, Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan State are tied for second at 2-1 and Ohio State, Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, Northwestern and Minnesota are tied for third--or last--at 1-2. Michigan leads with a 3-0 mark.

The Holiday Bowl, which also plays host to the winner of the Western Athletic Conference, is obligated to let the Big Ten know by Nov. 7 whether it will take a Big Ten team.

“It’s nice to see some teams that have not been traditionally involved in the upper division,” Howard said. “It’s nice to see some new blood in the Big Ten.”

The next three weeks will tell whether that new blood is of bowl caliber.

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This is how far the Marshall Faulk phenomenon goes: He ran for 156 yards in SDSU’s 49-27 victory over Texas El Paso on Saturday and UTEP Coach David Lee was happy.

“I was really proud of how we played defensively against Marshall,” Lee said. “Man, he’s great. He’s got great acceleration. We’ve got a couple of guys who run a 4.5 40 and he just walked away from them.”

Don’t talk to SDSU Coach Al Luginbill about “containing” Faulk, though.

“I think something has gotten out of kilter,” Luginbill said. “He ran for 150-plus--if that’s containing him, then something is seriously wrong. Any time we get a running back running for 150 yards, we’re going to be happy campers around here.”

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In addition to the Holiday Bowl, the Copper and Freedom bowls had scouts at the game Saturday.

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UTEP and SDSU are not scheduled to meet again until Oct. 28, 1995.