When the University of Hawai'i football team beat Boise State for the Western Athletic Conference championship last season, the Warriors struck a blow beyond the field.

And when the Warriors knocked off Washington to finish the regular season unbeaten and clinch a berth in the Bowl Championship Series, it was a game that carried on to the negotiating table.

Those two games — and the followings they drew — helped make the case that has earned the WAC a more lucrative and expanded contract with ESPN. The deal, to be announced shortly, will significantly enhance coffers and visibility across the conference.

When the WAC Board of Directors two years ago turned down an ESPN extension offer, it bet that what its teams did on the field would back up the contention that its inventory was worth more than the niggling network was offering to commit — both in terms of rights fees and exposure. When the WAC again rejected ESPN's proposal last summer it daringly doubled down on that bet, staring down the 800-pound gorilla of collegiate athletics in the process.

So, Boise State's Cinderella 13-0 season of '06 and the Warriors' own "Believe" Tour of '07, gave the WAC not only its vindication, but plenty to sell.

And, people were buying. The Nov. 2007 showdown for the WAC title with the Broncos drew the largest audience of any ESPN2 game and biggest of 14 Friday night games on the various ESPN properties, 2.65 million households. The Warriors' BCS-clinching game with the Huskies drew 1.96 million households despite an 11:30 p.m. (Eastern) kickoff.

Now, a couple of games do not, by themselves, bring an upgraded, multi-year TV package. But what UH and Boise State were able to do both on the field and in the ratings in back-to-back seasons underlined the value of the WAC brand and reinforced what commissioner Karl Benson had been painstakingly arguing.

If that doesn't seem like much then remember that when eight schools left the WAC to form the Mountain West Conference after the 1998 season, TV networks pretty much left the WAC for dead. So much so that the egregious eight took with them what was to have been the WAC TV contract, leaving the WAC remnants to dance for nickels.

The new contract, when it is announced, won't drop the WAC into the lap of luxury. But it will give it more of a competitive chance. Mostly, it will say the WAC has earned its way from a take-it-or-leave-it league.

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