Mountain West Conference

Mountain West Conference
Association	NCAA
Commissioner	Craig Thompson (since 1999)
Sports fielded	18 men's: 8; women's: 10; ;
Division	Division I
Subdivision	FBS
Region	Western United States
Official website	themw.com
Locations

The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the NCAA Division I FBS (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations in July 1999. Geographically, the MW covers a broad expanse of the Western United States, with member schools located in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. Craig Thompson has served as Commissioner of the MW since its founding in 1999.

The charter members of the MW included the United States Air Force Academy, Brigham Young University, Colorado State University, San Diego State University, the University of New Mexico, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the University of Utah, and the University of Wyoming. Before forming the Mountain West Conference, seven of its eight charter members had been longtime members of the Western Athletic Conference. Half of these had been charter members of that conference from 1962. Overall, each school that has ever been either a full or football-only member of the MW spent at least three years in the WAC before joining the Mountain West. The 2013–14 academic year was the 15th anniversary season of the MW.

History

Locations of Mountain West Conference members.

Craig Thompson was hired as the inaugural commissioner of the Mountain West on October 15, 1998, he had been commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference.

The creation of the MW was a delayed aftereffect of the 1996 NCAA conference realignment, which had initially been triggered two years earlier when the Big Eight Conference agreed to merge with four members of the Southwest Conference (SWC) to create the Big 12 Conference, which would begin competition in the 1996–97 school year.

The WAC, which had initially announced plans to expand beyond its then-current 10 members to at least 12, ended up with even more potential expansion prospects. Ultimately, the WAC took in three of the four SWC schools left out of the Big 12 merger—Rice University, Southern Methodist University (SMU), and Texas Christian University (TCU). Three other schools were added to bring the total membership to 16, namely Big West Conference members San Jose State University and UNLV, plus the University of Tulsa, an NCAA football independent and otherwise a member of the Missouri Valley Conference. However, the newly expanded WAC was soon wracked by tension between the established and new members.^[1] The final straw came in spring 1998, when BYU and Utah proposed a permanent split into two eight-team divisions. Previously, the WAC's 16 teams had been divided into four four-team "quadrants," two of which rotated between the Mountain and Pacific Divisions every two years. A two-division setup would have forced some schools into an unnatural alignment because of the geographic distribution of the conference.^[1] Air Force was the most strident opponent of this proposal, threatening to become an independent.^[1] Soon after the proposal by BYU and Utah, the presidents of Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, Utah, and Wyoming met at Denver International Airport to discuss their future, and they agreed to break away from the WAC to form a new conference.^[1]

They invited the WAC members New Mexico, San Diego State, and UNLV, to join them in what became the Mountain West Conference. The next move for the MW came in 2005, when the conference added TCU, who had spent the previous four seasons in Conference USA (C-USA).

On June 11, 2010, Boise State University agreed to join the conference as its tenth member. On June 17, 2010, Utah announced it would be leaving the Mountain West to join what would become the Pac-12 Conference. On August 18, 2010, amidst rumors that BYU was considering leaving the Mountain West to go independent in football and rejoin the Western Athletic Conference in all other sports, the Mountain West Conference officially extended invitations to California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) and the University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada). Both schools accepted and would become the tenth and eleventh members of the league.^[2]^[3] BYU announced on August 31, 2010 that it would leave the Mountain West Conference and go Independent in football and become a member of the West Coast Conference (WCC) in other sports starting in 2011.^[4] On November 29, 2010, TCU announced all athletic teams would move to the Big East Conference effective in 2012.^[5] (Less than a year later, on October 10, 2011, TCU announced it would not join the Big East but would join the Big 12, home to fellow former SWC members Baylor, Texas, Texas Tech, and formerly Texas A&M, in 2012 instead.)^[6] On December 10, 2010, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa accepted a bid to become the 10th member of the conference for football only.^[7] These changes would leave the Mountain West Conference with 10 teams for the 2012 football season.

During the era of football's Bowl Championship Series (BCS), which was replaced by the College Football Playoff (CFP) in 2014, the MW champion qualified for a BCS bowl four times after the BCS formula was tweaked to allow teams from non-BCS conferences to play in BCS bowls if ranked in the top 12. However, two of the three schools that qualified are no longer with the conference.

