The hardest league to win on the road in will live up to its reputation (aka UNLV will win MWC Tourney)

Thursday – First Round

1 San Diego St. vs 8 Boise St. - Boise St. has been rather bad away from home this season. On a neutral floor, this won't be pretty.

4 Colorado St. vs 5 TCU – TCU has been a pest all season at home. They aren't at home and Colorado St. desperately needs a win, at least in this game for its NCAA Tournament hopes.

2 New Mexico vs 7 Air Force – Replace Boise St. from the first game with Air Force and that will be the result.

3 UNLV vs 6 Wyoming – We just saw this game in the same building last weekend. And it didn't end well for Wyoming, just as this one will not.

Friday – Semifinals

1 San Diego St. vs 4 Colorado St. - San Diego St. is safely in the NCAA Tournament field. Colorado St. is not. The Rams will have more motivation and will get the upset win against an Aztec team looking ahead a little bit.

2 New Mexico vs 3 UNLV – Nobody beats UNLV in Vegas this year. Though the ugly blowout New Mexico laid on the Rebels in the The Pit makes me at least pause, I don't think New Mexico can replicate that in Las Vegas.

Saturday – Final

3 UNLV vs 4 Colorado St. - Colorado St. will be playing with house money if it indeed is in the final on Saturday. Good thing because if they are in this game and UNLV is indeed the opponent, I expect the Rams to get run off the floor, especially after what happened in Fort Collins last week.

Questions for the Mountain West Tournament

Any potential bid thieves?

Colorado St. is a bubble team capable of winning this thing. Further down, virtually everyone except Boise St. beat everyone at home. That confidence means anyone below the locks is a potential bid thief, if somebody can knock UNLV out of this thing.

Should the tournament be held on a team's home floor?

Absolutely. Is it an advantage for UNLV? Yes. That said, doubling the attendance throughout the tournament compared to when it was in Denver is a nice thing and its not like the other schools are shut out of tickets. When BYU was still in this league it traditionally brought a ton of fans. Heck, the 2007 final was only about a 60/40 split between UNLV and BYU fans.

How many bids for the league?

Four. If Colorado St. beats San Diego St. that will lock a fourth team in whether that be the Rams themselves or a bid thief from the other side of the bracket.

College Basketball Conference Previews – Mountain West

Team Capsules are in order of predicted finish. Records are current as of the begging of the day on Thursday December 16

San Diego St. - 11-0, Quality wins at Gonzaga and Cal and vs St. Mary's and Wichita St.

The Aztecs are led by the rare NBA prospect running through the Mountain West, Kawhi Leonard. He is just one rebound on the season from averaging a double-double and the difference he makes in the lineup is immense. Witness the close game with Cal Poly over the weekend when Leonard didn't play. With Leonard in the lineup, only Gonzaga has eve been close to the Aztecs. In addition to Leonard, the Aztecs have three others averaging double figures in scoring and the team from top to bottom is the most athletic in the Mountain West.

UNLV – 9-2, Quality wins over Wisconsin and Virginia Tech, Bad loss to UC Santa Barbara

Don't pay any attention to the loss against UCSB. The Rebels have one or two games like that every season where they outplay the opposition but can't shoot straight and lose. Normally it happens in conference play, but this season they got one out of the way a bit earlier. This team is a veteran squad and they will get it figured out despite a very disheartening last three halves of basketball after leading Louisville at the half. That said, the Rebels need to figure it out quick with a trip to Kansas St. ahead. Even if they don't have it all back in working order by that game, they should still be in very good shape for an NCAA Tourney bid.

BYU – 10-0, Quality wins over South Florida, St. Mary's and Arizona (by blowout)

The Cougars are definitely good again, but they have been tested by some teams that aren't as good as usual. UCLA will be yet another of those team this week. Jimmer Fredette is the best pure shooter in college basketball, but he alone won't be enough to beat San Diego St., a much more athletic team or UNLV, a team that matches up very well with the Cougars. Nonetheless, the NCAA Tournament is likely again before BYU vacates the Mountain West.

