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If you were looking at ESPN or ESPN2 or any other national TV network to find out something about the University of New Mexico's 34-31 win over Air Force Thursday night, you needed to look well below the talking heads.

And you'd find the score.

"The only way you could find our game was on the ticker tape," said Lobos coach Rocky Long.

The ticker tape is that running line of scores found at the bottom of your TV screen.

It's reserved for games and scores that the talking heads don't deem worthy of rolling off their golden tongues.

Games from the Mountain West Conference, the Western Athletic Conference, the Big Sky Conference.

Games from conferences not on the West Coast or conferences not East of the Mississippi. Games from conferences not in the BCS.

The talking heads were talking about Boston things Thursday night and Friday: The Boston Red Sox and Boston College.

They weren't talking about Lobos or Falcons even though there were only two top-level college games played Thursday night.

It's not that No. 2-ranked Boston College's win over No. 8 Virginia Tech wasn't great TV.

Eagles' quarterback Matt Ryan made a wild scramble and threw a game-winning TD pass with 11 seconds left to play. The Eagles got the ball a few seconds earlier on an on-side kick. It was great TV.

Ryan is a Heisman Trophy candidate. Boston College plays in a conference East of the Mississippi.

There are zillions of fans interested in that game.

But the Lobos and the Falcons weren't exactly chopped liver. It was a seesaw game with great plays and dramatic turnovers.

And Air Force is a team with coast-to-coast appeal.

But the publicity on the national level just wasn't there.

"I don't worry about that," said Long. "I think that's TV networks fighting with each other and trying to protect their own space, and that's business and that's the way it is.

"I've seen BYU on just the ticker tape. That's CSTV vs. ABC and ESPN. It's a business war."

Sure, there's a business angle here. The Boston College game was on ESPN. The Lobos/Falcons game was on Versus. ESPN is big time sports. Versus is hunting, rodeo, hockey and some football.

The problem with Versus is the problem the Lobos and the Mountain West face with CSTV/Mountain. The MWC isn't national.

Sure, Versus and CSTV have their own talking heads.

But not that many people watch the