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Provo

Hellooooooo, anybody ouuttttthere? Anybody hooooooomme?

In the history of LaVell Edwards Stadium, nobody had seen the place as empty as it was on Saturday night. It was sparse at the beginning, and by the fourth quarter it looked like a football game being played at the bottom of the Kennecott Copper Mine.

Nobody had seen the apathy factor there so high, either.

Reaching for reasons — any reasons — to care about BYU's contest against hapless UNLV, a forerunner for an even bigger snoozefest next week at LES against Savannah State, foremost among them was … the risk of embarrassment.

The Cougars went ahead and beat the Rebels, 42-23, in front of that miniscule crowd, some of them wearing black, most of them decked out as empty seats. But … what if they hadn't?

Talk about red-cheeked, wanna-get-away moments: That would have been brutal. That would have been the football equivalent of blowing gas in the front seat of what you thought was an empty car, only to find out after the fact that the back seat was occupied by your in-laws.

Ultimately, there was no need for shame or Beano on this occasion.

Just a double-dose of NoDoz.

Another reason: bowl eligibility.

Somehow making a bowl game has become the Mendoza Line for mediocre teams. Bronco Mendenhall was bragging the other day that this would be the 10th straight year BYU has qualified for postseason play. What he didn't mention was that some 80 of 126 Division I teams make bowl games. It's not exactly the pinnacle of achievement. It's better than not making a bowl game, but it is a little like boasting that your team doesn't straight-up suck.

By getting their sixth win in 10 tries this season, against competition that wasn't top-drawer, the Cougars did, in fact, make the Miami Beach Bowl. They'll likely face a team that few fans around here care to see, that few fans around here will travel to see. But it is a reward for the players, a chance for them to get some swag and have some fun in a warm location in December. After all the hard work they put it, it's a sweet little benefit. It's just neither a great accomplishment, nor a prestigious one.

Another reason: pride against a former league mate.

It's no secret that there are hard feelings left over from BYU's departure from the Mountain West, a conference the Cougars helped form, a realm they used to at least try to lord over. Schools in the MWC all had major rivalries with BYU, and that competition reached from administrators to coaches to players to trainers to towel boys to fans. Everybody hated BYU, many times because the Cougars won so often, sometimes because the Cougars threw their weight around, other times because the Cougars were that hot crazy girl or guy whose looks, though impressive, weren't worth the hassle.

If BYU ever got desperate enough to junk independence and try to rejoin the Mountain West, it would be compelling theater to see how those schools would react. The Cougars would bring money to the equation, and that's always a big, big deal, but some rival administrators might hate themselves for approving such a move.

UNLV is the first of the original Mountain West teams to have scheduled BYU during the regular season. The Cougars had already lost this season to league newcomers — after their leaving the league — Utah State, Nevada and Boise State. That was indignity enough for a once-proud football program. Losing now to a lousy UNLV team just might have knocked BYU into a miserable tailspin.

Another reason: winning for winning's sake.

There was and is no league title at stake for the Cougars, no leapfrogging in the conference standings, no motivation to climb toward a front-running rival, no positioning for a better bowl. Just a push onward because being 6-4 is a whole lot better than being 5-5.

There's honor in that.

"If we're winning games, that's all that matters," said Christian Stewart, who threw for 325 yards and three TDs.

The Cougars said they are fed up with being asked about finding some motivation for winning, implications that there is nothing really to play for. There are some reasons, these reasons. It's not a lot. It's not what it would be if they were in — dare we go on saying it? — the Big 12. It's a bit like drinking a caffeine-free Coke out of a can opened two weeks ago. It's flat. It's stale. There's no real refreshment in it.

But it's always better than losing.

Even when you're beating a team whose season highlights were besting Northern Colorado and Fresno State. All told, UNLV has been outscored this year, including Saturday night's outcome, by 191 points.

BYU will take its victories where it can get them. It took one Saturday night. UNLV, Savannah State, at this point, maybe it doesn't matter anymore. The Cougars avoided embarrassment, they finally beat a Mountain West team, they won for winning's sake and they got another bowl game to enjoy, another bowl game for Mendenhall to brag about. Miami Beach, here BYU comes.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM/1280 and 960 AM The Zone. Twitter: @GordonMonson.