Week 7 of the 2026 season is here, and we have our first week consisting of five Mountain West Conference games. Every team in the conference will play this week, making this arguably the most important week of the season in the conference so far. This week will see largely a slate of overwhelming favorites almost certainly taking care of business, but it will also give us yet another clash of conference title contenders—though not from the teams one would have expected just a week ago. Let’s get
right into the MW slate in Week 7.
Northern Illinois Huskies (0-5) at Wyoming Cowboys (3-3)
Date and Time: Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026, 1:30 p.m. MDT, 2:30 p.m. CDT
Network: CW
Spread: WYO -7.5
Preview: This week kicks off with a game featuring the conference’s lone winless team, as the NIU Huskies travel to Laramie to take on Wyoming. The Cowboys are coming off an upset win over San Jose State, while the lowly Huskies are playing a week after a humiliating blowout home loss to an Air Force squad starting their backup QB. The Huskies currently look on their way to a winless season, especially since Wyoming is one of the worse teams they will face down the stretch in conference play.
These two teams met in a nonconference home-and-home series in 2016 and 2021, with Wyoming winning both matchups which featured a combined 167 points. This high level of offensive play is far from what we can expect from this match, however. Wyoming has only scored more than 21 points twice this season, while having given up more than 21 just twice as well. This is a low-octane, defense-oriented squad that wins games by dragging their opponents down with them. This leads me to believe that while this game will not be a traditional blowout, it will be far from competitive. Don’t worry, Huskies fans. You will have one of your best opportunities to win this season next week.
Prediction: Wyoming 24, NIU 3
UNLV Rebels (4-2) at Air Force Falcons (4-1)
Date and Time: Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026, 12:30 p.m. PDT, 1:30 p.m. MDT
Network: CBSSN
Spread: AF -1.5
Preview: With UNLV’s historic win over NDSU last week, the Mountain West Championship race has split wide open entering the home stretch of the season. With that fact in mind, this matchup has become a surprising heavyweight bout; perhaps for the first time in the history of this game. After UNLV won the first game of the series in 1981, the Falcons went on to win 18 of the next 23 matchups with the Rebels from 1996 to 2022, doing so by a single-digit margin just four times. With that being said, the Rebels have won the last two games by one-score margins, including last year’s 51-48 thriller that ended when Air Force missed a field goal as time expired.
UNLV’s offense will be able to move the ball in this game, that is not the concern for me. What concerns me is whether UNLV’s defense will be able to stop Air Force’s offense. This may seem a bit bizarre to wonder about a defense that held the conference’s best team to just seven points, but even that result brought some issues. The Rebels allowed the Bison to rush for 176 yards on 39 carries, a rather efficient 4.5 YPC. This was despite the fact that QB Nathan Hayes could not stop making mistakes (10 of 22 passes either incomplete or intercepted), which made it easier for the Rebels to focus on stopping the run. This, of course, is not the kind of performance you want to have entering a game against the nation’s second-best rushing offense.
Air Force’s offense is going to make UNLV’s life miserable all day. UNLV’s offense is likely going to turn this game into yet another shootout, but the Falcons’ superior defense and time-eating offense will give them just enough to hang on for a win. Regardless of scenario, this should end up being the best game of the week, hands down.
Prediction: Air Force 34, UNLV 31
Nevada Wolf Pack (2-3) at North Dakota State Bison (5-1)
Date and Time: Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026, 4:00 p.m. PDT, 6:00 p.m. CDT
Network: The CW
Spread: NDSU -14.5
Preview: A week after taking their first loss as an FBS team, North Dakota State comes back home to host Nevada in their second MW home game. They still have not lost a home game as an FBS team and are even bringing their gold jerseys—which they are 41-0 all-time in—to this game in an effort to keep things that way. Nevada, meanwhile, is coming off an ugly win against a UTEP team missing their starting quarterback. This was a much-needed win, but was also one that doesn’t give me much confidence in the future of the team against real competition such as the Bison.
