Seventeen Power Five Teams Are On The Schedule
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How many wins?
The Mountain West faces 17 teams from a Power Five conference and there will be wins, losses, and probably a few blowouts along the way. Our staff made some predictions for which P5 games are likely wins and the overall record.
There are 17 games against Power Five games on the schedule.
Saturday, August 27
Wyoming at Illinois
Vanderbilt at Hawai‘i
Saturday, September 3
Boise State at Oregon State
Colorado State at Michigan
Utah State at Alabama
Arizona at San Diego State
Saturday, September 10
Colorado at Air Force
Oregon State at Fresno State
Hawai‘i at Michigan
San José State at Auburn
UNLV at Cal
Saturday, September 17
Colorado State at Washington State
Fresno State at USC
Nevada at Iowa
San Diego State at Utah
Saturday, September 24
New Mexico at LSU
Saturday, October 22
UNLV at Notre Dame
Our staff go through these games and the most common record was 6-11 and there was a range of some picking a 3-14 record and a very bullish writer predicting a winning record for the Mountain West at 9-8.
The most likely top choice for a win was a tie with Boise State over Oregon State, San Diego State over Arizona, and Air Force over Colorado.
There are also some clearly highly unlikely wins that included UNLV at Notre Dame, New Mexico at LSU, and Nevada at Iowa.
The most intriguing games that would be an upset but not 100% shocking. Those two are Fresno State vs. USC and San Diego State against Utah.
Both of those games are on the road which are difficult. The Aztecs vs. Utes is a mirror image of each other with teams that want to play a lot of really good defenses and offenses that are solid on the ground. Each of these teams’ passing games have never been elite, yet Utah coaches say they are going to air it out more.
Bulldogs at Trojans is an in-state battle and the USC defense is very suspect and Fresno State being led by Jake Haener slinging the ball to Jalen Cropper at the very least will make USC nervous in a likely shootout.
The conference has done well vs. the Pac-12 over the past few years and there are chances for wins against Washington State, Oregon State and maybe even Cal if UNLV can put things together.
