This era of the Mountain West won’t officially be over for another three months and change, but practically, it ended at the conclusion of the Mountain West tournament a week and a half ago.
And the general consensus is that this version of the MW is going out for a whimper.
With both sides of the split trying to prove their point, neither should use the 2025 football or basketball seasons to argue their case. The teams leaving the Mountain West did account for the football and men’s basketball conference
championships, but Boise State and Utah State were not head and shoulders above the rest in their respective sports, at least record-wise. Similarly, the teams that will remain Mountain West members couldn’t produce any championships in the two major sports, and while they earn some bowl bids, they couldn’t do the same for the NCAA Tournament.
It’s also fair to say both sides were able to justify their decision this past year, although it’s more finger-pointing than resume-building. The future PAC-12 schools can say, “These other teams aren’t carrying their weight, and we can’t wait to leave,” while the legacy Mountain West programs will state, “They didn’t do anything special, and acting superior while they leave is a joke.”
Regardless of which side of the debate everyone falls, the most recent football and basketball seasons were a missed opportunity for all. Back in August, I wrote that all 12 teams have the same goal despite moving in different directions on the field. Every team wanted to win as many games as possible and all teams wanted to produce strong conference seasons in order to get more bowl games and more tournament bids. Instead, neither of those things happened, and the 2025-2026 Mountain West sports season came across less like the 1998 Bulls of The Last Dance fame and more like the 2016 White Sox, where everyone was sick of one another, and a promising 23-10 start ended in a 78-84 dud.
Football season
It was going to be difficult to repeat the success of the 2024 season in 2025, but the Mountain West never got close. The Broncos were ranked to start the season, but dropped out immediately following the Week 1 loss. They ended up winning the conference despite a “down” season, but never really hit their stride at any point during the season. UNLV piled up wins but played a light schedule and, once again, could not get over the hump in the MW Championship game. San Diego State got hot in the middle of the season, but couldn’t score enough to be seen as an actual contender. There were some pleasant surprise teams like Fresno State, Hawaii, and New Mexico. However, they were more of the above-average variety rather than teams that were truly able to compete. Combined with Air Force and Wyoming failing to bounce back after disappointing seasons the year prior, and the bottom completely falling out of Colorado State, true bright spots were hard to come by.
The Mountain West did produce seven bowl teams, but had an embarrassing bowl showing, going 2-5 with several bad losses. After failing to make a statement in the regular season, the conference stood out during bowl season, but for all the wrong reasons. None of their teams were ever competiting for a College Football Playoff spot, and the postseason made it clear how far the Mountain West teams were from CFP contention. Overall, some teams in the conference were mid-major good, but no one was college football playoff good, which was a far cry from 2024, when Boise State and UNLV competed for a CFP spot in the conference championship.
Basketball season
The Mountain West sent four teams into March Madness last year, and was hoping to build on that this year with several teams looking good on paper and Grand Canyon entering the fold. Instead, things went south in a hurry. As a whole, the conference already had six bad loses before November, preventing teams from building nice tournament resumes heading into conference play. Specfically, Boise State and Colorado State stumbled out of the gate, as injuries and ineffectiveness ruined their at-large hopes before strong play during February. New Mexico had a new coaching staff and a near total overhaul on the roster and turned in a good season, but they weren’t a dominant team by any stretch of the imagination. Simiarly, San Diego State took a surprising step back, looking mortal for the first time in quite a few years. Even Utah State, the unquestioned top team in the Mountain West who was ranked earlier in the season, proved beatable down the stretch.
The Aggies did capture both the regular season and conference tournament championships as the bright spot of the Mountain West. There were quite a few teams on the NCAA bubble, competing until the very end, but the early-season damage was already done. Utah State earned the lone bid for the conference, making the Mountain West a one-bid league for the first time in a few seasons. That was the cherry on top of a disappointing basketball season and a fitting end to a year of the conference heading in the wrong direction.
An ideal Plan A for the Mountain West back in August would have been their conference champion returning to the College Football Playoff to cement this version of the MW as the top mid-major conference before the split to set up both conferences as credible. Building off of that going into basketball season, increasing the four bids they received last season to at least five bids, with a few more in bubble contention, would have made this a successful year. Better yet, if the bids were pretty even between future PAC-12 teams and teams staying in the MW, with one of those being Grand Canyon, then both conferences would be views as multi-bid leagues heading into next season.
Instead, the PAC-12 will be reborn as a conference led by Boise State in football and a lot of question marks behind them. For basketball, Gonzaga will be the flagship, with Utah State and San Diego State close behind, but others will need to step up or figure out how to rebound. On the Mountain West side of things, there will be championships to be had, but some debate over who can take them. UNLV seems primed to take over the football mantle, although North Dakota State could prove to be an immediate challenger. It should still be a solid basketball conference, with New Mexico at the forefront, although Nevada and UNLV will need to take steps forward to keep them from being a one-bid league again in 2027.
