Representing the MWC

In this era of college football, there are the Bowl Championship Series conferences and everybody else.

For non-BCS schools like BYU, Utah and the rest of the Mountain West Conference, victories — in terms of national respect — are difficult to come by. But as they prepare for the upcoming bowl season, the Cougars and Utes will do their best to defend the league's reputation.

That's why it's important that BYU and Utah — and three other MWC teams — win their bowl games.

Over the past year, the Cougars and Utes have upheld the MWC's honor in many ways.

BYU (10-2) completed back-to-back outright, undefeated MWC championships, own one of the nation's longest winning streaks (currently, it's nine straight wins) and jumped back into the national rankings. A year ago, the Cougars won their first bowl game in 10 years with a 38-8 thrashing of Oregon in the Las Vegas Bowl.

A win over UCLA (6-6) in this year's Las Vegas Bowl would give BYU a 10-game winning streak. It would also serve as a launching pad for next season, when the Cougars return almost all of their offensive players, to make a run at a BCS bowl.

"It is going to give us another chance to gain some national recognition," said linebacker Kelly Poppinga of the Las Vegas Bowl rematch with the Bruins. "Right now, we're 17th in the BCS standings and winning this game gives us a chance to enter next season ranked and a better chance to get into a BCS game."

Though UCLA finished in fourth place in the Pac-10 and fired coach Karl Dorrell after the season, a victory would be the Cougars' third over a Pac-10 team in two seasons.

BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall is taking the approach that this bowl game against UCLA will help to keep building the program.

"We're not looking to ignore or view this game as one that we are settling for," he said. "We have a tremendous chance to improve our team and I view it as a real blessing and an opportunity to do that. Our conference championships have paved the way to return to national prominence, but playing well in the postseason will solidify that. There's

a lot to play for.