Friday, Sept. 5, 2003 | 9:32 a.m.
Steve Guiremand covers college football for the Sun. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-2324.
For the Mountain West Conference, it's time to put up or shut up.
It's no secret that the MWC officials have been lobbying hard to make sure the conference has access to the millions of dollars at stake when the next Bowl Championship Series contract talks begin in the coming months. Only six conferences form the BCS -- the Pac-10, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, ACC and the Big East. They get to split about $100 million each year in BCS bowl payouts thru the 2005 season.
The Mountain West? Its schools are lucky to break even after appearing in the Liberty Bowl, Las Vegas Bowl and San Francisco Bowl, whose combined payouts total less than $3 million.
On Monday in Chicago, the six presidents who make up the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee and 11 presidents from schools outside the BCS will sit down to begin work on a possible compromise that would make the BCS more accessible to current non-BCS conferences like the Mountain West, the WAC, the MAC and Conference-USA.
The timing couldn't be better ... or worse ... for Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson. It just so happens that all eight MWC teams play schools from BCS conferences on Saturday, including San Diego State at No. 2 ranked Ohio State, BYU at No. 4 USC and Utah at perennial Big 12 power Texas A&M.
Although Thompson and some Mountain West Conference coaches maintain what happens on the field this weekend won't directly effect the negotiations, it certainly wouldn't hurt the MWC to come to the table with, say, a BYU upset of USC or a respectable 4-4 record in this week's games.
"The next seven days are going to be important in the history of the Mountain West Conference, and that is more Sept. 8 than on the field Saturday," Thompson said. "Whether we're 8-0 or 0-8 --- and it's likely going to be somewhere in between --- our perspective going into Monday's meetings don't change. We'd like to be able to go in there with out head held high, but it's not a make-or-break weekend."
Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry, however, believes a Falcons victory against a Big Ten team like Northwestern could help the MWC's cause.
"If we could win on the road, it would be enormous positive vibes for the conference and influence next week's meetings," he said.
UNLV coach John Robinson, however, was not so sure.
"I don't know if that will persuade anybody or not," he said. "But it's kind of fun to see us go up against some of those teams just to get a feel for what we're like and how we compete with them. It will be interesting to see."
"It always important to beat schools from the BCS," new UNLV athletic director Mike Hamrick said. "If you want to be in the BCS, you've got to be able to play with them. When you get a chance to play a Big 12 team or an ACC team or a Pac-10 team, you've got to step up and play. That's just the way it is."
New Mexico coach Rocky Long understands Hamrick's point but believes Mountain West teams this week are at a distinct disadvantage because they all are playing BCS teams on the road.
"That's the real problem," Long, whose New Mexico squad travels to Texas Tech, said. "First of all, we're trying to establish ourselves against (BCS teams), so they have advantages that are built in, with finances and recruiting and facilities. Now, you have to play them at their place, which also gives them an advantage.
"And then, we're trying to win 50 percent of the games so they'll make us a BCS league. I would say the odds are stacked against us."
Long didn't mention that officials for the games often come from those same BCS conferences which also doesn't do the MWC any favors.
Thompson will attend Air Force's game at Northwestern on Saturday and then will stick around to spend a good portion of Sunday briefing the 11 non-BCS presidents for Monday's meeting. The commissioners won't attend the meeting.
"We're preparing them," Thompson said. "We're like the offensive and defensive coordinators getting the teams ready."
Still, Thompson was quick to emphasize that Monday's meeting is just the beginning out of what could a long and bitter process.
"I can't fathom the 11 coming out of the room saying, 'This is what the BCS will look like,' " Thompson said.
Confident Cougs
Barring a miracle -- a San Diego State upset of defending national champion Ohio State in Columbus with backup quarterback Matt Dlugolecki making his first start -- the Mountain West's best chance to make a splash on the national scene could come from BYU (1-0) which travels to Los Angeles to play fourth-ranked USC (1-0).
Going back to their season-ending demolishings of UCLA (52-21), Notre Dame (44-13) and Iowa in the Orange Bowl (38-17), the Trojans have been college football's hottest team, steamrollering an Auburn squad that was rated No. 1 in the nation by The Sporting News last week in Alabama, 23-0.
BYU, which felt jilted when it was going to be ignored by the BCS despite a 12-0 start in 2001, has a chance to make a strong case for the Mountain West Conference on Saturday in a contest that will be regional televised by ABC.
It won't be easy. The Cougars will be without starting tailback Marcus Whalen (fractured ankle) as well as all-MWC corner Brandon Heaney (shoulder). Another key defender, cornerback Jernaro Gilford, broke a bone in his hand in last week's win against Georgia Tech and will attempt to play. And the Trojans, who have made so secret of the fact that they think they are focused on winning the national championship this year, figure to be very focused for their home opener.
Still, BYU freshman tight end Daniel Coats, the MWC's co-offensive player of the week this week, like the Cougars' situation. BYU is a very rare 21-point underdog.
"I love it," Coats told the Deseret News. "It's great when there are no expectations and everything's a shock."
Can BYU shock USC?
"I think we will," Coats said. "If everyone thinks we're going to come down and get worked by 30 (points), we're going to shock some people. We're definitely not going there to lay down for nobody. We expect to win."
Added center Scott Jackson: "No one's expecting us to win, except ourselves. If we believe it, we can make it happen. We're not going in there to have a good showing. We're going there to win."
"They're definitely beatable," running back Reynaldo Brathwaite said. "This is our chance to put the Mountain West on the map and BYU on the map. We're taking this as a once-in-a-lifetime chance."
The last time BYU was this big an underdog was in 2000 when then-No. 2 Florida State was a 24-point favorite in the Pigskin Classic in Jacksonville, Fla. The Seminoles won, 29-3.
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