It’s a fun game to play matchmaker and create fantasy games in our heads (or on video games) for what we want to see on the college gridiron.
In reality, it is much more complicated than that, and with the current state of college sports, it’s a jigsaw puzzle of conference realignment and finding “quality” wins.
But on May 27, one bipartisan bill was brought to the table that may help college football fanatics and sports fans make sense of it all, and even bring back some of those good old-fashioned
“crosstown” clashes.
In the “Protect College Sports” Act, along with many new regulations in this potential bill, will bring regional matchups back to the forefront.
“Re-establishes regional rivalries by requiring some schools to restart rivalry games if they compete in a conference without three or more of their top 10 most-played opponents. This concept is only triggered if rights are pooled.”
Here is the outlook for Mountain West teams if this bill comes to fruition:
UNLV: Has to look to schedule San Diego State, Fresno State, Colorado State and Utah State. All four are in the Rebels’ top-ten most-played programs.
New Mexico: This could be a doozy for the Lobos. While UTEP coming to the conference helps their situation, six of their top-ten most-played programs lie outside of the Mountain West. (Not including New Mexico State, which they already schedule yearly)
This list includes BYU, Utah, Arizona, Texas Tech, San Diego State and Colorado State.
Air Force: It won’t be too out of the ordinary for the Falcons, as the military academy already schedules two of their top five most-played schools in Army and Navy.
Outside of the military, the Air Force will need to revive their rivalry with Colorado State, along with San Diego State, BYU, Notre Dame and Utah, rounding out the bottom of their top ten.
Wyoming: Top-heavy list for the Cowboys. Their top five includes Colorado State, Utah, BYU and Utah State.
They will also have to look into scheduling Denver, as the Pioneers are #7 on their list.
Here’s the catch: the University of Denver hasn’t played football since 1960. Maybe this bill needs some tweaks.
UTEP: One of the Mountain West’s newest faces will get quite the housewarming gift if this act goes through.
The Miners will have to look to schedule New Mexico State, Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, Colorado State, Utah and North Texas. That’s quite the road trip of the southwest.
Northern Illinois: For those of you who say that the Huskies don’t make sense playing Mountain West football, you may be in luck.
The entire top ten of NIU’s most-played opponents lie outside of the MWC. What is the highest conference school on their list? UNLV, coming in at 27.
So, while they are not in the MAC anymore, it looks as if fans will still get their fill of Huskies-MAC football.
North Dakota State: The Bison are the most interesting case to study when bringing up this act.
Making the move to FBS, their top ten, of course, consists of FCS schools. Feels a bit backwards, no?
From a personal point of view, I would like to see NDSU keep playing the Jackrabbits of SDSU, but this will surely be a scheduling matter to monitor.
San Jose State: With SDSU and Fresno State leaving town, the Aztecs are now the face of the Mountain West when it comes to California.
Their top ten reflects that as well. Stanford, Fresno State, Cal-Berkley and San Diego State are all littered amongst their list, along with schools like Arizona State and Utah State.
We can’t forget about their third all-time opponent, the Pacific University Tigers, a program that went dark in 1995.
Nevada: If it weren’t for the escapees to the PAC-12, the Wolfpack would be in a great spot.
Five new PAC-12 programs are on Nevada’s list: Fresno State, Boise State, Utah State, Colorado State and San Diego State.
The one outlier? Louisiana Tech. Who comes in at #10. They have not played since 2011, but who says no to the Bulldogs coming west to Reno?
Hawaii: Last but not least, we have the Rainbow Warriors.
Similar to Nevada, Hawaii will need to look to schedule PAC-12 programs. Fresno State, SDSU and Colorado State all find spots on their list.
Outside of the PAC trio, only BYU stands out amongst a scattering of Mountain West programs.
Even if the list was long, I don’t think convincing programs to fly to Hawaii in late fall should be a hard sell.
