In years that Oregon wraps up the division with 2 or 3 weeks left in the year, are you telling me that Washington fans are staying home because of that? Or that they really care if they end up in the Foster Farms Bowl verses the Sun Bowl? Or the Cactus Bowl verses the Las Vegas Bowl? As in, they care enough to make a decision on buying tickets to the game? "We gotta be there this week guys because if we lose this one it's the Cactus Bowl for us!". I honestly don't buy it.

Fan support is driven by success. If BYU is undefeated heading into the UCONN game this year, there will be a lot of people there. If BYU has two losses and are ranked going into the Fresno State game in late November, fans will be there. I've been a fan my whole life and there wasn't ONE time where I thought, "I'm going to the game this week so I can watch them hoist the MWC or WAC trophy".

Bowl games are bowl games. If you're not in the CFP or NY6, you just want to have a nice destination against an interesting team. That's the best you can hope for. For Utah, would you rather go to the Sun Bowl in Tempe against a Big 12 team or the Vegas Bowl against the MWC #2? I'd pick the Sun Bowl, even though the Vegas Bowl technically takes the higher seeded Pac 12 team. Anyway, I think way too much is made of the middle/lower tier bowls. Once you're out of contention for the big bowls, fan interest drops for anyone.

I do agree with you on the point of playing a familiar team. A CSU or WYO game in late Oct or Nov is more interesting than San Jose State for sure. I've been saying that we should have a deal with the MWC to get one or two games with our old conference mates there instead of the former WAC teams.