No. 12 Arizona State Left Without a Fiesta

Fiesta Bowl President Charles P. Thompson can cut back on some of those phone-answering volunteers and toss the maroon and gold floral arrangements into the trash.

The painted carnations clash with the purple and white flowers anyway.

And he might grab the blue and gold bunch--he says he really has one--out of the corner, just in case.

The Fiesta Bowl changed insurance carriers Friday when Arizona’s Ortege Jenkins took the game and Thompson off the hook by throwing three touchdown passes in the first half of the Wildcats’ 28-16 win over No. 12 Arizona State.

Once considered virtually an extra Sun Devil home game, the Fiesta figures it’s in good hands with UCLA as an insurance policy if Nebraska or Tennessee were to lose in conference championship games.

“UCLA is in Southern California, driving distance,” Thompson said Friday. “They are the Pac-10 co-champions and that means a lot to us.”

Thompson said a Nebraska loss to Texas A&M; in the Big 12 championship game or a Tennessee tumble today against Vanderbilt or against Auburn in the Southeastern Conference title game next week could blow away plans for a semi-title game involving Nebraska and Tennessee in the Orange Bowl and a sweet matchup between Florida State and Penn State in the Sugar.

Nebraska would become a bowl alliance at-large team, and all kinds of possibilities happen then, which is why the alliance keeps UCLA dangling instead of letting the Bruins get on with their Cotton Bowl plans.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen, and that’s why UCLA looks pretty good to us,” Thompson said.

What was supposed to happen was that Arizona State was going to play Syracuse in the Fiesta Bowl, UCLA was going to play Kansas State or Texas A&M; in the Cotton Bowl, Washington was going to play Notre Dame or Iowa in the Sun Bowl and USC was going to play somebody--perhaps Missouri or Iowa--in the Aloha.

By 7 p.m., when Arizona State trailed, 28-7, it was clear that everybody in the Pac-10 had moved down a notch except UCLA, and USC appeared out.

Howard Volan, chairman of the Insight.com Bowl, was preparing to extend an invitation to Arizona, which would play the loser of the Western Athletic Conference championship game between New Mexico and Colorado State.

By 8 p.m., John Folsom, Arizona State Class of ‘66, was talking with Kevin White, the Sun Devils’ athletic director, offering consolation for the loss to Arizona.

Sun Devils. Sun Bowl. It’s a natural.

“I know what it’s like to play in that game,” Folsom said of the Arizona-Arizona State rivalry. “I was captain in 1965.

“And as long as I’ve been in the bowl business, and I’ve been head of the selection committee for the Sun Bowl for 15 years, I’ve never had a chance to pick my alma mater. Now I do.”

Maybe.

Before anybody starts running for the border, the Fiesta and bowl alliance must have their say.

“I know it’s contingent on UCLA playing in the Cotton Bowl,” Folsom said. “Well, we in the bowl business think that’s going to happen. The Fiesta is going to take a 10-1 Kansas State against somebody from the Big East. And UCLA is going to play Texas A&M.;”

And Arizona State is going to play Notre Dame in the Sun because Iowa--the apparent Big Ten qualifier--has spent three holidays in a row in Texas and is looking for a more tropical clime.

Folsom figures Kansas State and its 35,000-40,000 traveling Wildcat snowbirds will head for Tempe after Nebraska and/or Tennessee win to keep the alliance in some sort of order.

“I’ve heard from [Big 12 Commissioner] Steve Hatchell, the AD at Kansas State [Max Urick], the president of Kansas State [Dr. Jon Wefald],” Thompson said. “I have purple and white carnations in my office. . . . They’ve written letters and made promises.”

Basically, Hatchell, Urick and Wefald have promised that Tempe will bleed purple and white and, more important, green on New Year’s Eve should Kansas State be tendered an invitation.

But that meant having to deal with Arizona State, which would buy tickets, but not hotel rooms.

Political pressure was being applied by Sun Devil alumni and friends, who have worn out telephones and area florists reminding the Fiesta folks that the bowl was invented 26 years ago because Arizona State kept beating people but never played beyond November.

“ASU was very good to our bowl in the formative years,” Thompson said. “The bowl started because ASU wasn’t making bowl games.”

But that hadn’t kept the Fiesta from hiring a public-relations firm that began putting together a campaign to deal with not asking the Sun Devils (8-3) to the Fiesta. The move came three weeks ago when, in a fit of post-win-over-Washington-State fervor, John Jenkins, the bowl’s executive director, espoused a Fiesta coronation along the Arizona State sideline.

Since then, Fiesta officials have fanned out around the country, filling all ears with Sun Devil musings, but guaranteeing nothing.

And last week, the Fiesta sent a representative to the Kansas State-Kansas game.

“We’re trying to educate people because a lot of people don’t understand what an alliance bowl is,” Thompson said. “People in L.A., in Chicago, in New Orleans know, but since we haven’t had a home team in here in a while, they don’t know about us. So we’re pretty much going to have to do a re-education.”

