The time has come. The 2025 season is upon us. We are past the time of watch lists and preseason awards and have entered the time of bowl projections. Our team at Mountain West Connection will be releasing our bowl projections each week. Our first round of projections can be seen below and will likely change as the season progresses. Read our projections below and leave your own in the comments.
Mike
Los Angeles Bowl: UNLV
Hawaii Bowl: Hawaii
Potato Bowl: Air Force
New Mexico Bowl: Boise State
Arizona Bowl:
San Jose State
Guaranteed Rate Bowl: Colorado State
College Football Playoff: N/A
Other Bowl (TBD): N/A
After every team has played a game, I make a ton of changes. UNLV is a shaky 2-0, but 2-0 means they jump into the LA Bowl. Hawaii came back down to earth but they should still have a good season. The Falcons stand pat as I’ll need to see them against a non-FCS opponent. I moved Colorado State into the Rate Bowl after a pretty strong showing against Washington. As for Boise State and San Jose State, they both slide down to lower bowls following their disappointing losses. However, they will need to turn things around if they want to stay in these projections.
Zach
Los Angeles Bowl: UNLV
Hawaii Bowl: Hawaii
Potato Bowl: Colorado State
New Mexico Bowl: Wyoming
Arizona Bowl: Air Force
Guaranteed Rate Bowl: Boise State
College Football Playoff: N/A
Other Bowl (TBD): Fresno State
I’m not feeling very confident in Fresno State or UNLV and this week’s projections are a reflection of that. For now, I have Boise State and San Jose State in the top two spots.
Jeff
Los Angeles Bowl: UNLV
Hawaii Bowl: Hawaii
Potato Bowl: Boise State
New Mexico Bowl: Air Force
Arizona Bowl: San Jose State
Guaranteed Rate Bowl: Colorado State
College Football Playoff: N/A
Other Bowl (TBD): Wyoming
Honestly, who knows how things are going to shake up. At this point I think there are five or six teams that can compete. Maybe Boise State’s week one loss was just a blip. I don’t think we will have any real answers until October.
Chase
Los Angeles Bowl: UNLV
Hawaii Bowl: Boise State
Potato Bowl: Colorado State
New Mexico Bowl: New Mexico
Arizona Bowl: San Diego State
Guaranteed Rate Bowl: San Jose State
College Football Playoff: N/A
Other Bowl (TBD): Air Force
Well, it seems I have slightly jumped the gun on the MWC, as this conference looks awful right now. No one is going to make the playoffs here. UNLV may end up being the closest to that, but I don’t think they will beat out Tulane or Western Kentucky for a G6 spot, and any more losses will loom large with the game against Idaho State still in everyone’s minds. I dropped Hawai’i from my bowl projections, because losing that badly to a projected-to-be mid-tier Arizona team is flatly unacceptable, and leaves my only question being: how bad is Stanford? Jumping into my predictions is New Mexico, who really surprised me with their performance against a top-15 team in Michigan. If the Lobos can keep this up, they may find themselves forgetting who Bronco Mendenhall even is before long. I still think seven teams make bowls by consistently beating up on each other, but reminiscent of the old Pac-12, that isn’t a great thing as far as making it anywhere of note is concerned.