On October 14, 2011, the Mountain West and C-USA announced a plan for a football only alliance.^[8] On February 13, 2012, the two leagues announced that both conferences would be dissolving after the 2012–13 season to reform into one conference with at least 15 members for all sports, and a 16th team, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa as a football-only member.^[9] However, when the two conferences discussed their plans with the NCAA, they were told that due to NCAA rules, they would forfeit substantial revenues. Specifically, the new conference would receive only one automatic bid to NCAA championships; at least one of the former conferences would lose future revenue distributions from the NCAA men's basketball tournament; and at least one former conference would not be able to collect exit fees from any members that departed to join the new conference.^[10] As a result, the Mountain West and C-USA backed away from a full merger. In late March of that year, the commissioners of both conferences stated that all 16 schools had entered into binding agreements to form a new "association",^[11] although the Mountain West and C-USA would have apparently remained separate legal entities.^[10] In the end, this alliance never materialized due to both conferences soon adding new teams.

On May 2, 2012, San Jose State and Utah State agreed to join the conference for the 2013–14 academic year. On December 31 of that year, Boise State announced that it had backed out of its previously announced move to the Big East for football and the Big West for other sports, and would remain in the MW.^[12]

On January 16, 2013, San Diego State accepted an offer to remain/return to the Mountain West Conference in all sports. Keeping SDSU in the conference gives the Mountain West 12 football members, allowing for a Championship Game to be held. The first championship game took place on December 7, 2013.^[13]

Member schools

Current members

Institution	Location	Founded	Enrollment	Nickname	Joined
United States Air Force Academy	Colorado Springs, Colorado	1954	4,417	Falcons	1999
Boise State University	Boise, Idaho	1932	22,113	Broncos	2011
California State University, Fresno	Fresno, California	1911	25,613	Bulldogs	2012
Colorado State University	Fort Collins, Colorado	1870	31,256	Rams	1999
University of Nevada, Reno	Reno, Nevada	1874	18,004	Wolf Pack	2012
University of Nevada, Las Vegas	Las Vegas, Nevada	1957	29,069	Rebels	1999
University of New Mexico	Albuquerque, New Mexico	1889	35,211	Lobos	1999
San Diego State University	San Diego, California	1897	33,790	Aztecs	1999
San Jose State University	San Jose, California	1857	33,805	Spartans	2013
Utah State University	Logan, Utah	1888	28,994	Aggies	2013
University of Wyoming	Laramie, Wyoming	1886	12,496	Cowboys & Cowgirls	1999

Affiliate members

Institution	Location	Founded	Enrollment	Nickname	Colors	Joined	Sport	Primary conference
Colorado College	Colorado Springs, Colorado	1874	2,011	Tigers		2014	soccer (W)	Southern Collegiate (NCAA D-III)
University of Hawai'i at Mānoa	Honolulu, Hawai'i	1907	20,135	Rainbow Warriors		2012	football	Big West

Former members

Institution	Location	Founded	Nickname	Joined	Left	Current conference
Brigham Young University	Provo, Utah	1875	Cougars	1999	2011	West Coast / Independent (football only)
Texas Christian University	Fort Worth, Texas	1873	Horned Frogs	2005	2012	Big 12
University of Utah	Salt Lake City, Utah	1850	Utes	1999	2011	Pac-12

Membership timeline

Full members Associate members (football only) Associate members (other)

National team championships

Thru July 2, 2015 ^[14]

School	Total	Men	Women	Co-ed
San Jose State	10	7	3	0
Wyoming	3	1	0	2
Fresno State	2	1	1	0
New Mexico	2	0	1	1
UNLV	2	2	0	0
Boise State	1	1	0	0
San Diego State	1	1	0	0
Air Force	0	0	0	0
Colorado State	0	0	0	0
Nevada	0	0	0	0
Utah State	0	0	0	0

Sports

The Mountain West Conference sponsors championship competition in eight men's and ten women's NCAA sanctioned sports.^[15] Hawai'i is only an associate member for football, and Colorado College is only an associate member for women's soccer.

