From the shotgun: Quick takes from the MWC

TCU and Colorado State will play Saturday for the Mountain West Conference championship in Fort Worth. It will be the game of the year for the league. If TCU wins, the Horned Frogs will clinch the outright title. If CSU wins, they will move into a tie with TCU — and have the head-to-head advantage.

It's definitely the game to watch this week in the MWC.

The only problem is that unless you are in Fort Worth on Saturday, you won't be able to watch it.

It's not on TV — not even in Texas and/or Colorado.

Instead, the regional ESPN-plus MWC "game of the week" is the BYU at UNLV contest.

That's the type of situation that league commissioner Craig Thompson is happy to report won't be an issue next season when the MWC switches from ESPN/ABC to CSTV as its television partner.

Next year all MWC football games will be broadcast. Some will be on national CSTV. Some will be on the regional Mountain West Conference CSTV network and others will be carried live on video stream on the Internet.

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Colorado State coach Sonny Lubick isn't about to put the "must win" tag on Saturday's road matchup between the Rams and No. 20 TCU.

"I won't sell it that way to the team," Lubick said Monday. "We take games one game at a time around here and will still have two games left after TCU, both of which will be tough to come away with wins . . . Except for TCU, we, like the rest of the league, are fighting like heck. It is a big game for us, but I don't think our team will take this game as the end of all of the season, win or lose. I've got to make that point to my team."

Of greater concern is his team's notoriously slow start to begin games. The Rams trailed Wyoming 10-0 before taking control for a 39-31 win.

A week ago, Colorado State watched New Mexico take a 25-12 halftime lead. The Rams' defense never allowed New Mexico to reach midfield in the second half and scored 23 unanswered points to win 35-25.

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While San Diego State looked like world beaters against both BYU and Utah, the Aztecs have been very beatable to just about everyone else.

SDSU certainly gave league-leading TCU a scare last week before losing 23-20 in San Diego on Saturday night. The loss dropped the Aztecs to 3-6 overall and put them out of bowl consideration. SDSU is the only team that hasn't qualified for a bowl game since the MWC was formed six years ago.