The Mountain West Conference for NCAA football will undergo drastic changes after the upcoming 2022 season.
In May, the conference announced that they’ll be scrapping the two-division format starting in the 2023 season. The conference is currently split into two divisions — the “Mountain” and the “West” divisions. The Mountain Division consists of Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, New Mexico, Utah State and Wyoming. The West Division features Fresno State, Hawaiʻi, Nevada, UNLV, San Diego and San Jose State.
Under the new format, the two teams with the highest winning percentage in the Mountain West will play for the conference championship.
“Our membership has been working on concepts since last summer, as part of our strategic planning for the future of the Mountain West,” Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson said following the announcement. “A single-division approach provides maximum flexibility to adapt the Conference schedule as the landscape continues to evolve, while also allowing member institutions to play each other more frequently.”
At a later date, the Mountain West Conference will announce all of the details regarding a schedule model as well as tie breaking procedures.
With college football season inching closer, now is a good time for fans to check out the season betting odds at the sportsbooks in different states. For instance, new customers in The Copper State can take advantage of the many Arizona sportsbook promo codes.
There, Caesars is offering customers a risk-free bet of up to $1,500, and BetMGM is offering a risk-free wager of up to $1,000. Fubo is also offering a $1,000 risk-free bet plus one free month of fuboTV.
Earlier this month, DraftKings released the win totals and lines for each of the 12 Mountain West Conference teams. The Boise State Broncos lead the way with 9.5 wins.
Utah State won the 2021 Mountain West Conference Championship Game last season, soundly defeating the San Diego State Aztecs 46-13. Since the current format was introduced in 2013, the Broncos have won the most conference championships (2014, 2017 and 2019).
The 2022 Mountain West Conference games will commence on Aug. 27. There are four games scheduled for that date: UConn at Utah State, Wyoming at Illinois, Vanderbilt at Hawaii and Nevada at New Mexico State.
The final slate of regular season games before the championship game will run on Nov. 26: Air Force at San Diego State, New Mexico at Colorado State, Utah State at Boise State, Wyoming at Fresno State, Hawai’i at San Jose State and Nevada at UNLV. The Conference Championship Game is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 3.
Following The Footsteps Of Pac-12
The major announcement from the Mountain West Conference came just days after the Pac-12 Conference announced that they too were getting rid of the divisional format.
The change from Pac-12 was implemented after the NCAA Division 1 Council decided to ease restrictions regarding the conference championship game participants. The voting decision paved the way for each conference to come up with their own ways of deciding who would play in their respective championship games.
Unlike the Mountain West Conference, however, the drastic changes for the Pac-12 will take place immediately. Beginning this upcoming season, there will be no more divisional alignment for the Pac-12 Conference. And like the Mountain West, the conference title game will be played by the two teams with the best winning percentage.
The Pac-12 featured the “North Division”, which consisted of California, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, Washington and Washington State. The “South” division featured Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah, UCLA and USC.
Utah won the final Pac-12 Championship Game under the divisional format, defeating Oregon 38-10 in the big game.
The 2022 Pac-12 season will open up on Sept. 1, with Northern Arizona visiting the inner-state rival Arizona State (10:00 p.m. EST). On Friday, the Colorado Buffaloes will play host to the TCU Horned Frogs (10:00 p.m. EST).
One game you’ll want to circle on your calendar: The Oregon Ducks’ road game against the defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs on Sept. 3 (3:30 p.m. EST).
Sept. 3 will also see UCLA host Bowling Green, Arizona at San Diego State, UC Davis at California, Rice at USC, Utah at Florida, Colgate at Stanford, Idaho at Washington State, Boise State at Oregon State and Kent State at Washington.
The final slate of regular season games will run on the Nov. 25-26 weekend. 2022 Pac-12 season will conclude on Dec. 2, with the championship game taking place at Allegiant Stadium (home of the Las Vegas Raiders) in Paradise, Nevada.
