The Mountain West has announced the conference opponents for the 2013 through 2016 seasons.
Each MWC team will play four home and four road games per season, which will consist of five games against teams from the same division and three teams from the opposite division. This will allow each MWC school to play all of the other schools every four years.
From the MWC:
Intra-divisional opponents will alternate sites annually (three home/two away or two home/three away). The three cross-divisional opponents will be the same in each two-year period, with the site alternating from Year 1 to Year 2. The three cross-divisional opponents who are missed initially will appear on the schedule in the second two years of the cycle, again alternating sites from Year 3 to Year 4. The entire four-year sequence repeats beginning in 2017 and will continue thereafter.
The inaugural MWC Football Championship Game will be played on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2013. It will be a match-up of the Mountain and West Division winners and will be hosted by the team ranked highest in the BCS.
The finalized 2013 MWC football schedule will be released “in the coming weeks,” according to today’s announcement.
Football Schedules
Hawaii’s home opponents this year are:
Colorado State
Fresno State
San Diego State
San Jose State
All four of them can play a 13th game. Colorado State has already scheduled five non-conference games.
While the other three are all playing FCS opponents already, a 13-game schedule allows two FCS opponents to be played without any bowl eligibility repercussions.
13-game schedules also allow a D-II opponent to be scheduled without repercussion, even with an FCS on the schedule. I believe that Incarnate Word (who is transitioning to FCS) has a game open, but I’m not 100% sure of that.
Utah State, despite losing Gary Anderson, appears to be a dark horse for the Mountain division. USU misses Fresno, SDSU, and Nevada on the schedule. And, they get Boise State and Colorado State at home.
Meanwhile, Boise State plays both Fresno and SDSU on the road…and at Utah State.
You could have a scenario where even if Boise State beats Utah State, Utah State wins the Mountain because of the easier cross-over games…that is, if Fresno and SDSU can take care of business over Boise State at home.
Boise State wants to be treated as one of the big boys on the national scene. They not only have Fresno and SDSU on the road, they also travel to Washington and BYU. It is a tough row to hoe, but they get dissed by PAC-12 fans and SEC fans for playing a soft schedule more than for anything else, except maybe their blue field. If they want to be respected as a national power, they just have to win those games, no matter where they are played.
Utah State and Coloado State should move to the Pac-12 (14) for all sports.
Just think about it… they could have 3 or even 4 Non Conference opponets and schedule games vs. Utah or Colorado State during the conference season.
Both of the teams will also make a lot more money than they would in the MWC.
Another thing… since he MWC has a confernce championship game, are they going to be a BCS confernce now?
A few problems with that. First, the PAC-12 bosses are not currently interested in expanding the conference. Also, since USU is just moving up from the WAC, expecting a free ticket straight to the PAC-12 would be a bit much. And Colo State has trouble even being competitive in the Mt. West. In the PAC-12 most of their games would just be a senseless slaughter. Finally, current BCS rules are still for 6 AQ conferences and 4 non-AQ conferences. If they expanded the coming 4-team playoff format to 8 teams, they could have the 4 non-AQ conference champions play off in a wildcard format, to fill the final 2 spots in an 8-team playoff format with the 6 AQ conference champions. That would make a lot of sense, but don’t hold your breath.
Why would they have to use a playoff system?
Why would they have to use a playoff system? The BCS in its current form is going away after this year. As of 2014 it will be a 4-team playoff to get into the National Championship game. I do not know how the 4 teams will be selected, it may not be determined yet. But if they are going to just pick 4 teams instead of 2 like they do now, it will still not be a true national championship. Many FBS teams will still be excluded from any possibility of winning it. There is concern that a playoff will ruin the bowl system, but it won’t if it only includes conference champions. A true playoff will give all FBS teams an equal shot at winning the big one.
I didn’t know that was what you were talking about? Oops.
@connEr
why should the Pac12 pick another bottomfeeder like Colorado State?
look how Colorado gets beaten every season in the Pac!
nearly the same goes for Utah State…
Ask yourself this then… Why are Utah and Colorado in the PAC in the first place? They always get beaten up?
You mean Utah in the PAC-12. Utah State was 11-2 in the WAC last year. To answer Go Ducks question, they all want to be in a big conference for recruiting footprint and $$$. It is up to the conference bosses to set the standard for who they admit to the conference.
In fairness to Colorado, I remember 20 or 30 years ago when they were a stud team. When they had Eric Bienemy and that crew they used to beat up on some people, they would have been very competitive in the Pac-10 then. So things can change over time.
Same with Utah… Although they had a way better coach…
HeHe(hehe)-connEr
Fresno State and Boise State should be asked to join the PAC 12. These teams have shown that they could compete against the big boys and win. They are better than CU, WS, UCLA, CAL, WS, UW, UA, & AS.
Utah state and colorado state are door mate teams and if they are invited to join PAC 12 , then the conference name should change to Pathetic Ass Conference 14 and those teams should be invitef to the toilet bowl.
Who cares!! I circled the Boise at Fresno game on my calender. It’s also possible these 2 teams can meet twice in one season, now with the championship game.
All I know is expect that game to be the highlight MWC game of the year. No predictions, becuase Boise always wins, but Derek Carr is an NFL QB loaded with experience, so if Fresno can field a fumbke free run game, and some hard hitting defense, thiis could be a great opportunistic year for Fresno, if they can beat Rutgers as well….dream season for them.