The Mountain West Conference football opponents have been revised for the 2026 season, the conference announced Tuesday.
Beginning with the 2026 season, the Mountain West adds the North Dakota State Bison (FCS), Northern Illinois Huskies (MAC), and UTEP Miners (CUSA). Teams departing the conference include Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, and Utah State.
North Dakota State, Northern Illinois, and UTEP will join returning members Air Force, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV, and Wyoming in a new ten-team lineup for 2026. Each league member will play four home and four road conference games, for a total of eight league matchups, in addition to four non-conference opponents.
The Mountain West Football Championship Game will be played on Friday, Dec. 4 or Saturday, Dec. 5 and will feature the two conference members with the highest winning percentage in league action.
Listed below are the revised opponents for each Mountain West team for the 2026 season. The complete Mountain West football schedule for 2026 will be announced in the coming weeks.
2026 Mountain West Football Opponents
AIR FORCE FALCONS
HOME: North Dakota State, San José State, UNLV, UTEP
AWAY: Nevada, New Mexico, NIU, Wyoming
HAWAII RAINBOW WARRIORS
HOME: New Mexico, North Dakota State, San José State, UNLV
AWAY: Nevada, NIU, UTEP, Wyoming
NEVADA WOLF PACK
HOME: Air Force, Hawai‘i, New Mexico, San José State
AWAY: NIU, North Dakota State, UNLV, UTEP
NEW MEXICO LOBOS
HOME: Air Force, North Dakota State, UNLV, UTEP
AWAY: Hawai‘i, Nevada, San José State, Wyoming
NORTH DAKOTA STATE BISON
HOME: Nevada, NIU, UTEP, Wyoming
AWAY: Air Force, Hawai‘i, New Mexico, UNLV
NORTHERN ILLINOIS HUSKIES
HOME: Air Force, Hawai‘i, Nevada, UTEP
AWAY: North Dakota State, San José State, UNLV, Wyoming
SAN JOSE STATE SPARTANS
HOME: New Mexico, NIU, UNLV, Wyoming
AWAY: Air Force, Hawai‘i, Nevada, UTEP
UNLV REBELS
HOME: Nevada, NIU, North Dakota State, Wyoming
AWAY: Air Force, Hawai‘i, New Mexico, San José State
UTEP MINERS
HOME: Hawai‘i, Nevada, San José State, Wyoming
AWAY: Air Force, New Mexico, NIU, North Dakota State
WYOMING COWBOYS
HOME: Air Force, Hawai‘i, New Mexico, NIU
AWAY: North Dakota State, San José State, UNLV, UTEP
2026 Mountain West Opponents pic.twitter.com/o6GcVRProB
— FBSchedules.com (@FBSchedules) February 24, 2026
Geez, why didn’t the MWC just release the schedules already? I guess we will have to wait another month before they do. Crazy!!
They won’t release the conference schedule until the TV partners have chosen the games they want to air and also some stuff was just finalized in the last month for new TV contract and new school as well.
But gets ya thnking that North Dakota St could be the team playing USC in Week 0
Maybe waiting for North Dakota St to figure out their non conference situation.
Please give Mountain West time to figure out now that North Dakota State just recently joined.
Are there any protected matchups?
As professor Tom points out, each MWC team misses only conference mate each year so protecting long played mach ups like Air Force v Wyoming or Nevada v UNLV or New Mexico v UTEP should not be that hard.
On the non conference side, is it likely the Dakota Marker game will go on a break for a while?
I think the Bison will definitely be favored in all their home games.
I read it and was like, “Dang, why isn’t North Dakota State playing Boise State this year? That would be awesome!” And then I remembered… Boise State is now in the PAC-12 lol
There are no plans in future that Boise State will play North Dakota State I see nothing.
Another useful way to frame this is which teams do not play each other:
• Air Force and Hawaii do not meet in ‘26
• Nevada and Wyoming do not meet in ‘26
• New Mexico and Northern Illinois do not meet in ‘26
• NDSU and San Jose State do not meet in ‘26
• UNLV and UTEP do not meet in ‘26
thanks Prof Tom. I went through the schedule to figure out who they didn’t meet next year, too. We’ll see how they rotate the missed team in the next few years.
I am confident that Northern Illinois & New Mexico will meet in couple years from now.