Mountain West Conference Football

What’s up with the Mountain West Conference?

You know, just a few days ago I was singing the praises of the Mountain West Conference, and I even went so far as to say that they are better than the Big East and ACC because they had (at that time) three ranked teams.

My, how much changes in one week.

With teams like Utah, BYU and TCU, and sprinkle in some Air Force, I really thought this conference was better than the WAC and Boise State. When you have three teams out of your conference on the top 25, and you are not a power conference, that is awesome!

But what happened? I would have bet my last peanut butter and jelly sandwich that BYU was going to rout Florida State, and I CERTAINLY didn’t see a 54-28 smashing in BYU’s own living room.

And Utah losing at home to Oregon helps Boise State feel bigger than the Mountain West, since they beat Oregon at the beginning of the year.

With all the Mountain West teams 3 games in except TCU, only two teams remain that are undefeated: the afore-mentioned TCU and Colorado State, who at the moment is 3-0.

This is odd because this is a very tough conference, and if Colorado State is currently 3-0, with Utah just falling out the top 25, and TCU undefeated, with BYU still on the rankings, this to me is still a very tough conference…ok let’s not bring up that New Mexico is 0-3.

So the question might be, is this conference for real, or are they all pretenders to the BCS Buster Crown? Again, many will swear by Boise State, but I still think the WAC is not as competitive as the Mountain West.

Yes Boise State beat Oregon…at home, but outside of that, few see their schedule as competitive to the end. Look at the schedule of the Mountain West Conference and key games:

Air Force: Played at Minnesota, will play at Navy, home to TCU, away to Utah and Colorado State, and BYU.

BYU: Played away at Oklahoma, home to Florida State and Colorado State and TCU, Air Force and Utah.

Colorado State: Played away at Colorado, away to BYU, home to Utah, away to TCU and home to Air Force

New Mexico: Played away at Texas A&M, home to Air Force, away to Texas Tech and Utah, home to BYU and away to TCU

San Diego State: Away at UCLA and Air Force, home to BYU, away to Colorado State, home to TCU and way to Utah.

TCU: Away at Virginia and Clemson, Air Force and BYU, home to Utah.

UNLV: Home to Oregon State, BYU, Utah, away to TCU and Air Force.

Utah: Away at Oregon, home to Louisville, away to Colorado State, home to Air Force, away to TCU and BYU.

Folks, that is a competitive schedule.

It’s a shame that the old WAC super conference can’t get back together, when they had 16 teams. This would have ended a lot of talk about BCS Busters and stuff like that when you had teams like Boise State, Utah, BYU and TCU all fighting for one crown before stating a case for a BCS Championship. But as it stands, this Mountain West Conference is indeed a tough conference.

Sure, one loss hurts Utah and BYU a ton, in fact it kicked Utah out of one poll. So it might appear that the pride of the conference rests on TCU, or maybe Colorado State, since they need an undefeated team to make a serious charge at the BCS. I am not as confident in the Rams as I am in Horned Frogs, but both are still undefeated at the moment, after Saturday we will know much more about this conference.

I still think that IF a team goes undefeated in the MWC, they deserve serious consideration at a BCS Title IF there are no undefeated teams out of the BCS conferences. I mean, if people talk about Boise State getting that shot, why not TCU or Colorado State, if they go undefeated?

But there is still much to see, many more games to play, time will tell all.

Utah vs Utah State

Utah State vs. Utah

Here is a game that has a lot of importance to the BCS.

Recall if you will one of the teams that was a thorn in the side of the BCS, that being this team, Utah. It’s odd that there are several games to kick off the season that remind us of old rivalries played at the end of the season. But this game is important in that it is the first steps for Utah to try to get back to where they were.

Utah comes out of the Mountain West Conference, while Utah State comes out of the Western Athletic Conference. This game comes on tonight, but because I am on the east coast, I am likely not going to be able to see it. Might be a pretty good game.

Let’s recap these two teams and see what they’ll look like this year:

We’ll start with Utah State, who had a pretty rough year in 2008. Nowhere close to a bowl, the Aggies finished 3-9 and was out of any chance of a post season bowl before Halloween (how’s that for scary). A loss to UNLV to start the season, then a devastating defeat at the hands of Oregon 66-24 seemed to set the tone for the Aggies.

They would then lose to Utah 58-10 before rebounding in a win over Idaho. But from there playing and losing to foes like BYU and Fresno State ended up dropping 4 losses to them, and pretty soon it just looked like the season was over. A good win over rebuilding Hawaii seemed to spark interest but playing Boise State and losing big seemed to cap off the season, although winning the last game of the year vs. New Mexico State.

I’ll be honest, this could be rough for Utah State, granted they played Utah, BYU and Boise State as well as Oregon, those are four tough games. But two of their wins was against teams with 4 wins combined…something has to change. The schedule starts out very rough, playing Utah, then Texas A&M and BYU, all inside of 4 games…ugggh!

If there is any hope for Utah State to make this a successful season (meaning wining 6 games) it has to start with S. Utah. No, it’s not much, but it is a win, and maybe they can repeat the performance by beating New Mexico State, Nevada and maybe Louisiana Tech. Getting 5 wins will be hard, and it won’t start tonight.

Utah on the other hand, Utah Utes look to punch a hole in the BCS, and it starts with a beat down tonight. As you know, the Utes went 13-0, sweeping every opponent in their sights. A perfect 8-0 in the conference and topped off the season with a 31-17 spanking of SEC foe Alabama.

What do you do for an encore? What else…shoot for the BCS Championship.

But how much credit will they give Utah? Beating Michigan last year seemed cool, but turned out to be something a half decent high school team could have done, considering how terrible Michigan was. I don’t blame Utah for that, they played the opponent and won. But much has been said for the strength of schedule, that Utah’s foes have not really been of high quality. Of their first 5 games, only the Air Force game was credible.

But how can you deny wins over Oregon State, TCU and BYU? Clearly this is an excellent team, and to me, very deserving of the credits any top 10 team should have. This year they have Oregon and Louisville on the schedule, and they have to see TCU and BYU again. To me, if they sweep, they must be given STRONG consideration for the BCS, but I did not say it should be automatic.

Clearly, Utah is the heavy favorites, and my money’s on the Utes. The real drama for them will play out over the next few months. Can they go undefeated…hmmmm……