And what is the difference between an alliance bowl and a run-of-the-mill postseason game?

“This,” said Thompson, rubbing thumb and middle finger together in the universal sign for cold, hard cash.

In one move that definitely paid off, the Wildcats (6-5) slipped backup quarterback Keith Smith on the field as a flanker, threw back to him and let him throw a touchdown pass to Paul Shields. They used a double-reverse. They protected Jenkins well enough for him to throw touchdown passes of 37, 40 and 29 yards.

The latter went to Brad Brennan after Arizona State safety Mitchell Friedman had crashed into the Wildcat backfield, touching nobody and generating a free down. While everyone else stopped, Brennan kept running and gathered in Jenkins’ pass.

And in the fourth quarter, Arizona got a first down when Pat Tillman blocked a fourth-and-17 Wildcat punt, but Arizona’s Chester Burnett scooped up the ball and ran 21 yards to the Arizona State 30.

It just wasn’t Arizona State’s day.

Maybe it was the Fiesta’s.

It wasn’t the Pac-10’s, because the conference figured on $8.47 million of found money--about $750,000 per school after expenses--that is probably lost.

And UCLA’s day is yet to come, but it will be delayed at least another week.

And USC’s may not come at all because if Folsom’s prediction comes to pass, the Aloha will select Washington over the Trojans.

Stay tuned, as the bowl show has a week to run before bids can go out Dec. 7.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

A Look at the Bowls

Projections of bowl matchups, which in many cases are made based on teams winning any remaining regular-season games and/or the outcome of conference championship games. All times Pacific.

SATURDAY, DEC. 20

* LAS VEGAS BOWL (At Las Vegas): Michigan State vs. Air Force, 3 p.m. (ESPN 2)

THURSDAY, DEC. 25

* ALOHA BOWL (At Honolulu):

Washington-USC vs. Iowa, 12:30 p.m. (ABC)

FRIDAY, DEC. 26

* MOTOR CITY BOWL (At Pontiac, Mich.):

Marshall or Toledo vs. TBA, 5 p.m. (ESPN)

SATURDAY, DEC. 27

* INSIGHT.COM BOWL (At Tucson):

New Mexico or Colorado State vs. Arizona, 5 p.m. (ESPN)

SUNDAY, DEC. 28

* INDEPENDENCE BOWL (At Shreveport, La.): Louisiana State vs. TBA, 5 p.m. (ESPN)

MONDAY, DEC. 29

* HUMANITARIAN BOWL (At Boise, Idaho): Utah State vs. Oregon, 12:30 p.m. (ESPN2)

* CARQUEST BOWL (At Miami):

Virginia vs. West Virginia, 4:30 p.m. (TBS)

* HOLIDAY BOWL (At San Diego):

Oklahoma State vs. Colorado State or New Mexico, 5 p.m. (ESPN)

TUESDAY, DEC. 30

* ALAMO BOWL (At San Antonio):

Missouri vs. Purdue, 5 p.m. (ESPN)

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 31

* SUN BOWL (At El Paso):

Arizona State vs. Notre Dame, 11 a.m. (CBS)

* LIBERTY BOWL (At Memphis, Tenn.):

Pittsburgh vs. Southern Mississippi, 12:30 p.m. (ESPN)

* FIESTA BOWL (At Tempe, Ariz.):

Kansas State vs. Syracuse, 4 p.m. (CBS)

THURSDAY, JAN. 1

* OUTBACK BOWL (At Tampa, Fla.):

Wisconsin vs. Auburn, 8 a.m. (ESPN)

* GATOR BOWL (At Jacksonville, Fla.):

North Carolina vs. Virginia Tech, 9:30 a.m. (NBC)

* CITRUS BOWL (At Orlando, Fla.):

Ohio State vs. Florida, 10 a.m. (ABC)

* COTTON BOWL (At Dallas):

Texas A&M; vs. UCLA, 10:30 a.m. (CBS)

* ROSE BOWL (At Pasadena):

Washington State vs. Michigan,

2 p.m. (ABC)

* SUGAR BOWL (At New Orleans):

Florida State vs. Penn State, 5 p.m. (ABC)

FRIDAY, JAN. 2

* PEACH BOWL (At Atlanta):

North Carolina State vs. Georgia,

noon (ESPN)

* ORANGE BOWL (At Miami):

Nebraska vs. Tennessee, 5 p.m. (CBS)

Final Pac-10 Standings

Conf.

*--*

Team W L Washington State 7 1 UCLA 7 1 Arizona State 6 2 Washington 5 3 USC 4 4 Arizona 4 4 Oregon 3 5 Stanford 3 5 California 1 7 Oregon State 0 8

*--*

Overall

*--*

Team W L Washington State 10 1 UCLA 9 2 Arizona State 8 3 Washington 7 4 USC 6 5 Arizona 6 5 Oregon 6 5 Stanford 5 6 California 3 8 Oregon State 3 8

*--*

* * USC UPDATE: Sun Devils’ loss could have taken the Trojans out of the bowl picture. C10