One of the things that has sometimes frustrated the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl has been waiting for the University of Hawai'i to clinch its bowl-eligible status.

Last year the Warriors did it on the final day of the regular season, Dec. 4, for a game 20 days later. In 2003 it came down to the penultimate weekend before the bowl could begin marketing a matchup.

With the Warriors out of the picture early this year, the hope was if the bowl couldn't have its first choice, UH, at least it could find a quick matchup.

That apparently isn't working either in what bowl and conference officials say is a scenario that could go beyond Thanksgiving, if not to the final regular-season weekend.

"When you consider the operational needs of trying to get teams announced and work through the travel, it would be a blessing to get two teams nailed down as quickly as possible," said Pete Derzis, vice president of ESPN Regional Television, which owns and operates the Hawai'i Bowl. "It was always worth waiting for UH and I think it will be worth waiting (this year) because I think we're going to have a good game."

"Until we know who is going to be our (conference) champion, it is hard to go ahead with any matchups," said Karl Benson, commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference, which sends a conference representative to play a Conference USA team in the Hawai'i Bowl Dec. 24 at Aloha Stadium.

Ideally, the Hawai'i Bowl would have invited its frontrunner — Nevada — yesterday since four WAC teams — Fresno State (8-1 overall, 6-0 WAC), Boise State (7-3, 5-1), Nevada (6-3, 5-1) and Louisiana Tech (6-3, 5-1) — were bowl eligible after Saturday's games and nobody else can get there.

But with Fresno-Nevada, Fresno-LaTech and Boise-LaTech games still to be played, "we don't know how the standings are going to come out," Benson said. Because the Bulldogs play USC on Saturday, Fresno's status is on hold until the Nov. 26 game at Nevada, where it could clinch at least a tie for the WAC title.

That's key because the WAC guarantees its top two finishers places in its contracted bowls — the Hawai'i Bowl and the MPC Computers Bowl. It can award one of those spots to a runner-up if an at-large bowl position opens.

Seven bowls, including the Hawai'i Bowl, had representatives at Thursday's FSU-Boise State game and most were there to watch the Bulldogs, who, with their No. 16 national ranking this week, could wind up anywhere from San Francisco (Emerald Bow) to Memphis (Liberty Bowl) if they win out in the WAC.

The C-USA picture isn't much clearer than the WAC with three eligible bowl teams — Texas-El Paso (8-1), Central Florida (6-3) and Tulsa (6-4) — and four more that could potentially become eligible. Southern Mississippi (5-4 with two games left), Houston (5-4, two games), Alabama-Birmingham (4-5, two games), Memphis (4-5, two games) or Marshall (4-5, two games) are also possibilities.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com.