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Provo • The people who run the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl got about half of what they wanted on Saturday when college football's final regular-season games played out.

Las Vegas Bowl officials, who really desire BYU and haven't been all that shy about proclaiming it, were happy to see the Cougars improve to 9-3 with a 51-28 triumph over Utah State. The Cougars have won two straight games and seven of their last eight.

It might not have been enough to get BYU to Las Vegas for the first time since 2009, however. The Las Vegas and Hawaii bowls are both in the running to get the Cougars this year; the bowl that doesn't get them will snag them in 2019, per an agreement signed last April.

Coach Bronco Mendenhall's team can get to 10 wins for the first time since 2011, and two of their three losses were against Power-5 conference teams by a combined five points. The Cougars are a hot commodity in Vegas because of their ability to sell tickets and their ability to draw decent television ratings when pitted against another big-name program.

Television ratings are important to the Las Vegas Bowl folks this year, executive director John Saccenti told The Salt Lake Tribune last week, because last year's game — Utah drubbed Colorado State 45-10 — was a ratings dud.

Mendenhall said after Saturday's win that he hasn't heard anything about BYU's bowl destination and doesn't expect to until Sunday, when the College Football Playoff semifinal pairings are announced, or maybe the night before.

The Hawaii Bowl wants BYU this year so it doesn't have to invite BYU over hometown Hawaii in 2019 if the Warriors are bowl-eligible then.

Saccenti stopped short of saying it, but all indications were that the Las Vegas Bowl headed into the weekend really wanting a matchup between BYU and USC. The Trojans (8-4, 6-3) scuttled that dream by trouncing UCLA 40-21 and will play against Stanford in the Pac-12 conference championship game this week, with the winner likely advancing to the Rose Bowl.

Even with a loss on Saturday, USC is bound for a bigger bowl than Vegas, which is sixth in the pecking order behind the Rose, Alamo, Holiday, Foster Farms and Sun.

The Las Vegas bowl doesn't want a matchup between UCLA (8-4, 5-4) and BYU because the teams have already met this year, a 24-23 UCLA win on Sept. 19.

"I don't think anybody is necessarily interested in that matchup," Saccenti said. "I have gotten a lot of phone calls and emails from a BYU group, reaching out to us and trying to gauge where we are at. I think Vegas is a very attractive destination for BYU. They have had success here. They like it here. It is easy to get here. I think they really would like to come here."

That's true even though BYU's basketball team is playing at a tournament in Hawaii on Dec. 22, 23 and 25.

The big question becomes whether Vegas still wants BYU badly enough to pass over sixth-place UCLA for a team that tied for seventh-place — California (7-5), Arizona State (6-6), Washington (6-6) or Arizona (6-6). Saccenti said there is some wiggle room in the Pac-12 contract to avoid repeat appearances and rematches.

But it is not necessarily one entity's call to make alone; BYU, ESPN, and the bowls involved are all part of the group making the decision, and Saccenti said it would be "way too simple" to say ESPN and ESPN alone will ultimately decide what is best.

If the Las Vegas Bowl doesn't take BYU, it will take either Air Force or San Diego State, teams that don't travel nearly as well as the Cougars.

Air Force (8-4) and San Diego State (9-3) will play in the Mountain West Conference championship game on Saturday at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, but AFA's resume was nicked last week with a 47-35 loss to New Mexico. SDSU won its eighth-straight game late Saturday night, downing Nevada 31-14 in front of 22,939 fans at home.

drew@sltrib.com Twitter: @drewjay —

BYU's bowl possibilities

Dec. 19 • Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl vs. Pac-12's sixth selection

Dec. 24 • Hawaii Bowl vs. American Athletic Conference selection