Predictions from the conference that keeps me up all…..night…..long!

Am I stupid?  Wait, don’t answer that.  Sometimes I wonder what is wrong with me when I decide, of my own volition, to stay up sometimes to almost 3:00 in the morning on Saturday nights for 13 straight weeks starting in late August.  And that doesn’t even include the times when I decide to find a Hawaii broadcast online.  Part of me thinks I might as well not go to bed and then go to sleep early on Sunday but there’s NFL football and….ugh.  One day I will learn.  AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA just kidding I never will.

Hey, might as well talk about realignment again.  Thanks a bunch Texas and Oklahoma!  Look what you’ve done.  Made us all talk about the so-called evolution of college football while some fans (and even a few media) think it’s the start of the demise of the sport.  Either way it’s coming fast and furious and the next couple years are going to tell us a lot as to the direction of the highest level of college football.  And the Mountain West could be in the thick of it.  With the Longhorns and Sooners going to the SEC, it could present the MWC with an interesting proposition.  Or, it could put them in a horrible spot.  Depending on what happens with the Big XII and the AAC in the next little while, the Mountain West could become a lot stronger or possibly even cease to exist as a conference.  Yes, it could be that extreme.  If the Big XII somehow survives intact and actually absorbs some AAC teams (and perhaps a Mountain West team or two), then the MWC could look into expanding and, at the very least, will be very much safe for quite a while.  On the other hand, if the AAC decides they are going to poach a ton of teams to make an even bigger conference (I have heard as high as 20 teams if you can believe it), the Mountain West could see their conference be much weaker or completely die on the vine.  Gonna be a topsy-turvy next 24 months or so.

Alright enough realignment talk for once.  Let’s get to the conference predictions followed by some Cocaine-Covered Coffee Beans with a Jolt Cola chaser Thoughts YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH:

		Conference		Overall
	Mountain	W	L	W	L
	Boise State	8	0	10	2
	Wyoming	5	3	9	3
	Air Force	5	3	7	5
	New Mexico	3	5	5	7
	Colorado State	1	7	3	9
	Utah State	1	7	2	10
	West
	Nevada	7	1	11	1
	San Jose State	6	2	9	3
	Hawaii	5	3	8	5
	San Diego State	4	4	7	5
	UNLV	2	6	3	9
	Fresno State	1	7	3	9

Cocaine-Covered Coffee Beans with a Jolt Cola Chaser

• Boise State is the favourite to win the Mountain Division and honestly it isn’t really close.  The issue the Broncos will have is their non-conference schedule.  With UCF, Oklahoma State and BYU on the sked, I wish them all the luck in the world.  I would be shocked if they run the table but this squad has done it in tougher times so you never know.
• It’s finally the Wolfpack’s time!  With a quarterback-receiver duo that rivals most Power Five schools, Nevada looks like they should outlast everyone to win the West.  The Spartans and the Fighting Rainbow Warriors of Hawaii (with no real home field) will be tough to beat but the division runs through Reno in 2021.
• For the first time in forever, New Mexico isn’t going to be too bad.  I have them within a scrotum’s hair from a bowl game (that’s pretty close).  An upset would put them in a bowl game for the first time in a while (after a tiny bit of research…on Wikipedia…it’s been since 2016…..so not THAT long ago).
• Fresno State is going to be in a position they aren’t really used to: at the bottom of the West.  Blake Anderson needs at least another season to get things back on track at Utah State.  Colorado State almost needs Jim McElwain back.  But hey, UNLV has an awesome new stadium!  Gotta look at the positives, no?
• Will Nevada finally fulfill their destiny and win the Mountain West Championship for the first time?  Um…that would be no.  I still think Boise will eek out a win over the Wolfpack and be back on top of the MWC mountain.
• Seven Mountain West bowl teams.  With no team going to the New Year’s Six it looks like at least a couple of teams will get one of the G-5 bowl spots.

Next up is the final set of conference previews.  The conference that gets overlooked all the time.  I’m talking about Conference USA.  Last day of July so the college football season is right around the corner!  Have a great weekend, everyone!

