Oh, the little conference that could.

The Mountain West keeps on chug-a-lugging, despite not being part of the Bowl Championship Series — the NCAA's version of Skull and Bones.

Saturday, the seventh-ranked conference in the nation as placed by USA Today had a showdown with the second-ranked Pac-10.

The conference lost in the dusty Southwest may have just found a map to notoriety. TCU warmed up by beating Stanford 31-14, then No. 18 BYU embarrassed previously-ranked UCLA 59-0 in front of a national television audience. The Cougars could have matched the total of the national debt given two more quarters to score. As it was, UCLA suffered its worst loss in 75 years.

The autopsy results were as follows: BYU racked up 525 yards of total offense, quarterback Max Hall threw for seven touchdowns, and the Cougars converted 76 percent of their third downs.

The Bruins turned the ball over four times and were held to 0.7 yards per rush.

TCU never had much doubt against the Cardinal, but the game was made interesting by a third-party that has been crashing parties all over the country. Hurricane Ike made its presence felt all the way to Fort Worth with wind gusts up to 30 mph and heavy rains. The game was tied 14-14 at the half, but the TCU defense went "no access" in final two quarters.

Add No. 22 Utah's opening-week win over Michigan in Ann Arbor to the league's list of accomplishments, and things start to look toothsome indeed.

While BYU and TCU took care of the afternoon games, lo and behold, even the lackluster Lobos of The University of New Mexico helped the cause against Arizona in the evening.

The Lobos limped into the game having been slapped around University Stadium by a combined score of 54-25 in losses to TCU and Texas A&M. But UNM showed some life against the Wildcats, a team it beat in Tucson last season.

This time the Lobos got past their old foe 38-26. The two, once upon a time, shared the Border and Western Athletic Conferences.

The UNM defense forced five turnovers and the offense racked up 338 total yards. Lobos tailback Rodney Ferguson carried the ball and the burden for 157 yards on 27 carries with two touchdowns. Ferguson even tossed a 25-yard touchdown pass to quarterback Donovan Porterie on a trick play in the first quarter.

New Mexico walk-on James Aho may have also kicked his way to a scholarship. Aho was perfect, going 5-for-5 on field goals (with a long of 48) and 3-for-3 on extra points.

Granted, the MWC didn't play dynastic USC or Cal-Berkeley, but the three teams it did beat were not exactly the bottom-feeders of the Pac-10. Arizona and UCLA were undefeated coming into Saturday. Stanford had one loss to No. 15 Arizona State.

The most shocking game of the night: UNLV beat No. 15 Arizona State 23-20 in overtime.