Mountain West Title Game May Not Feature Mountain vs. West Champions
A division less Mountain West season?
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Two best teams overall?
The Mountain West football schedule this year is already looking very weird with Air Force playing Army and Navy, plus the rumblings that BYU and Boise State could play this year instead of a league game.
By some teams playing eight league games, others playing seven, and the real fact that games will be missed and not made up. It would not be shocking if teams play as few as six games.
During the conferences media call, commissioner Craig Thompson said that division play is the goal but the Dec. 19 conference championship game could be played between the teams with the best winning percentage.
Craig Thompson: Mountain West title game could feature top two with highest winning percentage but divison play is still the goal.
— Mountain West Wire (@MWCwire) September 25, 2020
This also could mean that a schedule that is put forward may not just be a facsimile of the conference slate that was put in place if 2020 were to be a typical season.
The way Thompson said this during the call, it seems that going with no division is a last resort, and who knows if it will be an in-season choice or one they make before games are played. If the league were smart, they would make a decision and stick with it and not change the rules just because some teams play five games and others are able to play eight.
The rules need to be established beforehand and with Thompson fully admitting some games won’t be played, then perhaps going without divisions for this year is the way to go and take the teams with the best record.
The conference also will need to have tie-breakers established because there could be a scenario where there’s a 6-1 team vs. a 6-2 team but the team with a two losses beat the team with one loss. Even if tiebreakers and winning percentage is in place that would be a difficult choice to pick the team with a better winning percentage just because they played one less game.
In a year where things are already crazy, the conference should just scrap divisions and let the top two teams play for the title. The schedule can still be mostly set up on divisional play but just let the best two teams overall fight it out for the conference championship.
