Seven of Fresno State's games this season have been decided by seven points or less.
So with the Bulldogs (7-5) and their opponents playing so tight, the matchup against Colorado State (6-6) could prove to be the best in New Mexico Bowl history ... which goes back a whole two seasons.
The young bowl hopes to give Fresno State and its fans a taste of New Mexico and an opportunity to continue the season in exchange for three hours of football on Dec. 20 in Albuquerque.
"We really try to embrace what New Mexico has to offer, from the trophy to the events,"
bowl executive director Jeff Siembieda said.
Yes, the players will receive an Oakley watch, Oakley backpack and an RCA video camera when they get into town, just a few of the gifts awarded to participants in the bowl.
The championship trophy is a 20-inch bowl-shaped piece of Native American pottery from the Zia Pueblo. The offensive and defensive MVPs will receive decorated leather shields. The team competition during the week leading up to the game is a green chili cook-off.
Bowl officials hope such elements will help the event grow and bring more attention to Albuquerque and the state. Dan Ballou, director of sports marketing for the Albuquerque Convention and Visitors Bureau, uses the Fiesta Bowl as an example of a bowl that has grown to greatness.
"It was much like ours,"
he said. "It started from nothing and look what it's become."
A cause for excitement among bowl officials this season is the fact that this will be "a true bowl game"
in the sense that neither team is from the city. The University of New Mexico played in the previous two games, losing 20-12 to San Jose State in 2006 and beating Nevada 23-0 last year.
When San Jose State came to town in 2006 with 3,000 to 4,000 people and New Mexico fans arrived from across the state, Ballou said, the result in direct spending in the city for a half-week was just short of $2 million.
"It's a huge boost because that's money that wasn't there a year before,"
Ballou said. "A week from [today] there's going to be 3,000 to 8,000 people here in Albuquerque hotels, eating in restaurants and renting cars that weren't here in 2005."
Fans who don't travel to the Land of Enchantment can catch the game on ESPN, and it will have little competition from other bowls that day.
The game is one of six that ESPN Regional Television owns. The broadcast begins at 11:30 a.m. PDT, right after the EagleBank Bowl. The end of the New Mexico Bowl might overlap the beginning of the magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl at 1:30 p.m., which will air on ESPN2.
