By Ron Kantowski · January 7, 2009 · 2:32 PM

NOW:

Sometimes in this business you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don't.

Sometimes you feel like a squeaky wheel who has just been treated to a king-sized helping of axle grease.

In a Monday column, I chastised the Mountain West for commemorating its finest hour on the football field -- Utah's 31-17 shellacking of Alabama in the Sugar Bowl -- with a modest five-paragraph story on the home page of its Web site.

Presto! A little while ago the conference put up a comprehensive listing of its members' copious accomplishments on the gridiron this fall. There are 30 bulleted items, most beginning with "Utah" or "TCU," and three charts, like the ones Ross Perot used when he ran for president. You can see them here.

I also suggested that if the MWC didn't receive an automatic berth to the BCS after what the Utes did to the Crimson Trickle, it should sue the BCS for antitrust violations.

Voila! Two days later, that's just what the Utah attorney general is threatening to do.

I guess I should point out that had I written about guys jumping motorcycles over Las Vegas landmarks (my original plan), these things probably would have happened anyway.

The P.R. types at Mountain West headquarters do such a good job, you knew it would only be a matter of time until they started rattling cages with their stats and charts and round-the-clock TV listings on The Mtn.

But as a matter of full disclosure, when I suggested the antitrust lawsuit, I really wasn't being that serious.

THEN:

You can talk all you want about undefeated seasons and 6-2 records against the Pac-10 but until you have an NFL star -- or actor Will Ferrell -- patrolling the sidelines at your bowl game, you really haven't arrived.

At the Poinsettia Bowl, LaDainian Tomlinson of the San Diego Chargers was cheering for TCU, his alma mater.

At the Sugar Bowl, Steve Smith of the Carolina Panthers was representin' Utah, where he played his college ball.

Yup, the Mountain West has arrived.

But I was disappointed there was no mention of Lee Grosscup, the former broadcaster and Utah quarterback who invented the shovel pass in 1957.