Men's sports

Member	Baseball	Basketball	Cross country	Football	Golf	Tennis	Track & Field Indoor	Track & Field Outdoor	Total MW Sports
Air Force	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	8
Boise State	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	7
Fresno State	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	8
Colorado State	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	6
Nevada	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	N	N	5
UNLV	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	N	N	5
New Mexico	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	8
San Diego State	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	N	N	5
San Jose State	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N	N	5
Utah State	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	7
Wyoming	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	6
Totals	7	11	8	11	11	8	7	7	70
Affiliate Members
Hawai'i				Y					1

Men's varsity sports not sponsored by the Mountain West Conference which are played by current full MW members:

School	Fencing^{[a 1]}	Gymnastics	Ice hockey	Lacrosse	Rifle^{[a 2]}	Skiing^{[a 3]}	Soccer	Swimming & diving	Water polo	Wrestling
Air Force	Independent	MPSF	Atlantic Hockey	SoCon	PRC		WAC	WAC	WWPA	Big 12
Boise State										Pac-12
Nevada					PRC
UNLV							WAC	WAC
New Mexico						RMISA	C-USA
San Diego State							Pac-12
San Jose State							WAC		MPSF
Wyoming								WAC		Big 12

^ Fencing is officially a coeducational team sport, although a few schools field only a women's team. Air Force, like most NCAA fencing schools, has a coed team with men's and women's squads.
^ Rifle is technically a men's sport, but men's, women's, and coed teams all compete against each other. Air Force and Nevada both field coed teams.
^ Skiing is officially a coeducational team sport.

Women's sports

Member	Basketball	Cross country	Golf	Soccer	Softball	Swimming & diving	Tennis	Track & Field Indoor	Track & Field Outdoor	Volleyball	Total MW Sports
Air Force	Y	Y	N	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	8
Boise State	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	10
Fresno State	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	10
Colorado State	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	10
Nevada	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	10
UNLV	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	10
New Mexico	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	10
San Diego State	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	10
San Jose State	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	10
Utah State	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	8
Wyoming	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	9
Totals	11	11	9	11	9	10	11	11	11	11	104
Affiliate Members
Colorado College				Y							1

Women's varsity sports not sponsored by the Mountain West Conference which are played by current full MW members:

School	Beach volleyball	Equestrian	Fencing^{[b 1]}	Gymnastics	Lacrosse	Rifle^{[b 2]}	Rowing	Skiing^{[b 3]}	Water polo
Air Force			Independent	MPSF		PRC
Boise State	Independent			MRGC
Fresno State		Independent			MPSF
Colorado State									WWPA
Nevada						PRC
New Mexico	Independent							RMISA
San Diego State					MPSF		American		Golden Coast
San Jose State	Independent			MPSF					MPSF
Utah State				MRGC

^ Fencing is officially a coeducational team sport, although a few schools field only a women's team. Air Force, like most NCAA fencing schools, has a coed team with men's and women's squads.
^ Rifle is technically a men's sport, but men's, women's, and coed teams all compete against each other. Air Force and Nevada both field coed teams.
^ Skiing is officially a coeducational sport with teams having men's and women's squads.

Conference champions

Rivalries

Conference (football)

Teams		Rivalry name	Trophy	Meetings (last)	Record	Series leader
Air Force	Colorado State	Air Force-Colorado State rivalry	Ram-Falcon Trophy	54 (2015)	32–21–1	Air Force
Air Force	Hawai'i	Air Force-Hawai'i football rivalry	Kuter Trophy	20 (2015)	13–6–1	Air Force
Boise State	Fresno State	Battle of the Milk Can	Milk Can	17 (2014)	12–5	Boise State
Boise State	Nevada	Boise State–Nevada football rivalry	—	41 (2014)	28–13	Boise State
Fresno State	Boise State	Battle of the Milk Can	Milk Can	17 (2014)	5–12	Boise State
	Hawai'i	Fresno State-Hawai'i football rivalry	—	48 (2015)	26–21–1	Fresno State
	San Diego State	Battle for the Oil Can	Old Oil Can	55 (2015)	23–28–4	San Diego State
	San Jose State	Fresno State–San Jose State football rivalry	Valley Cup	79 (2015)	40–36–3	Fresno State
Colorado State	Air Force	Air Force-Colorado State rivalry	Ram-Falcon Trophy	54 (2015)	21–32–1	Air Force
Colorado State	Wyoming	Border War	Bronze Boot	107 (2015)	58–44–5	Colorado State
Hawai'i	Air Force	Air Force-Hawai'i football rivalry	Kuter Trophy	20 (2015)	6–13–1	Air Force
	Fresno State	Fresno State-Hawai'i football rivalry	—	48 (2015)	21–26–1	Fresno State
	Wyoming	Hawai'i-Wyoming football rivalry	Paniolo Trophy	22 (2014)	9–13	Wyoming
Nevada	Boise State	Boise State–Nevada football rivalry	—	41 (2014)	13–28	Boise State
Nevada	UNLV	Battle for Nevada	Fremont Cannon	41 (2015)	24–17	Nevada
UNLV	Nevada	Battle for Nevada	Fremont Cannon	41 (2015)	17–24	Nevada
San Diego State	Fresno State	Battle for the Oil Can	Old Oil Can	55 (2015)	28–23–4	San Diego State
San Diego State	San Jose State	El Camino Real Rivalry	—	39 (2015)	18–19–2	San Jose State
San Jose State	Fresno State	Fresno State–San Jose State football rivalry	Valley Cup	79 (2015)	36–40–3	Fresno State
San Jose State	San Diego State	El Camino Real Rivalry	—	39 (2015)	19–18–2	San Jose State
Utah State	Wyoming	Bridger's Battle	Bridger Rifle	66 (2015)	38–24–4	Utah State
Wyoming	Colorado State	Border War	Bronze Boot	107 (2015)	44–58–5	Colorado State
	Hawai'i	Hawai'i-Wyoming football rivalry	Paniolo Trophy	22 (2014)	13–9	Wyoming
	Utah State	Bridger's Battle	Bridger Rifle	66 (2015)	24–38–4	Utah State

