If there was any good news out of the University of Hawaii’s 50-20 loss at Fresno State Saturday it is that hardly anybody saw the game on TV.

The Rainbow Warriors’ most lopsided loss of the season drew just 187,000 viewers on ESPN2 for a game that finished at 2:26 a.m. Eastern Time (11:26 p.m. in Fresno), according to Nielsen figures.

It was the smallest audience for a UH game on one of the ESPN platforms in at least four years. Among 22 metered college football games on Saturday where numbers were available, it ranked 21st.

Between a kickoff delayed until 10:40 p.m. Eastern Time, some World Series overlap, a 29-minute delay due to a Bulldog Stadium light bank outage and the Bulldogs’ early lead, what late-night viewers there were went elsewhere.

But it isn’t just the anomalies of blown circuit breakers and World Series overlaps that should provide food for thought for the Mountain West Conference. This is the penultimate year of the conference’s current TV deal and viewership numbers conference-wide — not just UH — hardly make a compelling case for a jackpot the next time around.

Three weeks ago the San Diego State-Boise State matchup, the MWC game with the most marquee appeal to date, managed only 269,000 viewers on ESPNU. Two weeks ago Fresno State-Wyoming attracted 128,000 viewers, according to ShowBuzz Daily.

Internet replays of Jamire Jordan’s 100-yard “kick 6” return for Fresno State Saturday probably drew larger numbers.

Some of the best numbers came in Week Zero, when there was a paucity of games from which to choose and where the Wyoming-New Mexico game drew 464,000. Otherwise, Colorado State-Boise State managed 420,000 in Week 8.

Games for MWC teams against out-of-conference opponents do slightly better, witness the UH-BYU game three weeks ago which pulled in 646,000, the Utah State-BYU game that drew 617,000 and Stanford-San Diego State that lured 596,000, according to ShowBuzz Daily. .

Part of the reason for the low numbers in MWC games is the late-night time slots that the conference is required to play in under terms of its contracts. In this the MWC’s value to the networks is the inventory it provides as a schedule filler, positioned wherever or however late ESPN or the CBS Sports Network needs a game to plug a puka in its lineup.

For providing this late-night and mid-week service the MWC receives, on average, about $14 million per year. That sounds impressive but in the current market it is a small drop in a very large bucket compared to Power Five Conferences where many members get $25 million-$30 million each annually.

The MWC’s $14 million gets divided among 11 of the 12 teams (UH does not share in the distribution since it keeps its $2.48 million in Spectrum rights fees) with shares amounting to an average of just over $1 million per team per year. Boise State, which has a most-favored member clause, gets the biggest share of more than $2.8 million.

At some point the MWC needs to come to a reckoning about what it wants and where its interests and those of its fans are best served. Which means the trade off in time slots and days of the week it plays and what it means to the box office and fan interest for the amount of money and visibility it reaps.

That’s something its Board of Directors and administrators have ample time and data to wrestle with before the next negotiations.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.