Be assured it wasn't just Western Athletic Conference pride that soared when the Boise State football team knocked off Oregon State this past week.

No doubt it was also the fiscal hopes of some administrators and financial officers around the conference.

The Broncos' 42-14 victory over the Beavers was a leap over a significant hurdle for both Boise State and the WAC. On one hand, the triumph ended the conference's 21-game losing streak against opponents from Bowl Championship Series conferences. On the other, the one that is charged with paying the bills and balancing budgets, it moved along the dream of the conference cashing in on a lucrative BCS game this season.

Under new rules, a top 12 finish in the BCS standings could land a WAC team in a lucrative BCS bowl for the first time, setting up a $9 million payoff. "It would be a windfall," said WAC Commissioner Karl Benson, who has campaigned to have the conference included in the postseason jackpot.

For UH, that could likely mean upwards of $500,000 as its share of the spoils. That kind of money pays for a lot of travel and salaries, a windfall indeed at a school that has run budget deficits for four consecutive years. And by no means would UH be alone among its conference brethren in welcoming BCS bucks for its piggy bank.

In a week in which WAC teams went 2-3 against the Pac-10, with Dick Tomey's San Jose State team stunning Stanford and Fresno State falling to Oregon, Boise's triumph loomed largest.

For no WAC team has been better positioned to deliver the moolah in the BCS era. The Broncos have won 37 of 40 conference games since joining the WAC and are 20-0 at home, where, coincidentally, they will play three of the four teams picked to finish in the top half of the standings, Fresno State, UH and Louisiana Tech. Boise's toughest conference road challenge is Nevada, which it pummeled 49-14 last year.

With Oregon State now out of the way, Boise's remaining non-conference appearances are at Wyoming on Saturday and at Utah on Sept. 30, games that sandwich the Broncos' conference opener with UH.

Which sets up a conflicted season of sorts in the WAC, where Boise has at once become the team to beat even as you know some are crossing their fingers that nobody does.

At how many schools, you wonder, are they publicly hoping for the kind of lift a win over Boise would bring to the football program but also silently yearning for what $500,000 could do for the bottom line?

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