Mountain West starting to get national attention

Since its inception more than a decade ago, the Mountain West Conference has been fighting for national respect.

Well, the league is receiving national respect from a prestigious, and somewhat unlikely, source — ESPN.

The network's popular "College GameDay" program will broadcast live from a MWC school twice in three weeks beginning Saturday, when the "GameDay" crew will pay a visit to Provo for the BYU-TCU game. It will also set up shop at Air Force on Nov. 7, when the Falcons host Army as part of a series of ESPN programming to commemorate Veterans Day.

It's quite a development considering that in 2006, the MWC declined to extend its television contract with ESPN and instead launched its own network, The mtn. Saturday's BYU-TCU showdown will be televised by Versus.

That notwithstanding, "College GameDay" is acknowledging that the MWC is one of the nation's top conferences.

"I think it's good for us, I think it's good for BYU, I think it's good for the conference. I think everybody wins," said TCU coach Gary Patterson. "I think for College GameDay to pay us the compliment of coming to Provo, to be a part of that ballgame, I think's a big deal. A lot of times we don't get a chance to be part of that in the Mountain West because our (TV) package is not with ESPN. So for us to get a chance to be a part of that I think is awesome."

"GameDay just doesn't just pick any site to host college football from. They pick the most intriguing matchups from the best programs that are playing at the highest level," said BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall. "And that, right now, is a Mountain West Conference football game which is featuring two of the best teams, I think, in the country playing against each other in a league that doesn't have an automatic bid (to the BCS). So I think it speaks volumes, and it should be paid attention to and noticed, and it's just one more sign that we're making progress."

FOCUSED ON BYU, NOT BCS: Patterson has been peppered with questions every week this season about his team's chances of claiming a BCS berth for the first time. When the first BCS standings of the year were released on Sunday, the Horned Frogs checked in at No. 8.

On Tuesday, Patterson was emphatic that he and his team are only thinking about the Cougars this week.

"As I've done everything I have done up to this point, BYU needs to be a concern. We have always talked about August. I know it is coach-speak. It is not what they say in August, it is what they say in December," he said. "But like I have tried to tell our kids, the first goal is to try to win a conference championship. That's the one thing that we do have control over. And you have to beat BYU to do that. That happens every year. It is not just here at TCU.

"We had to beat BYU back when I was at New Mexico to win a conference title, win our side of the conference championship. It has always gone either through Salt Lake or Provo, so both teams are very good and we understand what we have to do. I would hope that we would rise (in the rankings), but at this point I haven't really put much thought into it."

e-mail: jeffc@desnews.com