This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The New Mexico Bowl is close to being a sell-out, but that doesn't mean there will be 34,000 or so bodies at University Stadium on Saturday when the Cougars meet UTEP at noon. Bowl spokeswoman RaeAnn McKernan said that 30,300 tickets had been sold as of Thursday afternoon. BYU officials said they have sold a little more than 2,500 tickets. UTEP had sold around 3,700 tickets. The big question is how many tickets were allotted to each school, because the bowl counts those as tickets sold. Obviously, each school will have to "eat" those tickets, unless they choose to give them to local charities, schools, etc. But by doing that, they anger some of the people who bought tickets. The bowl business it is crazy, isn't it? Here's some morning links to BYU football and basketball stories that were in this morning's Tribune: * Here's my profile of UTEP coach Mike Price, who spent eight years in the 1980s at Weber State. * My notebook from Albuquerque was mostly about BYU kicker Mitch Payne. * Tribune columnist Gordon Monson penned this column about BYU basketball center Brandon Davies. * The Tribune's Martin Renzhofer, who is on the Cougar basketball beat this week (and will travel to Anaheim this weekend), has this preview of Saturday's game.- Here's the NM Bowl's writeup on Thursday night's bowl activities:BYU, UTEP Split Events At Santa Ana Star CasinoCougars start night with Survey Says win, UTEP rolls in bowlingALBUQUERQUE, N.M. It was a fun-filled night out at Santa Ana Star Casino as it played host to the New Mexico Bowl, BYU Cougars and UTEP Miners. The teams each won an event as BYU kicked off the night as Surcey Says champions and UTEP avoided the bowl week sweep with a bowling title.Survey Says host Gus Davis started the game show, which is played in a similar format to Family Feud, with five members of each offense facing off. The Miners jumped out to a 288-0 lead, taking the first two rounds. The Cougars roared back, scoring 291 points in round three to take the lead heading into the switch as five defenders from each team then took the stage.BYU swept the first round, but UTEP fought back and swept the second round, pushing the score to 488-391 in favor of the Miners. On the third and final question for the defenders, BYU went for the steal, looking for the fifth or sixth most popular answer to, "Name an animal that lives in the jungle." The Cougars said "bird" and were reward with the points as "Toucan" popped up in the No. 6 slot.The last group to hit the stage were coaches. BYU clinched the win in the first round, putting up all but one answer on, "Name a place badly behaved children are sent." Arguably the best and most reacted to answers of the night came during the second round to the question, "Name something a 40-year-old man would do to feel younger." One coach said, "Take Viagra," which was on the board and coach Mark Weber, who sports a bald head, shouted out, "Get hair plugs," which was also on the board. The final score was 981-713.The teams headed up stars to the Starlight Bowling Alley where each athlete got to roll a game. The coaches then selected five of their best bowlers to compete in a Baker-system game, meaning player No. 1 rolled frames 1 and 6, player No. 2 rolled frames 2 and 7 and so on. Through six frames, UTEP held a one-point advantage at 70-69. The Miners' Geoff Amato and Hunter Nix pushed UTEP into a seemingly-comfy lead with a spare and a strike, respectively. BYU's Tom Steele tried to bring the Cougars back in the final frame with a spare and a seven on the coveted third ball. UTEP's Quintin Jones stood stong under the pressure and clinched the 125-121 win, knocking down seven on his first roll in the final frame. Jones and teammates Amato, Nix, Elijah Goldtrap and Tanner Cullumber received black and blue suede varsity jackets for their victory.The team's conclude bowl week festivities tomorrow with the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Albuquerque Kickoff Lunch at 11:30 a.m. and the pep rally at 4:45 p.m. The rally is free to all and will conclude with a fireworks show at approximately 5:30 p.m.