ASU Indians, Ragin' Cajuns wrangle for bowl berth again

[NewsCopy]

A University of Louisiana football victory today afternoon over UL Monroe, coupled with a loss by Sun Belt Conference foe Arkansas State, would put the Ragin' Cajuns into their first-ever Division I-A bowl game. It's a remarkably similar situation to the last time the Cajuns were involved in a conference-title and bowl-berth chase in the last week of the season. In 1993, UL did everything in its power over the final nine weeks of the season, only to have a bowl game jerked from under their cleats by ... Arkansas State. That came in the Cajuns' first year in the Big West Conference, a league made up mostly of west-coast schools but one that picked up the Cajuns along with La. Tech and ASU in football-only membership. The alliance lasted only three years, and the Cajun squad shared the league title the first two years. The league champion earned the Big West's automatic slot in the Las Vegas Bowl, and just like the current Sun Belt arrangement, a tie for the league title was broken by an exhausting tie-breaker system. In 1993, the Cajuns lost their season opener at home 34-13 to Big West league member Utah State - a game most notable for a freshman quarterback named Jake Delhomme taking over in the second half and starting the next 43 games in a row. The Cajuns didn't lose any more league games on the way to an 8-3 record and went into the last weekend of the season tied for the league lead. Also in that deadlock were Utah State and Nevada at 4-1, and UL had the advantage for the bowl berth in a three-team tiebreaker if all three teams won, as well as over Nevada if USU lost. UL was facing long-time rival Tech and posted a tight 21-17 win to claim the title share, and all that was needed was for Nevada to beat a not-very-good Arkansas State team that had gone winless in Big West play. But the Indians scored on two hail-Mary passes, one at the end of the first half and one at the end of the game, to take a shocking 23-21 win over the Wolfpack, leaving the Cajuns and Utah State tied for the title and sending the Aggies to the Las Vegas Bowl. The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

[gridiron]

Check this out. I hate ASU, I wouldn't go see them in a bowl if it was in my own back yard. Oh wait. IT IS

[El Sidonio]

I can't tell you how glad I am that ASU will be in our back yard instead of UL-Bumroe.