Those Mountains Have Possibilities!

As it stands the Mountain West has an excellent argument to be considered one of the six best conferences in the nation. The problem with the Mountain West is two-fold: the prestige of football teams from that region of the nation lag behind the rest of the country and the conference is top heavy with very little depth.



But there are enough names in the Mountain West to strike fear into the established BCS conferences. Utah has done more for BCS busters than any other program in the nation, they were the first to get in and they pulled off the biggest win.



Though Boise State probably won the most memorable BCS game when they beat Oklahoma in overtime with the now legendary statue of liberty play, Utah beat a stronger Alabama team that had a legitimate case to be in the national championship game. But don't forget about Boise State, they will be back.



BYU, TCU, Colorado State, and Air Force round out the more respectable programs in the Mountain West. UNLV, Wyoming, San Diego State and New Mexico represent the bottom levels of the conference.



With a little help (from the WAC) this conference can not only scare the BCS conferences, I think this conference can be strong and prestigious enough to become a BCS conference. Imagine for a second if Boise State, Fresno State and Hawai'i switch conferences and join the Mountain West. This move would add quite a bit of firepower to the Mountain West's arsenal and give it much needed depth. In the perfect world some of the smaller schools like New Mexico and Wyoming would be kicked back the WAC.



No doubt this move would shatter the WAC, putting on par with the Sun Belt and MAC as the nations worst conferences. But it would make more sense to consolidate the best teams from the West and let the other fill out a minor conference. The same situation is seen with the Big Ten overshadowing the MAC and the SEC being the big, drunken brother of the redheaded stepchild Sun Belt.



As for the Mountain West becoming a BCS conference with an automatic bid, who would they replace? Nobody. There are now five BCS bowls which mean that seven automatic bids with three at-larges being the new ratio. If this proposition could ever actually happen, the Mountain West would contain every team that made a BCS bowl from a non-BCS conference.



With the rise of Boise State and Utah, and the consistant play of TCU, Fresno State, Air Force and BYU the new Mountain West could have enough names to overcome the lack of prestige and give the Mountain region a BCS conference.