Hey, I just noticed Hawaii’s logo is not in that graphic at the top.  That is strange.

And now to the other cause of my college football-induced insomnia, the Mountain West

Honestly I am fine with it but boy can it make Sunday a rough day.  Thankfully I don’t also drink alcohol while I’ve got a full day of college football.  A few Red Bull and Vodkas would make for a porcelain-riffic Sunday and help in destroying my liver.

Saying all that about the late night games, there is a bit of a change in the air (potentially).  Craig Thompson, the Mountain West Conference commissioner, is weighing the pros and cons of their current ESPN deal (along with other TV deals) with something else once that deal ends after the 2019 football season (technically it ends after the 2019-2020 basketball season but WE TALKIN’ FOOTBAW IN HERES!).  There have been complaints about the sheer amount of late night MWC games during a season, especially in November when everyone has gone to conference play and there’s only so many timeslots on each network.  Also, with some of these teams, attendance is down and it’s obvious that part of it is due to these late night start times.

So what is the alternative?  They have a deal with CBS Sports Network but again, they get one late night game and sometimes they get the afternoon or primetime slot.  That won’t change.  They may have to partner with another network to be able to get games earlier in the day or discuss digital broadcasting over the Internet and see if streaming is the way to go here.  They also have to understand that the increased attendance has to offset the loss in contract money from ESPN.  It’s a tough call but if they are wanting to at least stay in the FBS swimming pool (albeit in the shallow end), they have to figure out the right course of action and hope that it works.  They don’t want to become Conference USA with horrifically bad TV deals or the MAC with MACtion which is great for exposure but terrible for attendance.

Alright on to the predictions followed by potentially insane ramblings:

	Conference		Overall
Mountain	W	L	W	L
Colorado State	8	0	10	2
Boise State	7	1	9	3
Utah State	5	3	6	6
Wyoming	4	4	6	6
New Mexico	3	5	5	7
Air Force	3	5	5	7
West
San Diego State	7	1	9	3
Nevada	3	5	4	8
UNLV	2	6	3	9
Hawaii	2	6	3	9
Fresno State	2	6	3	9
San Jose State	2	6	3	10

Potentially Insane Ramblings

• I don’t think this first point is insane at all: Colorado State is going to be good. Good talent on both sides of the ball, a good head coach, and a brand new stadium that will make some Power Five schools envious.  It all adds up to a showdown with Boise State to see who gets to the Mountain West Championship Game.  I predict it will be the Rams since they will have that game at home and it should be a raucous crowd for it (remember how it was for the Broncos when they had to go Laramie last season).  And who will they face?
• Good lord talk about a lopsided division. It’s the Aztecs and nobody else is even close.  I have to check to see if they have mathematically clinched the division already……………….not quite yet but the magic number is low.  There isn’t even a bowl eligible team other than SDSU in the West Division.    They should clinch around Halloween.
• Unlike the West Division, the Mountain Division should be a dogfight. Yes CSU and BSU should pull away from the pack but when your weakest teams are New Mexico and Air Force, your division is stacked (at least from a G5 perspective).
• I have the Aztecs upsetting Colorado State to win the Mountain West and get their shot against a Pac-12 team (hopefully) in the Las Vegas Bowl. Didn’t work out the same last year but they did whoop Houston’s ass.  We won’t discuss the whole Donnell Pumphrey record-setting day thing.  In deference to Ron Dayne and Ricky Williams.
• The conference has five bowl tie-ins. Not that many.  And I predict five teams will make bowl games.    They do technically have a sixth tie-in with the Cactus Bowl but that’s only if the Big XII or Pac-12 doesn’t have enough bowl-eligible teams.

We are over two-thirds of the way through the predictions but not quite three-quarters of the way through.  Next up is the conference we see the least of (and it’s not really even close), Conference USA.  We are 23 days away from the season starting.  Oh yeah!

Also there is some NFL news.  The Hall of Fame game has crept up on everyone and is tonight in Canton.  Dallas faces off against Arizona.  Hopefully the field is OK for this one after last year’s debacle.  Football is back baby (even though it is just pre-season ball but still….FOOTBAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!)!