Non-conference (including other sports)

Schools		First meeting	Game	Trophy	Reigning champion (last meeting)	Next meeting
Air Force / Army / Navy		1972		Commander-in-Chief's Trophy	Navy (2015)	2016
Boise State	Idaho	1971	Battle of Idaho	Governor's Cup	Boise State (2010)
Colorado State	Colorado	1893	Rocky Mountain Showdown	Centennial Cup	Colorado (2016)	2017
New Mexico	Arizona	1908		Kit Carson Rifle	Arizona (2015)
New Mexico	New Mexico State	1894	Battle of Interstate 25	Rio Grande Rivalry	New Mexico State (2016)	2017
New Mexico	Texas–El Paso	1919	Rio Grande Championship		Texas–El Paso (2014)
San Diego State	Brigham Young	1947	BYU–San Diego State football rivalry		Brigham Young (2012)
San Jose State	Stanford	1900	Bill Walsh Legacy Game		Stanford (2013)
Utah State / Brigham Young / Utah		1971		Beehive Boot	Utah (2015)	2016
Utah State	Brigham Young	1922	Battle for The Old Wagon Wheel	The Old Wagon Wheel	Brigham Young (2015)	2016
Utah State	Utah	1892	Battle of the Brothers		Utah (2015)

Football

Divisions

Beginning in 2013, the conference split into two divisions, named the "Mountain Division" and "West Division," of six teams each for football. The Mountain West also added a conference championship game, pitting the winners of the two divisions. This first championship game took place on December 7, 2013 at Bulldog Stadium in Fresno, California, the home stadium of Fresno State, the divisional winner with the higher BCS ranking.^[16] Each team plays five divisional games and three cross-divisional contests annually.^[17] The 2015 championship game featured the Air Force Academy Falcons against the San Diego State University Aztecs.

Mountain Division	West Division
Air Force	Fresno State
Boise State	Hawaiʻi
Colorado State	Nevada
New Mexico	UNLV
Utah State	San Diego State
Wyoming	San Jose State

No other MW sport is split into divisions — not even women's soccer, the only other conference sport with 12 competing schools (with Colorado College replacing Hawaiʻi as the 12th member).

Bowl games

The Mountain West Conference has agreements with six bowls for 2014–15. In addition, the MW champion has access to the so-called "New Year's Six" bowls associated with the College Football Playoff (CFP) under either of the following conditions:

It is one of the four highest-ranked teams overall, as determined by the CFP selection committee. In this case, it will play in one of the two bowl games that serve as CFP semifinals.
It is not a CFP semifinalist, but is the highest-ranked conference champion from the so-called "Group of Five" conferences (American, C-USA, MAC, MW, Sun Belt), as determined by the selection committee. In this case, it will receive an "at-large" berth in one of the other four "New Year's Six" games.

In the first season of the CFP in 2014, Boise State received the "Group of Five" at-large berth, landing in and winning the Fiesta Bowl.