New Mexico – 7-1, Quality win over Arizona St., Loss was blowout at Cal

Lobos seem to be doing a good job replacing Darrington Hobson, last season's conference player of the year. Other than the two games mentioned against Pac-10 teams, we haven't seen the Lobos play any team with much of a pulse. We will learn much more about this team and if they are a real contender for an at-large tourney berth during a three-game stretch starting next week against Colorado, Texas Tech and Dayton, all away from home.

TCU – 7-4, Quality wins over Houston, USC and Texas Tech, Bad losses to Rider and Northern Iowa

The Horned Frogs have been all over the map so far this season and it all has to do with a very inconsistent offense. In each of the seven wins, TCU has scored at least 74 points while not getting past 61 in any of the four losses. They also need to do a better job of rebounding getting beaten on the boards in three of the four losses and getting absolutely hammered on the glass (-15) in the blowout loss to Nebraska. This team is not a tournament team, but it will likely win a couple of games against the teams in front of them while giving those games back to the bottom end of the league.

Utah – 6-3, No Quality wins, no bad losses

The Utes are nothing if not consistent. Michigan, Utah St. and Oral Roberts are the three best teams they played and Utah lost to them all. The other six are not in that same class and the Utes have beaten all of them. That is the sign of a well-coached but talent-deficient roster. In fact, once you get beyond Will Clyburn and Josh Watkins, nobody else on the team can score at all. Against the better teams on the schedule with decent athletes and defensive stoppers, that is a problem and it will certainly be a problem against the top four in this league.

Colorado St. - 4-3, no quality wins, bad loss to Sam Houston St.

The Rams were supposed to take the step forward and get near the top four in the league this season. While there is still time for coach Tim Miles and his team to do that, it doesn't look good so far. In fact, Colorado St. looks like a mirror of Utah thus far: two scorers (Andy Ogide and Travis Franklin) and nobody else that can be counted on for any offense whatsoever. With that in mind, this team is not good enough on defense or on the boards to overcome the lack of a 3^rd scoring option.

Wyoming – 4-6, no quality wins, littered with bad losses

The Cowboys are a bad basketball team. They can't score (under 70 points per game) and share the ball even worse (just 10.1 assists per game) while being unable to defend at the high level needed to overcome that. If they beat any team in the top four, that will cost a seed line or two when it comes to Selection Sunday.

Air Force – 6-2, No quality wins, no real bad losses all things considered

The Falcons just don't have the talent and aren't likely to ever have the talent to compete in the Mountain West on a consistent basis. The great run of a few years ago was the combination of the right coach at the right time in a down league where normal powers BYU, UNLV and New Mexico were all playing well below historical levels. Considering where these guys are headed after school, I hope they can win a few games, but it doesn't look likely (other than against Wyoming and maybe Colorado St. or TCU).

Off-field Issues Championship Week Part 1 – TCU to the Big East Winners and Losers

Earlier this week, TCU moved to the Big East in all sports, leaving the Mountain West behind. The winners and losers in this whole deal.

Winners

TCU – Obviously, TCU now has an auto-bid into the BCS. They win just with that before you get into the money angle with the team set to make a lot more money from the Big East's better tv contract than it was ever going to make in the sparsely populated Mountain West. Also, while still likely locked out of the national title game in seasons such as this one and last year, it was as recent as 2007 that West Virginia was one win away from a shot at the national title with a loss on its resume and South Florida was ranked number two in the BCS. At the very least, TCU now wins any tiebreakers with Boise St.

Other Big East football schools – The rest of the Big East can rest easier. With TCU in the fold, the auto-bid is a lot less likely to be taken away from the league.

