After taking its fight to change the Bowl Championships Series to Congress, the Mountain West Conference is reluctantly agreeing to a BCS television deal.

The MWC still doesn't receive an automatic berth to a BCS game, but needed to sign the agreement with ESPN so the league's nine schools would still be eligible to play in one of the top-tier bowls.

The Mountain West released a statement Wednesday from University of Utah president Michael Young, who testified the day before at a Senate subcommittee hearing.

Young says the conference believed it had no choice other than to sign the agreement, which runs through the 2013 season. Undefeated Utah was left out of the national title game last season.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)