He thinks it can get closer to walking through the door.

"We're going to be evaluated as a brand new product," said the WAC commissioner. "It's up to us to make a splash."

The WAC this year begins anew, trotting out the eight teams that weren't invited to join the other eight that left to form the Mountain West Conference. And in their quest to make the average fan think TCU before BYU or SMU before CSU, those in Benson's league can take motivation from two specific words:

Gonzaga basketball.

Yes, there is a place for mid-major conferences in major college sports. Like it or not ...

"I don't care much for polls or rankings or others opinions," said Fresno State coach Pat Hill. "Everyone thinks of us as a mid-major conference. Fine. It's our job to change their way of thinking."

But is it such a bad thing? The new-look WAC could very well end up being to football what the West Coast Conference is to basketball, a group of very good but not great programs, ones that every so often prove capable of attending the same parties as the popular kids in class.

Of doing things like this: Texas Christian 28, USC 19.

		There's a question of whether or not this conference can survive. These schools are the leftovers from the old WAC, and leftovers generally aren't that good (although leftover pizza isn't bad). TCU and Fresno State are probably the class of the conference. That's not saying a lot when you consider that TCU was the only one with a winning record last year. But you have to give props to TCU because the Horned Frogs played well in the postseason, knocking off USC. This conference is grasping for ways to survive. I don't know if there's a game plan to make it a California vs. Texas battle, and even if the conference went in that direction, it would be lower-level California schools against lower-level Texas schools. They have created a third bowl game for 2000, the Silicon Valley Bowl to be played at Spartan Stadium in San Jose. At the end of the year, I guarantee you we will have a controversy because the WAC has two automatic bowl berths, the Las Vegas Bowl and the new bowl in Mobile, Ala. I think you'll have a pretty good argument as to why the old WAC shouldn't have a second representative in a bowl game.

"I think we as a program and this league is moving in the right direction," said Franchione. "Our (Sun Bowl) victory is something the whole conference can build on. It gave everyone a shot of momentum going into this season. It will be a challenge to change the way people think, no doubt about it."

It is still a league whose geography even Von Humboldt couldn't solve. Nevada will help bridge the gap when it joins the conference next year, but you still have flights from Hawaii to Fresno, from El Paso to San Jose. It is a league whose talent-level is defined by a very large gap, from promising programs like TCU and Fresno State to arguably one of the nation's worst in Hawaii. The Rainbows -- count them carefully now -- have lost 18 straight games.

There are some visible building blocks for the WAC, like a television deal with Fox Sports and bowl commitments with the Las Vegas and Mobile games this year. But perception is a vital component and if Benson's hope of the league elevating itself has a fighting chance, seats must be filled.

"Attendance will be a factor," said Benson. "More and more, we have to establish characteristics that resemble the Big 12 and Pac-10. A lot of that has to do with how many people are in our stadiums each week. That and television ratings are bench marks we can potentially brag about at the end of the season."

Hope is, talent-rich states like Texas and California will have enough capable recruits left once the Pac-10 and Big 12 make their way through each area. But how many battlles will the WAC win for leftovers? The conference this season more than any other is testing the waters of credibility. No charter members are left. UTEP joined in 1966 and Hawaii in '78 and Fresno State in '92 and everyone else in '96. Truth is, the teams most associate with the letters W-A-C don't play in the same sand box any more.

But there is no time for snapshots of the past, no time for home movies of those Holiay Bowl victories and high-scoring shootouts. College football more and more appears headed toward a super conference, one which would seriously bring into question the future of some mid-major leagues.

Of the WAC.

"There are 320 teams that play Division I college basketball and the disparity from top to bottom is very great," said Benson. "There are 115 that play football. I don't think there is that much disparity after you get past the bottom 10 or 15 schools. I think the idea of a (super conference) definitely has some substance to it, but I don't think it would include just the top 60 or so schools. I think it could fall between the top 80-90 and in that case, I certainly think there is a place for members of the WAC."

Translation: Walking through that large door is much tougher than people think.

Ed Graney is a college football writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune and a regular contributor to ESPN.com.