By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

Gentlemen, start your engines, the Western Athletic Conference championship race is about to roar into its stretch run.

From the look of the schedules — both the one drawn up by the seers in the conference office and the one divined at ESPN headquarters months ago — they are remarkable for being exactly the race that was wanted with precisely the teams they were hoping for heading into November.

In a conference where history tells us that two losses usually means championship elimination, the four schools — Boise State (4-0), Hawai'i (4-1), Nevada (3-1) and Fresno State (2-1) — still standing are the same ones that topped the preseason poll.

But if everything has neatly followed the script so far in pointing toward a Dec. 6 national cable date between UH and Boise State at Aloha Stadium on ESPN's "Championship Week," this is where the plot thickens in a hurry.

Saturday's victory over Texas-El Paso kept UH in the race. Now, this is where the crunch comes as these final four contenders increasingly turn their attention to one another with upcoming head-to-head games. With the exception of UH and Fresno State, who have already met, everybody plays everybody else and whatever margin for error existed for most of them is now gone.

Only defending champion and pacesetter Boise State, winner of 14 consecutive conference games, can afford a loss and still figure in the title race. The Warriors' own mulligan, that loss at Tulsa, has already been spent and they have to win out in the final three conference games to have a chance to take or share the WAC title.

"Definitely, if we lose another game, we won't win the WAC," UH coach June Jones said yesterday.

"But, if we take care of business, it can be the season that we all anticipated," assistant coach Rich Miano said.

Going in, UH rated as the preseason favorite in large part because the schedule sends the Broncos here for a regular-season closer at Aloha Stadium, a rare enough showdown event in UH's quarter century of WAC membership.

But to make that game mean anything of import, the Warriors first have to properly set the stage without a pratfall. Standing between UH and the defending champion Broncos are two road tests, San Jose State on Saturday and Nevada on Nov. 15th.

Win them and, suddenly, Army (0-8) and Alabama (3-6) are non-conference garnish for UH's first game of conference title implications since 1999.

As Saturday's 77-14 thrashing of San Jose State underlines, Boise State remains far and away the best team in the conference. At least until someone else comes along and proves differently. For the Warriors, the next two games will have a lot to say about whether they get that chance.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.