Originally published Tuesday, November 21, 2006 at 12:00 AM

WSU bowl hopes hurting

Washington State's chances of going to a bowl look dismal, the commissioner of the Pac-10 said. "The Cougs don't get very far up the ladder...

By Craig Smith

Seattle Times staff reporter

Washington State's chances of going to a bowl look dismal, the commissioner of the Pac-10 said.

"The Cougs don't get very far up the ladder under any scenario," said Tom Hansen.

There is bad news on two fronts:

1) Hansen said it appears there will be enough teams in the nation with winning records to bump the Cougars (6-6 overall, 4-5 in Pac-10) and any other 6-6 team from a spot in one of the three bowls with at-large berths. The most-mentioned of these possible bowls for WSU was the new Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego on Dec. 19.

2) Size of TV market is sure to be a huge factor for a bowl such as the Dec. 24 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, which has a contract to accept a Pac-10 team. In the event of a tie, the bowl has the right to choose which team it wants.

"When you get down below the top bowls, TV market becomes a huge factor," Hansen said.

One very possible scenario is that UCLA (6-5, 4-4), which plays USC on Dec. 2, winds up tied with the Cougars and the Hawaii Bowl chooses between them. Arizona (6-5, 4-4) could fall into a tie with WSU and UCLA if it loses to Arizona State (6-5, 3-5) Saturday. ASU would advance to 7-5 overall and a bowl berth with a win because the Pac-10 sends all its teams with winning records to bowls.

Hansen said if the Cougars were 7-5, "We'd find them a bowl, whether it's in the conference [a Pac-10 affiliated bowl] or out of the conference. We're still going to work hard."

The Sheraton Hawaii Bowl gets the No. 6 Pac-10 team, and hometown Hawaii (9-2) will be the opponent.

Jim Donovan, executive director of the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, denied Monday that a decision favoring UCLA already had been made.

"We'll look at the tangibles and the intangibles in making that decision," he said.

Donovan said that he, ESPN and the Pac-10 will be involved in the decision.

The Cougars beat UCLA 37-15 on Oct. 28 but then lost three games in a row, including last Saturday's 35-32 loss in the Apple Cup. Arizona beat the Cougars 27-17 on Nov. 4.

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