On the surface, Mountain West Conference football paints a healthy picture as it prepares to celebrate its third birthday this fall.
The league is aligned with three bowls in the Liberty, Las Vegas and New Orleans games, and was the only conference to go undefeated in multiple postseason matchups last year. It handed out record-setting revenue distributions to its member institutions in 2000-01. It has four years remaining on an ESPN contract.
But in the college football world of haves and have nots, of those from the Bowl Championship Series and those on the outside looking in, the MWC continues to search for a place at the game's main dinner table.
"I think we're the seventh or eighth best conference in America right now," said commissioner Craig Thompson. ""But the difference between the top six and Numbers 7 and 8 is astounding."
The difference: millions of dollars.
MWC officials tell you one of the few ways their eight programs might ever join those from the nation's six elite leagues (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and SEC), from sharing the riches of college football through bowl and television revenues, is consistently winning head-to-head meetings with BCS teams.
In 1999, the MWC went 7-5 in such games. Last season: A laughable 2-18.
This year, it plays BCS teams 16 times.
"We have definitely made a statement with our scheduling," Thompson said. "In some cases, maybe we have over-scheduled a bit. But again, the opportunity is there for us. And yet we have to have someone go 11-0, maybe 10-1 in a goofy year, to be ranked in the top six and get into a (BCS bowl). I really don't believe anyone can do it, given our non-conference scheduling.
"But it's also not going to happen simply by us saying 'We belong, we should be in the BCS and this isn't fair.'
"That's not reality."
Harsh as it is.
Game of the Year: San Diego State at Colorado State. It comes early (Sept. 22) in the conference schedule, but if the Aztecs (league-high 23 returning players who started games last year) can find a way to beat the two-time defending champions in Fort Collins, SDSU could ride the momentum to an eventual title. On the other side, if CSU gets this one and its conference opener at UNLV (Sept. 14), you can hand Sonny Lubick's team a three-peat.
|  | | Quarterback Jason Thomas hopes to have UNLV flying high. |
Offensive Player of the Year: Jason Thomas, Nevada-Las Vegas. The size (6-4, 230), arm strength and mobility are unquestioned when describing the junior quarterback. But the scary part comes with the fact Thomas (599 yards rushing, 1,708 passing, 25 combined TDs last year) still owns unlimited potential to improve. Remember, injuries and a transfer from USC has limited him to one full season since his junior year in high school. Thomas has said he will return to school for his senior season. We're just not sure when Michael Vick became his public relations manager.
Defensive player of the year: Jomar Butler, San Diego State. The nightmare came before the dream. Three years ago, the senior linebacker was diagnosed with a sportsman's hernia. Surgery followed. Butler lost interest in school. He failed classes. He gained weight. He skipped rehabilitation appointments. He lost his scholarship. Now, a fit 205 pounds on his 5-foot-10 frame and back in the good graces of head coach Ted Tollner, Butler returns for his final season after ranking second in the conference with 112 tackles last season.
Ed Graney covers college football for the San Diego Union Tribune.
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