Predicting the Season - Mountain West

It may be a tad early, or not, to make some predictions about the coming football season, but here goes.
Starting with the Mountain West, here's how I see the season playing out, team for team.

UNLV                 1-10 (0-8)

Minnesota             L

Arizona                 L

Cent Michigan      L

W Illinois              W

New Mexico          L

Hawaii                   L

Fresno St                L

Nevada                   L

San Jose St              L

Air Force                 L

SDSU                     L

These guys are going to suck again. Bobby Hauck will be let go and someone else can take over the dumpster fire.

Hawaii                      2-10 (1-7)

USC                         L

Oregon St                 L

Nevada                      L

Fresno St                    L

San Jose St                 L

UNLV                       W

Colorado St                L

Utah St                        L

Navy                           L

SDSU                         L

Wyoming                    L

Army                          W

Although they might be better this year, I don't know how many wins they'll put out. Last year the Warriors were never competitive, and I can't see them making any giant leap forward.

San Jose State       6-6(4-4)

Sac State          W

Stanford            L

Minnesota         L

Utah State         L

Hawaii              W

Colorado St       W

Wyoming          W

UNLV               W

SDSU                 L

Nevada                L

Navy                  W

Fresno St            L

A couple of these games could be toss ups to be honest, so the Spartans could end up with a better record than this. It's hard to tell, though, because they'll be starting out with a whole new coach, and that usually puts back a program a few years. The Spartans under Mike Macintyre were starting to get somewhere finally after...ever. A new coaching staff will certainly set them back a notch or two.

Nevada            6-6(5-3)

UCLA              L

UC Davis         W

Florida St          L

Hawaii              W

Air Force          W

SDSU                L

Boise St             L

UNLV               W

Fresno St            L

Colorado St        W

San Jose St          W

BYU                   L

Nevada has a very tough out of conference schedule this year, and probably won't get a win versus an FBS school there. Besides that, the Wolf Pack also will have a new coaching staff to get used to after the retirement of their former legendary coach. They may earn a few more wins than this, they had a very potent offense last year, but they probably won't do much better than this.

Fresno St                8-4 (6-2)

Rutgers                   L

Cal Poly                 W

Colorado                 L

Boise St                   L

Hawaii                    W

Idaho                      W

UNLV                    W

SDSU                      L

Nevada                   W

Wyoming                W

New Mexico           W

San Jose St               W

Fresno St. should still be pretty decent this year. The SDSU game could go either way, but the Bulldogs are still growing, and last years bowl loss is a big sign of that. They'll also have some close games with Colorado, Rutgers and Boise St. Derek Carr is one of the best Non-BCS QB's in the country, but they still have some growing to do.

San Diego St            9-3 (7-1) (West Winner)

E Illinois                  W

Ohio St                     L

Oregon St                 L

NMSU                     W

Nevada                    W

Air Force                  W

Fresno St                 W

New Mexico            W

San Jose St              W

Hawaii                     W

Boise St                    L

UNLV                     W

My pick to win the West Division. SDSU will take the momentum from last year and Rocky Long's solid coaching. They lose some good players, but return quite a few. They'll lose once to Boise State during the season, then again in the Conference Championship.

Wyoming                   4-8 (1-7)

Nebraska                    L

Idaho                          W

N Colorado                W

Air Force                     L

Texas St                      W

New Mexico               L

Colorado St                 L

San Jose St                  L

Fresno St                     L

Boise St                       L

Hawaii                        W

Utah St                        L

The Cowboys will probably have another mediocre year. There's a lot of talent in the MWC and Wyoming won't have that much of it at all.

Air Force                  5-7 (2-6)

Colgate                     W

Utah St                       L

Boise St                      L

Wyoming                    W

Nevada                        L

Navy                           W

SDSU                           L

Notre Dame                  L

Army                            W

New Mexico                  L

UNLV                          W

Colorado State               L

They'll win some, they'll lose some. Mainly they'll get left behind with the better teams and probably will become just shy of being bowl eligible. Which is a good thing considering last year's hammering by Rice in the Armed Forces Bowl.

Colorado St                 4-9(3-5)

Colorado                     L

Tulsa                           L

Cal Poly                     W

Alabama                      L

UTEP                          L

San Jose St                  L

Wyoming                    W

Hawaii                        W

Boise St                        L

Nevada                        L

New Mexico                L

Utah ST                       L

Air Force                     W

They play 13 games next season(from the Hawaii Exemption Rule), but that extra game probably won't help them get bowl eliglble. The Rams just need to become more consistent if they want to win more. They could be on the rise, but it might take another year to get the talent on track.

