Bowl Projections: BYU Cougars and Notre Dame Fighting Irish in Vegas?

BYU could face Notre Dame in Las Vegas.

The stars may have to align just a bit, but there’s a chance that BYU and Notre Dame could hook up in the Maaco Bowl – Las Vegas on December 22nd.

The San Diego Union Tribune is reporting that the Fighting Irish may be on the radar screen of the Vegas Bowl committee if they become bowl eligible.

Notre Dame is 5-5 with a game this week against Army at Yankee Stadium and the season finale at USC.

BYU could possibly get to Las Vegas with wins in its last two games against New Mexico and Utah.

Normally the bowl pits MWC #1 vs. PAC-10 #4/5 (this year it’s the 5th place team). The problem is that the PAC-10 may not have five bowl eligible teams this year, forcing Vegas to look at its at-large options.

On the Mountain West side the Maaco committee would love to have highly rated TCU, but the Horned Frogs are likely headed to a BCS game, leaving the bowl to choose from either Utah, BYU or Air Force. San Diego State is a virtual lock to stay home and play in the Poinsettia Bowl against Navy.

If the Cougars were to defeat New Mexico and then knock off Utah, the Las Vegas Bowl would have to take a long look at a 7-5 BYU team on a five game winning streak over a fading Utah, especially if Notre Dame were the opponent, seeing the Irish hammered the Utes just last week.

Notre Dame is in the regular mix for the Champ Sports and Sun Bowls when not qualifying for a BCS Bowl, but they may not be an overly attractive alternatives for those bowls this year if the Irish go 6-6. The powers that be in South Bend may also want to give their fans a chance to trip to Las Vegas.

A BYU vs. Notre Dame bowl game in Las Vegas would be a very attractive match up. The folks at Sam Boyd Stadium would have to figure out how to add some temporary seating for the crowd that would want to attend that game.

Irish fans would no doubt flock to Las Vegas and Cougars fans have been very good to the Las Vegas Bowl over the past five years.

The bowl would also draw a large TV audience and it would be an interesting prequel to a six-game series set to begin in 2012 between the two programs.

The prevailing thought  is that the Las Vegas Bowl and BYU would prefer take a break from each other this year seeing that the Cougars have appeared in the bowl in each of the five past years, but a potential BYU vs. Notre Dame match up could change all of that.

If Utah lands in Las Vegas, then a bowl-eligible BYU would most likely end up in the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl. It has the third choice from the Mountain West Conference after the Las Vegas and Independence Bowls and it’s widely thought that the Independence Bowl has its heart set on Air Force.

The Armed Forces Bowl will be played this year in Gerald J. Ford Stadium on the campus of SMU in Dallas while Amon G. Carter Stadium, its regular home on the TCU campus, undergoes renovations.

The bowl also has the third pick from Conference USA which at this point could be any number of teams from a list that includes SMU, UCF, East Carolina, Southern Miss, Tulsa, Houston or UTEP.

The Armed Forces Bowl could also invite Army if the Military Bowl passes over the Black Knights, which seems unlikely.