Players always hope a conference title will come down to one game. Controlling your own destiny, you know?

Conference championship games make that an easy proposition, but you have to have 12 teams to get a conference title game, and even then you have to win one of the two divisions just to get there.

So, without a conference title game, you're at the mercy of the schedule and fate.

The Western Athletic Conference has luck on its side this week. Boise State and Fresno State, tied for the lead in the WAC, face each other on Thursday night on ESPN, and it's for all the marbles in the conference.

The winner takes the title. The loser has to fight with Louisiana Tech and Nevada for second place and a bowl berth. And both BSU and FSU still have to play Louisiana Tech, so it could be a fight.

On the surface, this would appear to be Boise State's game to win. The Broncos (7-2, 5-0) rebounded from an 0-2 start to win their last seven games. Additionally, in WAC play, these Broncos are as dominant a team as there is in college football.

Boise State has won 30 straight homes games and 31 straight WAC games heading into Thursday's game. No school in the country can boast that sort of mastery at home or in league play. Coach Dan Hawkins' record with Boise State is a robust 52-9, and 35-2 in WAC play. While he signed a big extension with BSU last spring, he is certainly going to be on the short list for every coaching opening in the offseason.

The Broncos, in the past, have been a wide-open passing outfit. They're still throwing the ball this year, but the Broncos have made more of an effort to run the football, as evidenced by their WAC -leading 219 rushing yards per game. That statistic is even more curious when you consider it took the Broncos nine games to get their first 100-yard rusher. Lee Marks rushed for 112 yards against New Mexico State last week.

How do you do that? You have two backs in the WAC's top 10 in rushing - Marks (59.2 ypg) and Ian Johnson (60.4 ypg). Boise State is the only school in the WAC that can make that claim, and it allows Hawkins to rest his two best runners throughout the game. But, combined, they have just seven touchdown runs.

Quarterback Jared Zabransky is one of the WAC's best quarterbacks, and has 15 touchdown passes, but doesn't have a receiver in the Top 10 in the conference, at least in yardage. Scoring is what matters in the Broncos' offense, and receiver Antwuan Carter leads the team with nine scores, and Zabransky has pitched in eight rushing touchdowns.

It doesn't seem terribly imposing until it's all assembled. Then, you realize the Broncos have the No. 2 scoring offense (37.9 ppg), the No. 1 rushing offense, the No. 3 scoring defense (23.9 ppg), the No. 1 rushing defense (104.7 ypg), the No. 2 total offense (446.2 ypg) and the No. 2 total defense (360.6 ypg). Then you get the point.

Fresno State's (7-1, 5-0) success is a bit easier to define. It flows through the fingertips of quarterback Paul Pinegar, right now fifth in the NCAA in active passing yards and third in active touchdown passes. He's also in the WAC's top 10 in all-time passing yards, assuming the mantle left behind by No. 1 overall pick David Carr. He's also this week's WAC Offensive Player of the Week.

It isn't that Pinegar is just throwing for 216 yards per game. It's how he's doing it - with a 65 percent completion percentage, with an unreal 16 touchdowns to four interceptions. Only Hawai'i's Colt Brennan has a better completion percentage and more touchdowns, but the Warriors don't even think about running the football. The Bulldogs have a nice complement to Pinegar in Wendell Mathis, No. 2 in the WAC in rushing yards per game with 101.4 per game. He had a 229-yard effort against Hawai'i, the best in the WAC this season, so he's capable of explosive games. But this contest really comes down to how well Pinegar can hold the reins of his offense against an aggressive Boise State defense.

And, like Boise State, Fresno State doesn't have a single player in the WAC top 10 in receptions or receiving yards. Instead, Mathis does the heavy lifting, leading the conference in touchdowns with 13.

No one in the league scores more points than Fresno State (41.9). But the Bulldogs also have the league's second-best rushing defense (117.6 ypg), the top scoring defense (15.8) and the best pass defense (189.4 ypg).

So where are the defensive superstars? They're hard to ferret out. Louisiana Tech is the league's leader in forcing turnovers and creating opportunities. Neither Boise or Fresno appears as adept at that.

Most of the season, these two teams have feasted on the weaker WAC opponents. Combined, the two have given up more than 25 points just once in league play this year, with Boise beating Hawai'i 44-41. So their defensive numbers, I feel, are a little inflated. When you get two great WAC teams together, the offenses usually neutralize the defenses.

This one will be no different. I think the quarterbacks will be the focus of the game plans Thursday. Fresno State will want to keep Zabransky from using his legs to beat the Broncos, putting the game in the hands of their talented tandem of backs.

Boise, on the other hand, I think will go after Mathis first. It's a case of picking your poison, and I'm thinking they believe that if they can shut down Mathis, they can throw some blitz packages at Pinegar and force some mistakes on his part.

And, finally, this game is in Fresno, which gives the Bulldogs a fighting chance. Yes, the Broncos haven't lost a conference game since 2001, but I think Fresno State might be the best equipped yet to end the Broncos' mastery of the conference. And, Thursday on ESPN, I think they will. Fresno State 37, Boise State 34 (OT)