BYU selected '99 favorite at first MWC gathering
CNN/SI (AP) 26Jul99 L3
New conference begins '99 with two guaranteed bowl bids

Associated Press

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO -- LDS Church owned Brigham Young University is expected to win the new Mountain West Conference's first football title, a poll of coaches and media taken on Monday indicated. BYU received 5 first place votes from other MWC schools (coaches could not vote for their own team) and 35 first place votes (out of 49) from the media.

The new conference will also be represented in two season-end bowls, the

MWC champion will go to the Liberty Bowl (in place of the WAC champion, who went in previous years), and a second MWC team will meet the WAC champion in the Las Vegas Bowl. "We are very excited about both tie-ins," says MWC commissioner Craig Thompson. "For us to have the exposure outside of the Mountain and Pacific time zones in that part of the world is, I think, really a plus for us." The MWC is also being considered for two other bowls.