Given what happened to his conference last weekend, Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen picked a good time for a European vacation.

Rome wasn't built in a day, but that's how long it took for the Mountain West Conference to put a four-game beatdown on the Pac-10.

We can only picture the beleaguered commish sitting in a café, clutching a coffee in one hand and his Blackberry in the other, as the scores rolled in from across the sea.

Texas Christian 31, Stanford 14.

New Mexico 36, Arizona 28.

Brigham Young 59, UCLA 0.

UNLV 23, Arizona State 20, overtime — in Tempe.

"It is maybe the biggest week since the inception of the Mountain West, going 4-0 against Pac-10 teams," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said at his weekly campus news conference.

Throw in BYU's controversial 28-27 win at Washington on Sept. 6 and the 10-year-old MWC is 5-0 against its regional big brother this season.

The Mountain West is a real-life Rocky story — as in Rocky Long, whose New Mexico Lobos have beaten Arizona two years running.

All of which raises a question: How come the Pac-10 has an automatic Bowl Championship Series berth and the Mountain West doesn't?

"I think it's all about money," TCU head coach Gary Patterson said Tuesday on the weekly MWC coaches teleconference. "I don't think it's about the best football that can be played."

Patterson said he thinks other non-BCS conferences — the WAC, perhaps — are also worthy of automatic admission to college football's most lavish postseason parties.

Mountain West coaches are too busy game-planning — and recruiting the Pac-10's leftovers — to spend a lot of time whining about getting no respect from the Pac-10.

But they don't get much respect. The Pac-10's arrogance was obvious in this postgame assessment of UNLV by Arizona State's Troy Nolan, as reported by Scout.com: "No disrespect to them, they're not on our level."

Respect them or not, the Rebels are the pride of The Strip this week.

If you're looking for a lead-pipe-lock, as they say in the Sin City sports books, take a MWC squad against a Pac-10 team. And yet the Pac-10 will send its champion, and maybe it's runner-up, to the BCS while the MWC will practically have to beg for a bid to the big-money bowls.

"I really believe that our conference is deserving of an automatic bid to the BCS," UNLV head coach Mike Sanford said. "It shouldn't be a deal where we should have to go undefeated to be in the BCS."

Think about it. The king of the Mountain West will probably have to be perfect to draw a BCS berth.

But a Pac-10 team with blots on its record could get in the Rose Bowl.

If No. 1 Southern California plays for the national title, that would leave a Rose Bowl slot open. Now, the folks in Pasadena might consider inviting BYU or Utah or TCU to administer the ritual New Year's Day whipping of a Big Ten plowhorse.

Or they might decide to protect their precious Big Ten-Pac-10 rivalry in what is fast becoming the Groan-daddy of Them All.

Let's say Arizona State, Oregon or California — all of whom have issues right now — finishes second in the Pac-10 and has multiple losses. Why would they be more deserving than a once-beaten BYU, Utah or TCU?

"A lot of people would say out there, nobody wants to watch somebody from the Mountain West play in a BCS game," Patterson said. "I think everybody likes the underdog."

Mountain West teams might be perceived as underdogs, but they have proved quite capable of competing on a bigger stage.

In the Fiesta Bowl four years ago, Utah whipsawed Pitt 35-7. Since 2004, the MWC is 6-2 in bowl games against schools from BCS conferences.

One win at a time, the MWC is building a solid case for automatic admission into the BCS boys club.

Asked to compare the MWC and the Pac-10, New Mexico's Long said the Pac-10's main advantage is depth; there's less of a talent gap between the starter and the first backup.

"My take is the top 22 (players) in our league can play against the top 22 in their league," Long said.

That might be a stretch. But this much is certain: Long's top 22 are better than Arizona head coach Mike Stoops' top 22.

Once a laughingstock, Arizona has won four Pac-10 games each of the last two years. But Arizona is only 1-5 against the MWC under Stoops.

That includes home-and-home beatdowns by los Lobos.

Memo to coach Stoops: Time to drop New Mexico and see if someone in old Mexico has an open date.




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