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The first-year executive director of the Nova Homes Loans ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Bowl had attended the Mountain West Conference Championship Game on Saturday night — a game of considerable interest for ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s bowl game. She loved every minute of it.

But now Adair and her fellow passengers were stuck. She was supposed to leave for Phoenix at 6:30 a.m., giving her plenty of time to get home, complete final negotiations for the ’18 ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Bowl and attend the announcement party Sunday afternoon.

Adair’s flight didn’t depart until 10:30. She arrived in Phoenix at 11:45 — well after her connecting flight had left. So Adair rented a car and drove down Interstate 10, making it to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ just in time.

Her day peaked with a raucous revelation of the participants. In a packed conference room on the third floor of Topgolf, Ali Farhang, chairman of the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Bowl’s executive board, announced that Nevada would be joining Arkansas State for the fourth iteration of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s bowl game.

Adair seemed both excited and relieved afterward.

“I wasn’t nervous about making it back here in time because I knew we had plenty of people to carry on,� she said. “I was nervous about not being able to get on the phone and work with the Mountain West. But that all worked out. We’ve got an amazing chairman (Farhang) who handled that while I was out of pocket.�

The hours leading up to the bowl announcement were busy and nerve-wracking for Farhang, per usual. Fresno State’s upset of Boise State in the Mountain West title game contributed to what Farhang described as a “cascading effect.â€� If Boise had won, Fresno might have been the Mountain West representative in the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Bowl.

“Potentially. You never know,� Farhang said. “That created another snowball effect — a literal snowball effect. Now Boise State needs to be placed somewhere. There’s all kinds of scenarios.

“We’ve had probably 10-12 different matchups over the last two weeks — probably three or four over the last 24 hours. And it really doesn’t get solidified until an hour or two before I step up to that podium. In last year’s case, it didn’t get solidified until I stepped up to the podium.�

Last year, the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Bowl was able to land New Mexico State, which played in the Sun Belt Conference at the time. NMSU’s campus is about a four-hour drive from ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥. The school’s fans came out in force, and the Aggies won a bowl game for the first time since 1960.

As Adair noted, it will be difficult to beat “the magic of last year.â€� On paper, though, this might be the best ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Bowl matchup yet.

It’s the first time both teams bring above-.500 records to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥. Arkansas State is 8-4. Nevada is 7-5.

Additionally, the Red Wolves won their final four regular-season games. The Wolf Pack won four of its last five.

“There’s no team that was playing better in the Sun Belt at the end of the year than Arkansas State, and there’s no team that was playing better at the end of the year in the Mountain West than Nevada,� Farhang said. “Teams mature, evolve and grow over time. The coaching staffs at both of these schools obviously have done a really good job of building these teams.�

Nevada played in and won the first ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Bowl in 2015. Much has changed since then. The game has a better TV deal, with CBS Sports Network. And it has a better kickoff time — 11:15 a.m. on the Saturday of a holiday weekend. The first ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Bowl began at 4:30 on a Tuesday.

“One hundred percent of our net proceeds go to charity,â€� Adair said. “So a lot of our decisions are through the lens of, ‘How do we get more money back to charity?’ Filling and selling out ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Stadium is one of those key goals.

“We knew if we were able to have our game on a Saturday, we’d be more likely to do that.�

Attendance has increased every year. Farhang said ticket sales have been “pretty goodâ€� so far. He’s hopeful for a sellout and wore a jersey bearing the No. 56 under his ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Bowl pullover — signifying the goal of selling 56,000 tickets.

“It seems like we’re a month ahead of where we’ve ever been,� Farhang said. “I’m really very optimistic. As we continue to build that tradition, people are going to feel like they need to be here.