Bowl probe in holding pattern

It’s hard to believe, but the state Ethics Commission is still in the process of investigating whether laws were violated during the University of Hawaii football team’s appearance in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 2008.

That’s more than a year ago, and the commission’s probe has been in progress for more than 10 months with a report on its findings expected until May or June, at the earliest.

At question is whether state employees, guests, and others who received tickets, hotel rooms or flights served a legitimate purpose by being in New Orleans on the school’s dime.

UH has provided the names of nearly 600 people who formed the official travel party for the Sugar Bowl.  The university said it paid nearly $2 million for the group, which included the team, coaches, band members, officials, family members and some guests.  Those guests are at the heart of the probe.

Meantime, UH fans also are in a waiting mode regarding the exact dates for this year’s conference football games.

In an eight-game WAC schedule, UH plays four home games and four away. Hawaii will host Boise State, Fresno State, New Mexico State and Utah State, and is scheduled to play at Idaho, Louisiana Tech, Nevada and San Jose State, though dates have yet to be announced.

Don’t blame the school or the WAC for this delay.  The holdup is with ESPN, which hasn’t informed the conference about which games it intends to pick up for national television coverage.