Mountain West Conference more than BCS worthy

With six bowl games down and 28 to go post-Christmas, one thing is for certain:

The Mountain West Conference is more than BCS worthy.

The conference is already 3-0 in the postseason, with Air Force vs. Houston and Texas Christian University vs. Boise State still to come.

Most impressively, have you seen how the Mountain West has handled the supposedly superior Pac 10 of the BCS?

How about QB Max Hall and the Brigham Young Cougars running all over Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl?

Or what about true freshman QB Jordan Wynn and the Utah Utes whipping Jeff Tedford’s California Bears in the Poinsettia Bowl?

On top of that, Wyoming beat heavily-favored Fresno State to start the postseason in the New Mexico Bowl.

The BCS does not automatically include the Mountain West, so there’s only one way to make a statement.

The BYUs and Utahs will just have to keep beating the Oregon States and Cals.
　

(Game) Time is not on San Diego State's Side

The Mountain West Conference, which includes San Diego State, just couldn’t wait to get away from the crummy starting times its athletic events were receiving on networks such as ESPN.

So the conference went ahead and joined partnership with CSTV and even has its own television station, so to speak, called the mtn.

So now, those inconvenient late morning and late evening starting times are gone … or are they?

Have you noticed that the San Diego State men’s basketball team hosts the Air Force Academy at 8 pm Wednesday to accommodate the mtn. TV broadcast?

So, what ever happened to those much better weeknight starting times of 7 pm when the Aztecs were being televised by Channel 4 San Diego?

Well, not only has this wonderful deal with the mtn. made for worse starting times; it has also taken away a large majority of local viewers.

If you are lucky (or unlucky) enough to even be able to watch the games on the mtn., consider yourself in a sizeable minority.

The mtn. was supposed to solve the problem of lousy starting times … plus increase exposure for the Mountain West Conference. Let’s face it: The TV “network” has done neither.

Oh, how we long for the day of the 7 pm start (especially on weeknights) on channels that local people could actually watch.

The Aztecs on TV with a decent starting time?

Wishful thinking.

Make no mistake about it

Make a sports-related mistake on San Diego sports television or radio and you will likely read about in the San Diego Union-Tribune’s sports TV-Radio column on Friday.
Make a mistake in the Union Tribune and … well, I guess you are above being criticized.
Take the April 21, 2007 edition of the paper, for instance. There was mention of a Chargers “playoff” game in New York in 1995, along with a local listing for a college football game that day between San Diego State and the Air Force Academy.
The Chargers-Giants game in question was played Dec. 23, 1995. It could not have been a playoff game for two reasons: (a) the NFL does not start its playoffs before Christmas, and (b) the Chargers and Giants could only meet in the Super Bowl since they play in separate conferences.
As for the SDSU-Air Force football game, that must have come as a shock to the Aztecs as they were scheduled for a spring scrimmage that day. With tongue in cheek, I guess the NCAA now allows colleges to play each other during spring practice.
In today’s paper (April 23, 2007), there is another glaring error. The Union-Tribune states than pitcher Greg Maddux had 344 career wins, which contradicts the fact he actually has 334 career victories.
Certainly, we all make mistakes. The Union-Tribune is no exception.
Next time the U-T jumps all over somebody else’s mistake, perhaps the paper should look inward first.