The BCS – Score another for the BCS. By the time everything is done shifting, it looks like all the potential threats to BCS teams winning the national title every season except Boise St. will be in the BCS leagues. Since the ACC raid on the Big East, Louisville, Cincinnati, South Florida, Utah and now TCU have been promoted.

Losers

Mountain West – This is obvious. The Mountain West has now lost its three bell-weather football programs in a very short span. Now the league is a better WAC. I still wonder if this league would have attained BCS status if it had stayed in its 16-team incarnation or expanded to just 12 instead of 16 back in the mid-90s.

Big East basketball – TCU is a drain on basketball. They drag numbers down and with only a certain number of conference games, they take some of the repeat games off the schedule that tv loves so much.

Boise St. - The Broncos left the WAC with the understanding at the time that BYU and TCU would be in the league (Utah was already on the way to the Pac-10). Now none are there and while they are eventually bringing the top of the WAC with them to form a better a league than the one they are in now, it still won't be one worthy of an automatic BCS bid.

Mountain West Power Rankings - Week 3

Because this blog is located in Las Vegas in the middle of Mountain West territory, we cater in some areas to those people. You will see more of this once we hit basketball season, but along the way, some love needs to be shown this underrated league. Hence, every week I will post conference power rankings in the league for your enjoyment.

In these rankings, there is a mix of past results and projections being taken into account.

Utah – I believe the Utes are only slightly behind TCU and the home game later this season will allow them to make the gap up. That said, the JV portion of the schedule is really getting boring at this point.

TCU – The Frogs are looking like they did in October and November last year when they were obliterating everyone. Only Air Force and Utah can even hope to challenge them this season.

Air Force – The Falcons looked very good at Oklahoma and had a legit chance to win the game. This is a very scary team with a very balanced running game and an underrated, scrappy defense.

BYU – Yes the Cougars have looked awful in their last two games and th Washington win doesn't look very good right now, but they are still better than any of the dregs in this league. San Diego St. could challenge them, but the Aztecs are a year away from being able to handle the challenges that BYU presents.

San Diego St. - Make a tackle guys and all would be well. Should have finished off Missouri.

Wyoming – Got housed by Boise St., but that is to be expected. Week 3 of the early season death march awaits with Air Force on Saturday.

UNLV – Bombed at Idaho and looking terrible. Only being in the game at halftime against Wisconsin is keeping them from being considered with New Mexico and Colorado St.

New Mexico – Yes the Lobos have bee awful, but at least all three games have been against major conference or ranked teams. Nobody expected a win or even a close game in any of these games anyway.

Colorado St. - The offense is putrid. The defense isn't much better. Getting blown out by Miami (OH) is not a good thing. Nor is carrying a 12 game losing streak since starting 3-0 and getting some fringe top 25 consideration last season.

Mountain West Power Rankings - Week 2

While this blog covers the national college football scene, it is, on some level a Mountain West, SEC and Pac-10 based blog. Hence, we have this post, the first conference Power Rankings of the season, starting with the Mountain West. Note that these rankings contain quite a bit of projection in them because it is so early in the season and may disagree with where I have teams ranked in my top 25.

1. Utah (2-0 overall, 1-0 in league play) – The Utes stomped UNLV and now continue with the easy portion of the schedule though they traditionally haven't played very well at New Mexico (even to 2008 undefeated team struggled for awhile there against a bad Lobo squad)

2. TCU (2-0) – Ranked below Utah here because I don't believe they will win at Utah this season. Simple as that. Frogs are the most talented team though

3. Air Force (2-0, 1-0) – Finally got the BYU monkey off their back. This week's game against Oklahoma represents a nothing to lose, everything to gain situation. Win and jump into the national rankings easily. Lose and nobody really cares since it was expected. Get blown out and BYU still forms the baseline for where you are perceived in the conference after beating them last week.

4. BYU (1-1, 0-1) – The brutal early schedule continues for the Cougars. First Washington, then at Air Force and now at Florida St. Not good for a team with a quarterback controversy in full force. On the plus, still way more talented than any of the others ranked below them here.

