What NCAA Conference Realignment Should Look Like

Aug 30, 2014; Colorado Springs, CO, USA; General view of a Mountain West emblem on Falcon Stadium before the game between the Nicholls State Colonels and the Air Force Falcons. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Mountain West (MWC)

It is about time that the Mountain West Conference become the power conference it would be if the top teams from that region all came together. That would make for a very powerful conference on the level of some of the other Power Five conferences.

Colorado State, Nevada, Fresno State, BYU, and Utah State have very solid football programs. Boise State and Utah have been powerhouses at that level, with the Utes now succeeding in a Power Five conference as a result. And Colorado is a major program going through a down spell that could easily come back.

That makes up eight teams who could be a threat to the top teams in college football any given year, which makes as many teams as any of these power conferences. And it is not like UNLV, San Jose State, Wyoming, and New Mexico are not capable of fielding solid teams at different times. They would just alternate among being the cupcake teams in the conference every year.

Anyway, this collection of teams would make up quite a few rivalries. The two Colorado schools and three Utah schools were all meant to be rivals with each other, and many rivalries already exist between them, along with rivalries between Wyoming and those schools. That makes for a perfect Eastern Division.

On the other side, Fresno State, San Diego State, and San Jose State is already a natural three-way rivalry in California, and Boise State has been rivals with them too. Add in Nevada and UNLV, and you have a great in-state rivalry in Nevada along with remnants of the old WAC rivalries. This is a perfect mash-up of teams. Let’s take a look at what it means for the Pac-12, the other conference out west.

Next: Pac-12