Boise welcomes bowl opponents

The question that comes to mind almost immediately is simple. Why Boise? Why in the world would you want to play a bowl game in Boise, Idaho, in late December?

''Well, first of all, it's not Siberia," said Gary Beck. ''We actually get only about 20 inches of a snow out here and it's a dry cold as opposed to a wet cold."

Beck has his sales pitch down cold, so to speak, since he is the executive director of the MPC Computers Bowl, which will match Boise State vs. Boston College Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. Word has it that once the teams get to Boise, they have a good time. A winterfest of activities, mixed with warm hospitality.

This game was born the Humanitarian Bowl in 1997 as a destination for the Big West champion vs. a Conference USA foe, two leagues that traditionally drew only lukewarm interest from other bowls.

When the Big West faded, the Western Athletic Conference stepped into the host role. Creating a bowl is easier than people might think: Find a stadium and some corporate sponsors to foot the bill and meet the guaranteed money payout of $750,000 per team and the NCAA is likely to certify the game.

After that, the laws of supply and demand and basic economics kick in.

In the first Humanitarian Bowl, Cincinnati beat Utah State, 35-19. But the key is to get a bona fide home team each year to guarantee a decent crowd. Idaho played in the second game and won a wild 42-35 victory over Southern Mississippi. The next two years, Boise State earned berths and handed losses to Louisville (34-31) and UTEP (38-23).

The Atlantic Coast Conference link began in 2001 when Clemson came to Boise as an at-large team and swamped Louisiana Tech, 49-24.

Two years later, with the ACC expanding and looking for bowl slots, the conference signed an agreement to send a team to Boise each year. Although the Humanitarian Bowl was sixth in the ACC pecking order, that was good enough for the game's organizers. And when Georgia Tech walked off with a 52-10 victory over Tulsa, the Yellow Jackets felt pretty good about it.

Last year, as part of a new corporate sponsor, MPC Computers, the bowl welcomed Virginia, which dropped a 37-34 decision to Fresno State.

Boise is back this year to enjoy a most unique home-field advantage.

''How different is it from Miami playing in the Orange Bowl or USC or UCLA playing in the Rose Bowl?" asked Beck. ''It's just part of the process."

BC coach Tom O'Brien knows what his team is facing.

''It's a home game for them," said O'Brien. ''We just have to deal with it. And maybe we're better equipped to handle it than most teams in the ACC."

O'Brien's Eagles are certainly used to playing in the cold and have shown the ability to go into hostile environments and win. BC did that most notably this season when it went to Clemson and posted a 16-13 overtime victory that helped establish the Eagles' ACC credentials. Finishing with an 8-3 record solidified BC's reputation.

O'Brien and the rest of the Eagles felt their regular-season credentials -- tied with Florida State for first in the ACC's Atlantic Division -- should have earned them a better, if not warmer, bowl destination.

There have been rumblings about the ACC dropping its affiliation with Boise and switching to a bowl with a warmer climate, a development that would probably go over well with most member schools.

The ACC is also likely to draw up a new plan for slotting its bowl-eligible teams, allowing the conference to have more say about which teams go where rather than allowing the bowls to dictate the plan.

The ACC bowl lineup for next year will send the conference champion to a Bowl Championship Series game, the No. 2 team to the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla., the No. 3 team to the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, the No. 4 team to the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Fla., and the No. 5 team to the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, N.C. The Nos. 6, 7, and 8 teams will then sort out bids from Boise, the Music City Bowl in Nashville, and the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco.

Some tinkering of the system could take place, but the odds are that BC will be the last team with eight wins to land in Boise.