Eighty-five degrees, 90 degrees,

It really doesn't matter how high the temperature goes today. They'll still kick-off the Southwest Football Conference championship game at 11:30 this morning at Bernalillo High School.

Tickets cost $5 for adults, 12 and under free. "It's going to be a fantastic game," predicted Bernard Rogers, head coach for the home team New Mexico Crush. "Our running game is very powerful - we don't have to do anything like that (gimmick plays). Our defense has only given up seven points, total; offense a touchdown on an interception."

The Crush won all 11 of its games to date; so, too, did its opponent, the El Paso Brawlers.

The Crush are the North Division champs, the Brawlers are the South Division champs. The SWFC had 17 teams this year, thus the split into North and South divisions.

Rogers knows more than a little about football.

A native of Saginaw, Mich., he was recruited to play at the University of Michigan in 1976, when he red-shirted as a freshman and then found himself disappointed when the late head coach Bo Schembechler, didn't find much use for him at nose tackle the following season.

"One of the things was I was mad because I didn't get to play. Rick Leach was about the only freshman to start up there," Rogers said, looking back. "My whole year I was steamed."

Nonetheless, he'll never forget Wolverines games in "the Big House," namely crowds of 104,000 or more.

"My days at Highlands were great; I made all the honors in (the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference). I was still at nose tackle, played a little linebacker - a little of this, a little of that. I joined the coaching staff there in 1981; we were the RMAC champs."

Football's been in his blood, he said, since he was in eighth grade.

"My family was into football; I was more of a science buff," he admitted, now the owner of Primerica Financial Services, where the game plan has changed: "I help families get out of debt, buy their first home, prepare for retirement."

Staying close to the game, he previously coached the Soldiers and Razorbacks in the now-defunct New Mexico Football League. After leading the Razorbacks to the 2005 NMFL title, he took the 2006 season off, when the new Crush won the league title.

That league was reshuffled, some teams were added, and Rogers said it's been a great season back on the sidelines.

"One of the best reasons to come out there is they've got guys who played at the University of New Mexico, Western New Mexico - young men who they might've seen in high school making a name for themselves in a new environment. Just with the number of Division 1 kids makes this team special," he said, hoping to see the BHS grandstand filled today.

"Most people don't know how much attention we've received on the national stage," he said.