Pick	Name	Location	Opposing conference	Opposing pick
1	Las Vegas Bowl	Las Vegas, Nevada	Pac-12	6
2	Poinsettia Bowl	San Diego, California	BYU (2016)	–
3	Famous Idaho Potato Bowl	Boise, Idaho	MAC	5
4	New Mexico Bowl	Albuquerque, New Mexico	C-USA	6
5	Hawai'i Bowl	Honolulu, Hawaii	C-USA	3
6	New Orleans Bowl	New Orleans, Louisiana	Sun Belt	1

If Hawai'i is bowl eligible and not MW champions or selected for a CFP bowl, they will receive a berth in the Hawai'i Bowl.

Bowl records

School	Appearances	W	L	T	Win %	BCS/NY6	National championships
Fresno State	26	12	14	0	.462	0-0	0
Air Force	25	11	13	1	.460	0-0	0
Boise State	16	11	5	0	.688	3-0	2 - 1958 (NJCAA), 1980 (NCAA Division I-AA ^[18])
Colorado State	15	6	9	0	.400	0-0	0
Nevada	15	5	10	0	.333	0-0	0
San Diego State	14	7	7	0	.500	0-0	3 - 1966-1968 (NCAA College Division ^[19])
Wyoming	13	6	7	0	.462	0-0	0
New Mexico	12	3	8	1	.292	0-0	0
Utah State	11	4	7	0	.364	0-0	0
San Jose State	10	7	3	0	.700	0-0	0
Hawaiʻi	10	5	5	0	.500	0-1	0
UNLV	3	2	1	0	.667	0-0	0

Bowl Challenge Cup

ESPN created the Bowl Challenge Cup in 2002 for the conference that had the best college football bowl record among Division I Football Bowl Subdivision conferences. The conference has won it four times, more than any other conference, by finishing with bowl game records of 2-1 in 2004–05,^[20] 4-1 in 2007–08,^[21] 4-1 in 2009–10,^[22] and 4-1 in 2010–11.^[23]

Men's Basketball

The Mountain West and Missouri Valley Conferences hold an annual challenge series that was renewed in the 2015–16 season after a two-year hiatus. The series began in the 2009-10 season but temporarily ended when the original contract ran out after the 2012-13 season, During the first four seasons of the series, it involved all members of the MW and an equal number of the 10 MVC teams in basketball. With the MW now having 11 basketball members to the MVC's 10, the renewed series involves all MVC teams, with one MW team sitting out.

The first game was on November 13, 2009, featuring the Bradley Braves and the BYU Cougars in Provo and it concluded on December 23 with the Wyoming Cowboys visiting the Northern Iowa Panthers in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The challenge is similar to the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, which pits men's basketball teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big Ten Conference.^[24]

NCAA tournament records

School	Appearances	W	L	Win %	Wins per appearance	National championships
UNLV	20	33	19	.635	1.737	1 (1990)
Utah State	20	6	22	.214	0.300	0
New Mexico	15	8	16	.333	0.545	0
Wyoming	14	9	19	.321	0.643	1 (1943)
Colorado State	10	4	11	.267	0.375	0
San Diego State	10	5	10	.333	0.444	0
Boise State	6	0	6	.000	0.000	0
Nevada	6	4	6	.400	0.667	0
Fresno State	5	2	5	.286	0.400	0
Air Force	4	0	4	.000	0.000	0
San Jose State	3	0	3	.000	0.000	0

Women's Basketball

NCAA tournament records

School	Appearances	W	L	Win %	Wins per appearance
San Diego State	9	6	9	.400	0.571
UNLV	8	3	8	.273	0.375
New Mexico	8	3	8	.273	0.375
Fresno State	6	0	6	.000	0.000
Colorado State	5	5	5	.500	1.000
Boise State	2	0	2	.000	0.000
Wyoming	1	0	1	.000	0.000
Air Force	0	0	0	–	0.000
Nevada	0	0	0	–	0.000
San Jose State	0	0	0	–	0.000
Utah State	0	0	0	–	0.000

