Boise State Football: 3 takeaways from road upset win over San Diego State
By Zach Bigalke
2. There will be no New Year’s Six berth for the Mountain West in 2017
The best possible result for Boise State is probably also the worst possible result for the Mountain West. Without a single unbeaten team any longer, the league falls further behind the American Athletic Conference in the Group of Five battle.
An undefeated season isn’t a prerequisite for landing in one of the New Year’s Six bowl games. Boise State made it in as an 11-2 champion back in 2014, but they were also stacked up against a 12-1 Marshall team that won Conference USA but played nobody of consequence out of conference.
The field doesn’t stack up as beneficially for a two-loss team to sneak in from the Group of Five. Now San Diego State is the only team left in the conference with only one loss, and the definitive nature of this stumble means that the Aztecs are going to fall out of the AP Top 25 and out of the front of the Group of Five race.
Face it, Mountain West football fans. There is going to be no big bowl payday for the league’s teams this season. Like so many other Group of Five leagues, the issue of parity means only that cannibalization will prove costly.