5. San Diego St. (2-0) – A good start to the season, but nobody really knows much about them. Nicholls St. and New Mexico St. have a way of keeping us from learning about a team.

6. Wyoming (1-1) – Good luck for the next few weeks against this schedule. You will need it Cowboys. At this point, surviving to the San Diego St. game at the end of October with bowl hopes intact would be an accomplishment.

7. UNLV (0-2, 0-1) – It hasn't been a good start for the Rebels against a really difficult schedule. Wisconsin and Utah are ranked highly for a reason and while this weeks opponent, Idaho, isn't nearly as good as those team are (see the Vandals loss to Nebraska as evidence of that), they were a bowl team a year ago that UNLV must play on the road.

8. New Mexico (0-2) – It has been as bad a start as possible for New Mexico having given up more than a point per minute. On the plus side Oregon is a national title contender and Texas Tech is really good (an underrated) so maybe there is some hope to win a few games soon (UNLV, UTEP and New Mexico St. are all on the slate before the middle of October and while there is no way the Lobos win them all, one or maybe even two is possible)

9. Colorado St. (0-2) – This team is headed towards smoking crater territory. Nevada scored on every possession except the kneel down at the end of the game last week and Colorado who smoked these guys two weeks ago was incinerated at Cal. Also, there is no offense to speak of. 9 points in two game won't cut it anywhere.

College Football Preview - Mountain West

The band as we currently know has one last season together before Utah departs. At this point we don't know the status of the WAC teams other than Boise St. for 2011 as they are going to be embroiled in litigation for awhile to get out of thee WAC before 2012.

For this year, it is all about the big three though, one last time, and can anybody manage to beat them. Considering that BYU, Utah and TCU haven't lost a game to the rest of the league since early in the 2007 season (when TCU took an odd loss against Wyoming and Utah was stunningly shut out by UNLV of all teams), it doesn't look good for the rest of the league (and next year with Boise St. replacing Utah looks just as dire).

At the other end of the league, UNLV is starting over with a new coach after five years of failure under Mike Sanford (odd wins over Arizona St. in 2008 and Utah in 2007 notwithstanding), New Mexico begins attempting to right the ship after a total disaster under first year coach Mike Locksley, Colorado St. shows which is the real Colorado St. under third year coach Steve Fairchild and San Diego St. continues to dig out from the morass under Brady Hoke.

In the middle tier, Wyoming attempts to maintain its standing while Air Force has its best team in awhile and believes it can crack the top three.

Team Previews (in order of predicted finish)

Utah (10-2, 7-1) - Conference champs by virtue of a predicted head-to-head win over TCU, Utah is going to be a factor all year on the national scene and in fact I predict the Utes will be 9-0 and ranked in the top 5 when they head to Notre Dame in mid-November. Despite all the rosy thoughts there and a veteran team, I don't think they get the job done in South Bend. With no BCS bid to play for and the conference title locked up, Utah loses to a more motivated BYU team in the finale. Nonetheless, it will still be a successful conference title winning season as quarterback Jordan Wynn gets valuable experience and wins in advance of going into the Pac-10 next season.

TCU (10-2, 7-1) - TCU returns nearly the entire offense off the best offense in the league last year and Gary Patterson always has a strong defense so many are not worried about that side of the ball, but I can't help but think last season was the year for perfection. The defense loses seven starters from last season and I think it could be a problem early as the Horned Frogs will be facing explosive offenses from Oregon St., Baylor and SMU in a tougher than it looks non-conference schedule. I think there is a loss in there even though TCU will be favored in each of those games. I think the same with the conference schedule. TCU has had a habit of choking in close late season games with everything on the line. Last year was the exception but there were no close games until the bowl game loss to Boise St. after October 10. The road trip to Utah in early November looks especially perilous and I expect another close loss along the lines of the blown game there two seasons ago.