New Mexico            7-5 (4-4)

UTSA                     W

UTEP                      W

Pitt                           L

UNLV                     W

NMSU                     W

Wyoming                W

Utah St                     L

SDSU                      L

Air Force                W

Colorado St            W

Fresno St                 L

Boise St                   L

The Lobos will probably be the most improved team in the league, with Bob Davie getting them back into shape. They'll beat all the bottom teams, and probably all their non-conference games except Pitt. But their losses will come from the more talented teams in the league. This is going to be a team on the rise in the next few years.

Utah St                    8-4(7-1)

Utah                        L

Air Force                W

Weber St                 W

USC                        L

San Jose St             W

BYU                        L

Boise St                   L

New Mexico            W

Hawaii                     W

UNLV                     W

Colorado St             W

Wyoming                W

This was a very talented team last year. And if it wasn't for their coach leaving for Wisconsin, I'd pick them to win the MWC. But just like with the other 1st year head coaches, that will set them back a notch. But they have great talent returning, which will make them formidable, and only losing to Boise State.

Boise St                  11-1 (8-0) (MWC Winner)

Washington             W

Tenn Martin             W

Air Force                 W

Fresno St                  W

Southern Miss           W

Utah St                      W

Nevada                      W

BYU                          L

Colorado St               W

Wyoming                   W

SDSU                        W

New Mexico              W

The Broncos return some talent and QB Southwick could turn into the next great Boise St Quarterback. They quietly went 10-2 last year, including an upset by Almost Big East Rival SDSU. This is going to be BYU's year, which means their defense will hold back the Broncos emerging offense and the Cougars emerging offense will undo the Broncos pretty decent defense.

Why The Coaches Poll Is Poop

Awesome and crazy weekend for college football. None more exciting of course than....San Diego State's win on the blue turf over Boise State!!!!
Also, wild finishes in the Notre Dame-Pitt game, huge scores in the Oregon-USC game and a game I'm sure no one cared about in Alabama's last minute come from behind victory over LSU in Death Valley.

There was not much change at the top. Even though a couple games were close, the top 4 teams beat who they were supposed to, and there weren't any major upsets. Except the Aztecs defying the odds and delivering the Broncos to one of their very few loses on their home field.

But it's easy to get the rankings right at the top when the top teams win. But it's the rest of the rankings that concerns me and why the Coaches Poll is ridiculous. Here's a few examples:

1. Boise State - They were somehow ranked 14 last week. Which, if anyone has seen or knows anything about this team this year, they should not have been ranked so high. They are struggling and trying to re-build. I know if a team keeps winning they usually rise in the polls, but this team was barely getting by and it finally showed in the loss to SDSU. So it begs the question, why is Boise State still ranked at all?

2. How did Louisiana-Monroe get 4 votes? - ULM was on the fringe of getting any votes. They've been winning over their Sun Belt compatriots, teams like 2-7 Florida Atlantic and 2-7 South Alabama. To be fair, the Sun Belt seems better than normal with already 4 bowl eligible teams so far in the league. But they just lost to Louisiana-Lafayette. So, if ULM was on the fringe as is, and they lost, who is still ranking the War Hawks in their rankings? Is there 1 coach ranking them 22nd, or are there four coaches ranking them 25th? I would love to see these coaches individual rankings. Because these are supposed to be the brilliant college football minds, so they must be seeing things in all the free time they have to watch all the games happening.

3. Who has seen enough of Middle Tennessee? - These guys have a decent team this year. But here's some highlights from the year so far. They lost 45-3 to Miss State. Their other FBS lost was to Louisiana-Monroe, a team that obviously should still be getting votes. Oh and the only FCS loss they have of the year, a loss to McNeese State of the Southland Conference. McNeese State must be the best FCS school in the country. Nope, not even in their conference, they're currently in 5th place in the Southland Conference. Who is giving Middle Tennessee votes in their rankings?

4. Another Odd Choice for a Team receiving votes - Tulsa has been having a decent year. They had a pretty good few years under coach Todd Graham, and now it seems like Bill Blankenship is keeping that going. But they haven't been having a year where they should be ranked in the Top 25. Their most impressive win was over Fresno State. This week they played Arkansas close, but lost. Who is still giving them 4 votes after a loss to Arkansas? Are other C-USA coaches giving them the votes? Is there a problem with that? Is that bias or does that mean, the other C-USA coaches can see things other people can't? Either way that's not an accurate picture, and proof that the Coach's Poll is extremely flawed.

I don't know if it's confirmed or not if the Coach's Poll will continue after the BCS changes, but that selection committee can't seem to come soon enough.