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Week 9 Mountain West Football Standings

Conference races are heating up.

Contact/Follow @JeremyMauss & @MWCwire

Relax, it is still early

Conference play is in full swing and there is clear separation among the top teams in the Mountain West. There six, maybe seven teams, that have a shot to win its division and compete in the conference title game.

Well, that is if you ignore ESPN’s Football Power Index. That metric gives only two teams from each division to win the divisions: Utah State and Boise State from the Mountain, and also Fresno State and San Diego State in the West. The rest of the league is given a zero percent chance to win it all.

Those are the most likely teams to make the title game, but that does not mean everyone else is eliminated. Hawaii has just one loss and still gets to play Fresno State, San Diego State, and Utah State. Granted those are all likely losses and maybe with the FPI gives the Warriors no shot to win the title.

There are other longshots like Colorado Stae and Nevada but that is all that they are: longshots waiting for 2019.

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What is more curious than just four teams in contention to win the Mountain West title is that San Diego State is given only a 2.2 percent chance of winning the entire conference. That seems low since the Aztecs have not lost a league game and still get to play Fresno State which could be considered the de facto division title game to advance to the conference championship game.

San Diego State is winning despite not having starting quarterback Christian Chapman and running back Juwan Washington. Those two injuries are the likely culprit as to why the Aztecs are given such low odds, but those key players should be back by the time they play Fresno State on Nov. 17.

Looking at ESPN’s FPI on individual matchups, the Aztecs are favorites in every game but the Bulldogs matchup. Two are considered close matchups with a 53 percent chance to win at Nevada and just a 63 percent chance to win at New Mexico.

Even with these odds below showing heavy favorites to just a few teams do not expect the conference finish to be boring. Nevada can be a thorn and maybe even Hawaii if they get things back on track. Who knows, maybe even Colorado State could sneak a win with Collin Hill being named the starting quarterback.

Also included are the projections for each team to win the conference from ESPN’s FPI.

Mountain Division

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West Division

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