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Mountain West Football Bowl Projections After Week 2
Boise State is in the driver’s seat for a NY6 game
Contact/Follow @JeremyMauss & @MWCwire
The Mountain West season is two-plus weeks in (thanks! Week Zero) and the bowl picture is still not anywhere to be clear to know who will play where. To be honest we are sort of throwing blindly at a dart board but making weekly picks is fun to speculate how the season will turn out.
Boise State is the clear frontrunner and now that they jumped UCF in the AP poll are the highest rated Group of Five team, but the Broncos face a ranked Oklahoma State team, on the road no less, and will have a challenge ahead of them. However, a loss will not knock the Broncos out of the running but it will hurt.
Things get murky compared to the preseason with Fresno State losing to Minnesota and Hawaii currently at 3-0, plus who the heck knows what to do with Colorado State who had a huge comeback against Arkansas for its first win of the year.
Here are the Mountain West bowl tie-ins and remember that the only true order is that the Las Vegas Bowl gets first to pick, unless a Mountain West team makes a big money game, and does not have to pick the champion either.
We were bullish saying there could be as many as eight Mountain West teams be bowl eligible and even had seven in recent predictions. We are back to a more realistic six teams being bowl eligible.
1. Las Vegas vs. Pac-12
– Famous Idaho Potato Bowl vs. MAC
– Gildan New Mexico Bowl vs. Conference USA
– Hawai’i Bowl (Hawaii if they are bowl eligible) vs. Conference USA
– NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl vs. Sun Belt (New Mexico State is a backup.
– Cheez-It Bowl (Pac-12 vs. Big 12 and this is a backup spot for the Mountain West)
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Gildan New Mexico Bowl
Saturday, December 15
2:00 p.m. ET, ESPN
Branch Field at Dreamstyle Stadium, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Conference USA vs. Mountain West
Projection: San Diego State vs. North Texas
Las Vegas Bowl
Saturday, December 15
3:30 pm. ET, ABC
Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas, Nevada
Mountain West vs. Pac-12
Projection: Fresno State vs. Colorado
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
Friday, December 21
4:00 p.m. ET, ESPN
Albertsons Stadium, Boise, Idaho
MAC vs. Mountain West
Projection: Utah State vs. Buffalo
Hawai’i Bowl
Saturday, December 22
10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN
Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, Hawaii
Conference USA vs. Mountain West
Projection: Hawai’i vs. UAB
NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl
Friday, December 28
5:30 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network
Arizona Stadium, Tucson, Arizona
Sun Belt (New Mexico State is a backup) vs. Mountain West
Projection: UNLV vs. Georgia Southern
PlayStation Fiesta Bowl
Tuesday, January 1st
1:00 p.m. ET, ESPN
University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Arizona
At-large vs. At-large
Projection: Boise State vs. Stanford
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