LAS VEGAS - Like a lot of Las Vegas visitors, Max Hall is thinking only about the reward, not the risk.

"A lot can happen for our program if we do win," the Brigham Young quarterback said of the Las Vegas Bowl against Arizona.

The reality is BYU also has a lot to lose in this game. Unless they beat Arizona, the Cougars will exit 2008 with the most devalued 10-win season in college football history. Coach Bronco Mendenhall is right when he says this 10-2 team has lost to higher-quality opponents than his last two 11-2 clubs, observing that Utah and Texas Christian "just happened to be in our league."

Utah and TCU of '08 are better than Arizona and Boston College of '06 and UCLA and Tulsa of '07, no question. So even though the Cougars are merely the third-place team in the Mountain West Conference -- more about that in a moment -- the problem is not who beat them, but whom they've beaten. That's why BYU needs an 11th win for the third straight year to validate this season's other 10 victories.

It is not the Cougars' fault that Washington and UCLA turned out to be lousy teams, or even that Northern Iowa was upset in the Football Championship Subdivision semifinals. The fact remains that amid good scheduling intentions, BYU did not beat anybody of significance in nonconference play.

Their league losses to TCU and Utah (by a total of 49 points) mean the only bowl-eligible teams the Cougars defeated were Air Force and Colorado State, and barely so in the case of CSU.

That's why a bowl win is critical, even if the Cougars are slight underdogs against 7-5 Arizona. With another loss, this season has to be considered a big dropoff from their accomplishments of the previous two years.

Responding to my question, Hall said, "I don't know if I like the term 'at stake,' but I definitely think there's a lot of good things that can come from this game."

I apologize to the NCAA for the gambling reference in a conversation with a student-athlete. But c'mon, this is Vegas, baby. Nothing is gained here without putting something on the line.

Besides playing for themselves, the Cougars need to justify their Las Vegas Bowl selection for the fourth December in a row. TCU finished second in the Mountain West and is obviously a better team than BYU, but organizers chose the Cougars over the Horned Frogs apparently because of BYU's drawing power.

TCU is hardly complaining, having landed in San Diego for next week's Poinsettia Bowl against unbeaten Boise State in a Bowl Championship Series-level matchup. But if BYU fails to perform well, bowl officials will have some questions to answer about why they overlooked the Frogs.

This is an intriguing game. Unlike recent Pac-10 contestants that had bigger ambitions than the Las Vegas Bowl, Arizona is thrilled to be playing in the postseason for the first time in 10 years. The Wildcats' offense will present problems for a BYU defense that struggled during the second half of the season after a scoreless streak of 11 quarters in September.

As for BYU's offense, Hall is trying to recover from his five-interception game against Utah, running back Harvey Unga is eager to play after being stuffed by UCLA in Las Vegas last December and tight end Dennis Pitta is ready to go after a knee injury limited his production against Utah.

Overall, Mendenhall craves the "continued progress" that a third consecutive bowl victory would signify. He knows a loss would be a setback to his program. So it will be fun to see how it all plays out, as the '08 Cougars try to prove they can do more than just sell tickets in Las Vegas.

kkragthorpe@sltrib.com