The Mountain West has released a revised 2020 football schedule, which includes eight games against conference opponents only, with the exception of Air Force and San Diego State.
Air Force will only play six Mountain West opponents plus Army and Navy. San Diego State will play seven conference opponents and will play one non-conference game to be announced (UPDATE: San Diego State will play at BYU on Dec. 12).
The 2020 Mountain West football schedule will begin on the weekend of October 24 and culminate on Saturday, Dec. 19 with the Mountain West Football Championship Game. The top two teams with the highest conference winning percentage will play in the championship with no divisional delineation.
Opening weekend of the revised 2020 Mountain West football schedule is slated for Saturday, Oct. 24.
Today’s release represents the first phase in the 2020 football schedule process. Mountain West national television partners CBS Sports and FOX Sports will now initiate a selection procedure which will include the shifting of several games to Thursdays and Fridays. Additional announcements on television selections will be made in the near future. All games the first week will be played on Saturday, Oct. 24.
“We are excited to get our student-athletes back on the football field this fall,” said Commissioner Craig Thompson. “The shift away from a two-division format was necessary to optimize the schedule and allow for maximum flexibility given the various constraints which had to be considered. Inasmuch as the season begins with an uneven number of Conference games, and the possibility exists additional games may be lost to COVID-19 challenges, the procedures for determining the participants in and location for the MW Football Championship Game were adapted to accommodate a range of outcomes in as equitable a fashion as possible.”
Below is the complete 2020 Mountain West football schedule, plus links to each teams individual schedule.
2020 Mountain West Football Schedules
Mountain Division
- Air Force Football Schedule
- Boise State Football Schedule
- Colorado State Football Schedule
- New Mexico Football Schedule
- Utah State Football Schedule
- Wyoming Football Schedule
West Division
- Fresno State Football Schedule
- Hawaii Football Schedule
- Nevada Football Schedule
- San Diego State Football Schedule
- San Jose State Football Schedule
- UNLV Football Schedule
2020 Mountain West Football Schedule (revised Sept. 19)
Saturday, Oct. 3
Navy at Air Force
Saturday, Oct. 24
Air Force at San Jose State
Hawaii at Fresno State
New Mexico at Colorado State
UNLV at San Diego State
Utah State at Boise State
Wyoming at Nevada
Saturday, Oct. 31
Boise State at Air Force
Colorado State at Fresno State
Hawaii at Wyoming
Nevada at UNLV
San Jose State at New Mexico
San Diego State at Utah State
Saturday, Nov. 7
Air Force at Army
BYU at Boise State
Fresno State at UNLV
New Mexico at Hawaii
San Jose State at San Diego State
Utah State at Nevada
Wyoming at Colorado State
Saturday, Nov. 14
Air Force at Wyoming
Colorado State at Boise State
Fresno State at Utah State
Hawaii at San Diego State
Nevada at New Mexico
UNLV at San Jose State
Saturday, Nov. 21
Boise State at Hawaii
New Mexico at Air Force
San Diego State at Nevada
San Jose State at Fresno State
UNLV at Colorado State
Utah State at Wyoming
Saturday, Nov. 28
Colorado State at Air Force
Nevada at Hawaii
New Mexico at Utah State
San Diego State at Fresno State
San Jose State at Boise State
Wyoming at UNLV
Saturday, Dec. 5
Air Force at Utah State
Boise State at UNLV
Colorado State at San Diego State
Fresno State at Nevada
Hawaii at San Jose State
Wyoming at New Mexico
Saturday, Dec. 12
Boise State at Wyoming
Fresno State at New Mexico
Nevada at San Jose State
San Diego State vs TBA
UNLV at Hawaii
Utah State at Colorado State
Saturday, Dec. 19
Mountain West Championship Game
Mountain West Football Schedule
Air Force plays just 6 conference games because of them playing Navy & Army so I wonder what happens if they go 6-0 in MW with say 2 others go 8-0 in conference play who goes to the title game
What’s with the “San Diego St vs TBA” on December 12th? 10 of the 12 teams are slated to play each other that day, so why not SDSU vs Air Force? They don’t play any other time in the schedule, so do it then.
Air Force is not playing that week due to exams.
I think it is baloney that favoritism was given to Air Force and Boise St. Air Force only playing 6 conference games and Boise St. playing only 7 conference games. You can be rest assured that if they go 6-0 or 7-0 the conference will declare them better than a 7-1 team who had to play 1 or 2 more conference games. The MWC always tries to stack the deck to favor those two programs. I hate the MWC. It is the cheapest conference in Division I-A football.
Plus the MWC placates BYU which abandoned the conference. Why help them out?
Air Force should have been told if they want to play Army and Navy then to do so by mid-October. They are playing Navy this weekend and they could have easily scheduled Army by now too. The Cadets have had some open dates.
Will be rooting hard against Air Force and Boise St.
I don’t know that Boise State (and San Diego State) are getting preferential treatment. Once it was determined that Air Force wasn’t going to play the week of the Army game and the last week of the season (due to finals, I believe), then two teams either had to schedule non-conference opponents for those weeks or only play seven games. Once Air Force doesn’t play, either another has an open date or they play out of conference. At that point, BYU is most likely the best option given that: (1) they aren’t in a conference that’s only playing conference games; (2) they make the most geographic sense; (3) they have openings on their schedule; (4) BYU was originally scheduled to play at Boise State and SDSU was originally scheduled to play at BYU; and (5) from an exposure standpoint, BYU is the best option available, particularly if the SDSU non-conference game on Dec 12 is at BYU (which seems to be the likely arrangement).
It seems to me that once you had the “Air Force issue”, two teams had to go out of conference and Boise State-BYU and San Diego State-BYU were logical solutions to that problem (again, assuming that San Diego State-BYU is the to-be-announced game). Also, I don’t see how you can assert that Boise State is getting preferential treatment without making the same assertion for San Diego State – they are in essentially the same position.
With respect to Air Force, you can argue that the conference should have taken a hard line with them, but there’s probably a real risk they would have just opted out of the MWC schedule at that point. Given how quickly this all came together, saying that Air Force could have played Army earlier in the season is a bit unfair, as it was the conference’s position they weren’t playing until just a couple weeks ago.
If the first sentence of this article is literally true, then it must mean that the Navy and Army results will count as conference games for Air Force, that BYU will count as a conference game for Boise State, and the TBD will count as a conference game for San Diego State and further that the MWC must approve the opponent. Frankly, I don’t see anything wrong with this. Army, Navy, and BYU are at a very minimum better than the average MWC team.