The Mountain West Conference's big game this week takes place in Fort Worth, Texas, where No. 4 TCU entertains No. 16, and defending league champion, Utah, in a battle that could decide the league championship.

It's a showdown between a Horned Frog team looking for its first Bowl Championship Series berth and a Ute squad that's played in two BCS bowl games in five years.

For the second year in a row, TCU and Utah are nationally ranked and unbeaten in conference play heading their matchup. In 2008, the Horned Frogs were 9-1 overall, 6-0 in league play, No. 12 in the BCS and No. 11 in the Associated Press rankings.

The Utes were 9-0 overall, 5-0 in MWC play, No. 8 in the BCS standings, and No. 10 in the AP poll. Utah edged TCU, 13-10, at Rice-Eccles Stadium as the Utes scored on an 80-yard drive with 2:48 left.

Despite its 38-7 loss to TCU last month, BYU would benefit from a Utah win in that it would remain in contention for the conference crown.

GAP WIDENING?: Last week, TCU, Utah and BYU each beat up on their opponents by a combined score of 152-26. The Frogs pounded San Diego State, 55-12; the Utes defeated New Mexico, 45-14; and the Cougars shut out Wyoming, 52-0.

Those scores underscore, and illustrate, the gap between the Big Three and the rest of the conference. And that gap appears to be getting wider.

The Cougars, who won back-to-back MWC titles in 2006 and 2007, are 27-1 against opponents not named TCU and Utah under coach Bronco Mendenhall.

Do TCU, Utah and Utah simply have more depth than the other teams — and is that even more pronounced at this time of year?

"That's got something to do with it," said Wyoming coach Dave Christensen. "The other thing is, they're very, very established programs that have been built and recruited well consistently, year-in and year-out. They have a lot more personnel at this point in time than the people they're playing."

NATIONAL ATTENTION: For the third time in four weeks, ESPN's College GameDay will broadcast live from an MWC campus.

The GameDay crew was on hand on Oct. 24 for BYU-TCU, then again last week for Air Force's game against Army. On Saturday, it will make its first appearance in Fort Worth for the TCU-Utah contest.

Not to be outdone by ESPN, CBS College Sports Network will broadcast a special pregame and postgame show from Fort Worth on Saturday.

BOWL OUTLOOK: TCU, Utah, BYU and Air Force are each bowl-eligible and there are four more teams vying for bowl eligibility.

CSU (3-7) was eliminated from bowl contention last Saturday when it fell at UNLV.

San Diego State (4-5) and Wyoming (4-5) both need to two more victories in their final three games for bowl eligibility. The Aztecs and Cowboys face each other this weekend in San Diego.

SDSU has games at Utah and at UNLV to end the season while Wyoming hosts TCU and finishes at CSU.

UNLV (4-6) needs victories at Air Force and at home against San Diego State to be bowl eligible.

e-mail: jeffc@desnews.com