THERE IS ONE GOOD THING about the Mountain West Conference's current television set-up.

Under the old contract, we didn't know what channel football games might be on until six days before kickoff. They could end up on ESPN, ESPN2, ABC or — here in Utah — Ch. 14, which had the local rights to the syndicated part of the ESPN package.

Under the current set-up, months before the season begins we know exactly what channel will carry virtually every Utah and BYU game. The only questions at all this season were the Utes' and Cougars' games at Utah State. As expected, those ended up on Ch. 14 (And, in BYU's case, on BYUTV as well.)

I'm not for one moment suggesting that it's as easy (or as cheap) to get The mtn., CBS C and Versus as it is to get ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. But if you're a Cougar or Ute fan, you have lots of time to plan ahead.

And, while fans' memories are short, there used to be an enormous amount of complaining when games involving the local teams were switched from one channel to another.

Again, there was no excuse for Ute fans not to know the Utah-TCU game was on CBS C. Just the way there's no excuse for Cougar fans not to know Saturday's BYU-Air Force game is, too.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com