Air Force still waiting on bowl announcement

Air Force will have to wait until next weekend for an official announcement about its postseason destination.

The Falcons seem to be a lock for either the Armed Forces Bowl or the New Mexico Bowl — and the feeling around the academy is they’re headed to the Armed Forces Bowl for the third straight year.

But according to Javan Hedlund, the Mountain West Conference’s associate commissioner, communications, the league’s bowl partners will not hand out bids until next Sunday, after the Bowl Championship Series bowl matchups are announced. That’s because MWC champ TCU won’t officially get a bid to a BCS bowl until then, and the league does not want to make postseason arrangements until that domino falls.

“Even though TCU is in position to make it to a BCS bowl, nothing is guaranteed as of today and therefore it cannot be released by other bowls,” Hedlund wrote in an e-mail Sunday. “Plus, BYU was held by the BCS last week and is No. 14 in this week’s standings.”

Still, it seems almost certain TCU will earn a BCS bid and BYU will not. And if that’s the case, the Las Vegas Bowl (which has first choice of eligible MWC teams) and the Poinsettia Bowl (which has second choice) will select second-place BYU and third-place Utah in some order.

The Armed Forces Bowl (Dec. 31, Fort Worth, Texas) and the New Mexico Bowl (Dec. 19, Albuquerque) share the third choice of MWC teams and work together with the conference to select the best teams regionally for their respective games.

Armed Forces Bowl executive director Brant Ringler said Sunday that his bowl, which pits an MWC team against a Conference-USA squad, will get either Air Force or Wyoming, the only other bowl-eligible MWC squad. And New Mexico Bowl executive director Jeff Siembieda said Air Force will end up either at his bowl or the Armed Forces Bowl.

Most bowl projections have Air Force heading to Fort Worth, and news outlets that cover Wyoming have indicated the Cowboys seem destined for the New Mexico Bowl.

Either way, both bowl directors are hoping there’s a way to lock in their participants as soon as possible so they can start marketing their games.

“I think it’s important for everybody,” Ringler said. “You look at the New Mexico Bowl, their game’s on Dec. 19, so it’s very important for them to make an announcement sooner rather than later. Same for us. We’d either be working with a brand new team or the same team for the third straight year. And either way presents challenges.”