With Nathan Hayes having been exposed as a QB without much to offer in terms of carrying a team, one would hope Nevada’s lauded defense would be able to take advantage of what UNLV put on film last week. After all, Nevada has the third-best passing defense in the Mountain West. Unfortunately for Pack fans, that fact is largely hiding the reason why their passing total is so good: their atrocious run defense, which ranks right above UTEP and NIU in the basement of the conference. Nevada has not been able to stop the run all year, which bodes well for a team whose offense runs through star back Myles Mitchell. Even Nevada’s passing defense total looks worse when you realize they allowed Air Force to pass for nearly 100 yards in their loss to the Falcons early in the year.
All of this is to say I do not believe NDSU’s offense will be perfect, but they are also facing an opponent who can’t get out of their own way defensively to keep points off the board. This is not a good situation for a run-heavy Nevada offense going up against a Bison squad with the second-best run defense in the conference. North Dakota State should win this game easily, but I do not believe that will be what happens in this contest.
This looks to be a classic soul-crushing loss for the Wolf Pack under Jeff Choate, a game nearly identical in nature to the Pack’s loss to Boise State in 2024. Nevada will look very competitive throughout this game; perhaps even holding a lead in the second half at some point. However, yet again, a couple bad penalties, turnovers and play calls will doom them. All the while, Nevada will make Nathan Hayes look like the second coming of Peyton Manning down the stretch. Last week’s win has changed nothing about my opinion of what this team is. Jeff Choate is running out of chances to prove he can lead his men to victory in close games, and I do not believe the Bison will oblige to give their opponents that victory.
Prediction: North Dakota State 27, Nevada 23
San Jose State Spartans (3-3) at UTEP Miners (1-5)
Date and Time: Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026, 6:00 p.m. PDT, 7:00 p.m. MDT
Network: MW+
Spread: SJSU -7.5
Preview: San Jose State goes on the road a week after a humiliating home loss to Wyoming, taking on the closest thing to a free win on the road that any team could hope for: the UTEP Miners. The Miners were without their starting QB last week, looking absolutely lifeless in a 17-point loss to a Nevada team that had not won a game in over a month. UTEP is simply a terrible team and is one that the Spartans need to handle if they wish to reach a bowl game.
These two teams are old WAC foes, having played 10 times in the past for a 5-5 split between the teams. This game looks to be an easy SJSU victory, but in reality, so did last week’s game against the Cowboys. The Spartans are 2-1 on the road this season, winning both games by one score. One would hope they would win by much more against a team like the Miners, but if the spread is anything to go off of, they likely will not.
UTEP’s ability to keep this game close depends on whether or not EJ Colson can return from his concussion this week. For this prediction, I will assume that he does start, in which case the Spartans will have some trouble throughout this game. Luke Weaver will throw his standard pick or two in the second half to give the Miners some hope of victory, but Jabari Bates’ dominance and Weaver’s own skill will forbid UTEP from getting their first MW conference win, sending the Miners straight towards a season where they will, at best, win three games.
Prediction: San Jose State 27, UTEP 17
New Mexico Lobos (4-1) at Hawaii Rainbow Warriors (1-5)
Date and Time: Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026, 4:30 p.m. HST, 8:30 p.m. MDT
Network: FS1
Spread: UNM -14.5
Preview: Finally, we reach a Hawaii nightcap that does not start at 6:00 p.m. local time. This is because the ‘Bows have the unenviable task of hosting the New Mexico Lobos, who are fresh off of a bye week. The Lobos have outscored opponents by a combined margin of 211-53 this season, including their most recent game: a 61-7 evisceration of rival UTEP. New Mexico looks absolutely unstoppable entering this game against the Mountain West’s biggest disappointment. Hawaii would be forced to win out to make a bowl if they were to lose this game; an unthinkable outcome given all the hype they had entering the 2026 season.
To some, this kind of road matchup screams “trap game,” especially considering Hawaii has won three of the last four matchups in this series, and I believe it will look that way at first. Hawaii will most likely score first, perhaps responding with a defensive stop on the Lobos’ following drive. From then on, however, the Warriors’ pass-only offense will struggle to stay on the field against the second-best defense in the conference, while Toa Fa’avae, Scottre Humphrey and the UNM offense will go on a tear to put the game away before the fourth quarter. This game will put the Lobos just one win away from a bowl game, a goal they can achieve next week in their biggest home game in decades against NDSU.
Prediction: New Mexico 37, Hawaii 13
