Mountain West Football Conference Betting Online
Although Boise State was initially seen as the juggernaut of the Mountain West, the Broncos have only won the conference title three times in the last 10 years. The departure of Chris Petersen knocked the program down a rung, and Andy Avalos hasn’t been as successful as his predecessor Bryan Harsin. That has allowed Fresno State to level the playing field, and the Bulldogs are almost on par with the Broncos at this point.
Mountain West Conference Current Champion: Fresno State Bulldogs
Mountain West Championship Game: W 28-16 vs. Boise State
LA Bowl: W 29-6 vs. Washington State
College Football Betting Lines
Boise State +200
Fresno State +350
Air Force +430
San Diego State +750
Wyoming +1200
San Jose State +1500
UNLV +1700
Colorado State +2500
Utah State +2800
Nevada +5000
Hawaii +12000
New Mexico +15000
San Diego State has flirted with the Pac 12 for the last several months, and the Aztecs sent a notice to the conference that it intends to resign its membership in the near future. The Aztecs have yet to join the Pac 12 (or the Big 12), but it looks like this might be the last year that SDSU is in the MWC.
For years, Boise State was known for its explosive offenses, but the Broncos are now led by their defense with former linebacker Andy Avalos at the helm. Avalos has made this a defensive focused program, and we didn’t see a lot of scoring from this offense in 2022. Sophomore QB Taylen Green is an explosive dual threat option though as he ran for 10 touchdowns and threw 14 TD passes as a freshman last season.
Defending champions Fresno State are expected to take a step backwards without Jake Haener. The gritty QB was taken in the fourth round by the New Orleans Saints, and he will be replaced by UCF’s Mikey Keene. We didn’t see a lot from Keene during his time in Orlando, so its fair to consider the Broncos the favorites.
Mountain West Football Conference Format
The Mountain West Conference originally started when members of the Western Athletic Conference broke away to form their own league. At the time, the WAC was the first super-conference in the nation, consisting of 16 teams and the major players wanted to downsize. Teams came and went during a turbulent early existence. BYU left to become an independent in football, and Utah and TCU joined major conferences during realignment.
San Jose State and Utah State joined for the 2013 season after the WAC failed to support enough football programs. San Diego State and Boise State remained in the league after entertaining offers from the Big East around that time, leading to the conference’s current 12-team alignment. Two six-team divisions were formed called the Mountain and West and the league introduced a conference championship game that season. However, the MWC decided to get rid of divisions following the 2022 season after the NCAA ruled that conferences did not need divisions in order to have a championship game.
Three teams have won multiple MWC championships since the creation of the conference championship game in 2013. Fresno State won the inaugural MWC Championship Game and added titles in 2018 and 2022. San Diego State won back-to-back titles in 2015 and 2016, and Boise State won three MWC crowns in the 2010s.
BYU, TCU, and Utah are no longer in the MWC, but they are tied with Boise State and Fresno State as the most successful programs in the conference. All five teams have won four conference championships, and that says something about the programs that have been in the MWC from the outset since none of those five teams have been in the conference for all of its 22 years. Boise State is rumored to be looking to join a larger conference too, but geography is not in the Broncos’ favor.
Colorado State and San Diego State have been member schools in the MWC since its inception in 1999. The Rams and Aztecs each have three conference titles, but they have had a hard time keeping up with Fresno State and Boise State since those two schools joined from the WAC. Both the Rams and Aztecs are on the right track once again though.
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