However, the Las Vegas Bowl's executive director, Tina Kunzer-Murphy, is not ready to say the Cougars will be invited to Vegas for the fourth-straight year, especially because there's another viable option out there: TCU.

Utah's 48-24 win means it is headed to a BCS game, and clears the bowl picture for the remaining MWC teams, but not a lot.

"We have the first choice of the [remaining] teams, but we're not sure when we will make that decision," Kunzer-Murphy said. "We are meeting Monday, but we still have to wait for the BCS to release some teams."

Such as TCU.

The Horned Frogs (10-2) moved ahead of BYU (10-2) in the BCS standings. The second-place Frogs finished ahead of the third-place Cougars in the league standings, and are also ranked higher than BYU in the other major polls.

If everything else was equal, Vegas would probably take the higher-ranked team, and one that beat BYU handily back in October.

However, it is no secret that BYU has been largely responsible for selling out the Las Vegas Bowl the past three years, while TCU does not travel well and is not expected to bring a large contingent of fans.

"BYU has been very, very good for us," Kunzer-Murphy acknowledged last week, but she noted that no firm decision will be made until Dec. 7 when the BCS releases its lineup.

Poinsettia Bowl officials believe the Vegas Bowl will take BYU, leaving them with TCU. That would likely put Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth and Colorado State in the New Mexico Bowl

Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson has acknowledged that there's talk of the WAC sending Boise State to the Poinsettia Bowl for a matchup with either TCU or BYU because the Pac-10 will be unable to fill that spot.

The Pac-10 will send a team to the Las Vegas Bowl - most likely 8-3 Oregon, 8-3 Oregon State, 7-4 Cal or 6-5 Arizona.

As for the Cougars, coach Bronco Mendenhall said after Saturday's devastating loss that he has no preference which bowl selects BYU. Quarterback Max Hall said either the Vegas Bowl or the Poinsettia Bowl would be fine.

"Either one will be a fun game to go to and we will play a good team, a Pac-10 team probably, and we want to go win, so we will prepare for it," Hall said.

Mendenhall and Hall both called BYU's 10-2 regular season a success on Saturday night, though its two losses were by a combined 49 points.

"It's a remarkable team that has had, I think, remarkable success over three straight years," Mendenhall said.

Added Hall: "We have only lost two games. In my opinion, that is a successful season. We are not conference champions, like we wanted to be. We didn't make it to a BCS game. Those were two of our goals at the beginning of the season. . . . But I am proud of the season we have had. "

Mendenhall said the Cougars will have a team meeting on Monday, then be off through Thanksgiving and resume practice on Dec. 1.

jdrew@sltrib.com

BYU's possible bowl destinations

Bowl Date Location

Las Vegas Dec. 20 Las Vegas

Poinsettia Dec. 23 San Diego

Armed Forces Dec. 31 Fort Worth