I don't know who the director is this year, but it has been a LV local, and while they hold the director title, they don't call the shots anymore. The board is probably 95% locals, but ESPN owns the bowl, they can override the rest of the board with their votes.

I am sure most of the board would prefer to have BYU, the attendance figures for the BYU bowls were 25% higher than the previous bowls, (the picking of Utah over BYU against USC still hangs in their memory, they shot themselves in the foot on that one) they would pick BYU or Boise State everyday of the week if they could, but the reality is, the director doesn't call the shots, he can try to influence ESPN, but influence is about the best he can hope for. ESPN is going to do what is best for their TV ratings.