College Football Preview - Week 1 viewers guide

As a college football junkie, right now is a major time of the year. We find out when and what channels we get to watch our favorite teams play on the first three weeks of the season. Today its what games from week 1 we should be watching in each telecast window from both an SEC and Pac-10/Mountain West perspective early on.

Thursday September 2 - Opening day
Games of note
Southern Miss @ South Carolina, 6:30 CT, 4:30 PT, ESPN
Pittsburgh @ Utah, 7:30 CT, 5:30 PT, Versus
USC @ Hawaii, 10 CT, 8PT, ESPN

SEC fans should watch Southern Miss @ South Carolina then USC @ Hawaii if inclined to watch anything else. Pac-10/MWC fans should watch Pittsburgh @ Utah if able then flip to USC @ Hawaii after that game ends if USC hasn't already blown Hawaii out.

Pros and Cons of Boise St. in the Mountain West

It appears likely the Mountain West will be the first conference to expand in the new expansion wars. Boise St. appears to be the target of Mountain West love and I have to say it looks like a very good idea for both parties.

The case for expansion with Boise St.

1. Could get the Mountain West an automatic BCS bid for the next cycle - The next BCS auto-bid cycle starts in 2014. The evaluation period is currently ongoing and the Mountain West currently is good enough in two of the three categories (top ranked team and total teams in final BCS rankings) while lagging in the other (overall computer rankings). Boise St.'s inclusion would put the Mountain West in a very strong position in the two categories where the conference qualifies and would bring the other close. And before anyone argues otherwise, Boise St.'s WAC results from the last two years and this year would count towards Mountain West statistics because the evaluation in the total performance of teams in the league after the 2012 season no matter their league affiliation during that time.

2. Gives existing top 25 programs another big game - Utah, TCU, BYU and Boise St. themselves all want to compete for national titles. All of them have been ranked in the top 10 at some point recently and TCU, Boise St. and Utah have been in the top 5 over the last two years. Another highly ranked opponent in the league will only help in the eyes of voters and in the computer profile.

3. Doesn't really hurt basketball all that much - While not a power in basketball, Boise St. isn't terrible. They are likely to be a middle of the pack team in the Mountain West meaning they won't kill the RPI of the league most years.

4. Likely allows for new television contract to be negotiated - While the mtn. network is here to stay, who's to say a Mountain West with its current membership plus Boise St. couldn't get a much better tv deal with ESPN or somebody else. Even if there isn't any improvement in distribution from the Versus-CBS College Sports setup, there is likely to be more money for all.

Issues with expansion

1. Screws up the schedule - Ask Pac-10 coaches what they think of the nine-game conference schedule and the response usually goes something like this: " It sucks." That is even with most of those schools playing non-conference deathmarches year after year. Either a ninth conference game must be added or each team will miss one other team on the schedule. The same applies for college basketball. 18 league games is a lot.

2. More mouths to feed - If the league doesn't get into the BCS, the pie all of sudden is the same size and being divided 10 ways instead of nine. That hurts.

3. More losses by powers hurts rankings - The cult of the undefeated would really hurt this league. If, for example Boise St., BYU, TCU and Utah all go 11-1 and 10-2 (certainly possible) in 2011 and a Conference USA team like Houston runs the table with three wins over BCS league schools along the way, guess which team is going to the BCS? If you said Houston, you are exactly right. That could be a problem before the automatic bid kicks in (if it does).

4. Boise, Idaho doesn't really help recruiting - Idaho isn't a population center that produces tons of players and many don't want to have to go there, even if only every other year and play in the cold. Recruiting wouldn't really suffer, but it certainly wouldn't be helped.

Final Verdict

This is a match made to happen. WAC schools would certainly be happy to be rid of the Boise St. hegemony in football while the Mountain West gets closer to its ultimate goal. Also, Boise makes more money and the Mountain West becomes appointment television in football, much to the chagrin of the Pac-10.