CORONADO, Calif. — If the new Bowl Championship Series qualification requirements were in effect last season, TCU would have been invited to participate. The Horned Frogs would have followed Utah in representing the Mountain West Conference as outsiders crashing the highly lucrative party.

In 2006, the path will be a little bit easier. With the addition of a national championship game — pitting the top two teams in the BCS standings — some doors have opened.

Beginning this season:

• Teams finishing in the top 14 of the BCS standings are now eligible to participate. Last season, a top-12 finish was required.

• Any Division I-A team can earn an at-large bid.

• Champions from the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC automatically qualify, as does Notre Dame with a top-eight finish in the BCS standings. Outside conferences like the MWC can earn an invitation by placing a team in the top 12 or top 16 if they're ahead of a BCS conference champion.

Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry is among those who think the Utes may have company in busting the BCS.

"I think that the odds are very, very good," he said.

BYU's Bronco Mendenhall acknowledges its a more viable option. Even so, it won't change his team's overall goals.

Same goes for TCU. Head coach Gary Patterson said there's no easy road through the MWC and the Horned Frogs plan to just take things one game at a time.

Cautious optimism on the issue is widespread.

"It's certainly a friendlier format than what was in place prior, but it's still a tough row to hoe," said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham. "You still have to just about go unbeaten. You may sneak in there with one loss. That's about the most margin of error you'll have."

Even so, things are better than before.

"Certainly we're in favor of the new standards as opposed to the old."

CROSSING PATHS: First-year San Diego State coach Chuck Long knows a thing or two about Utah quarterback Tommy Grady. He coached him at Oklahoma.

"I wish him well except for one game," said Long, who believes the Utes have picked up a good football player. "He had the best arm of all of the quarterbacks we had there. He's very savvy and tough."

Though the Oklahoma coaching staff wanted Grady to stay with the Sooners, they understood his desire to seek more playing time elsewhere.

"He's a competitor," said Long. "He's entering that stage of his career where it's time to do something. It's time to get after it."