Facilities

School	Football stadium	Capacity	Basketball arena	Capacity	Baseball stadium	Capacity
Air Force	Falcon Stadium	46,692	Clune Arena	5,858	Falcon Baseball Field	1,000
Boise State	Albertsons Stadium	37,000	Taco Bell Arena	12,480	Non-baseball school
Fresno State	Bulldog Stadium	41,031	Save Mart Center	15,544	Pete Beiden Field	5,422
Colorado State	Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium	34,400	Moby Arena	8,745	Non-baseball school
Hawai'i	Aloha Stadium	50,000	Football-only member
Nevada	Mackay Stadium	30,000	Lawlor Events Center	11,784	William Peccole Park	3,000
UNLV	Sam Boyd Stadium	36,800	Thomas & Mack Center (men) Cox Pavilion (women)	18,776 2,500	Earl Wilson Stadium	3,000
New Mexico	University Stadium	40,094	The Pit	15,411	Lobo Field	1,000
San Diego State	Qualcomm Stadium	71,400	Viejas Arena	12,414	Tony Gwynn Stadium	3,000
San Jose State	Spartan Stadium	30,456	Event Center Arena	5,000	San Jose Municipal Stadium	4,200
Utah State	Maverik Stadium	25,513	Dee Glen Smith Spectrum	10,270	Non-baseball school
Wyoming	War Memorial Stadium	30,514	Arena-Auditorium	15,028	Non-baseball school

The 2016 season is the last for Colorado State football at its current venue. The school is building a new venue tentatively known as Colorado State Stadium (capacity at approximately 41,000) and expects to open it for the 2017 season.

Elevation

The Mountain West's slogan is "Above the rest," and over half of the member institutions, plus women's soccer-only member Colorado College, are at more than 4,000 feet (1,200 metres) above sea level. This impacts endurance in sports like football, soccer, and the distance races in track & field and swimming meets, and aerodynamics in baseball, softball, tennis, golf, and the discus and javelin throws. The Mountain West's institutions have the highest average elevations in NCAA Division I sports.

Campus and football stadium elevations

Schools in italics are single-sport members. In the case of women's soccer-only member Colorado College, "Stadium Elevation" refers to the school's soccer venue.

School	Campus Elevation (ft)	Stadium Elevation (ft)
Air Force Academy	7,258	6,621
Wyoming	7,198	7,215
Colorado College	6,053	6,053
New Mexico	5,174	5,100
Colorado State	5,007	5,190
Utah State	4,777	4,710
Nevada	4,564	4,610
Boise State	2,697	2,695
UNLV	2,024	1,600
San Diego State	433	25
Fresno State	338	335
Hawai'i	105	19
San Jose State	85	93

Elevation by conference

Conference	Average Campus Elevation (ft)	Notes
Mountain West	3,596	3,305 for football schools, including Hawaiʻi 3,801 for women's soccer schools, including Colorado College
Big Sky	2,968
WAC	1,967
Summit League	1,295
Pac-12	1,205

Elevation data obtained from the USGS Geographic Names Information System

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Deinhart, Tom (September 14, 2011). "WAC a cautionary tale for superconferences". Rivals.com. Yahoo! Sports. Retrieved July 12, 2013.
^ "Fresno State, Nevada to remain in WAC until 2012". ESPN. 2010-10-28. Retrieved 2013-08-09.
^ Adelson, Andrea. "Utah State turned down invite to MWC". ESPN. Retrieved 2013-08-09.
^ "BYU to leave Mountain West Conference, join West Coast Conference in all sports except football". ESPN. 2010-09-01. Retrieved 2013-08-09.
^ Archived 2010-12-01 at the Wayback Machine
^ "TCU Accepts Invitation To Join Big 12 Conference". TCU Athletic Department. October 10, 2011.
^ Archived 2010-12-13 at the Wayback Machine
^ "Mountain West, Conference USA announce football-only alliance". ESPN. 2011-10-15. Retrieved 2013-08-09.
^ "MWC, C-USA to form new league". CNN. February 13, 2012.
^ ^a ^b McMurphy, Brett (April 17, 2012). "Conference Mountain West merger "unlikely"". College Football Insider. CBSSports.com. Retrieved April 21, 2012. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
^ McMurphy, Brett (March 28, 2012). "New C-USA, MWC league will be completed by early June". College Football Insider. CBSSports.com. Retrieved April 10, 2012. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
^ McMurphy, Brett (December 31, 2012). "Boise State spurns Big East". ESPN. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
^ Mountain West planning title game with 'addition' of SDSU
^ http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/champs_records_book/Overall.pdf
^ "Mountain West Conference". Themwc.com. Retrieved 2013-08-09.
^ Paul Myerberg, USA TODAY Sports (2013-01-22). "Mountain West splits 12 football schools into six-team divisions". Usatoday.com. Retrieved 2013-08-09.
^ "Mountain West Conference". Themwc.com. Retrieved 2013-08-09.
^ In 2006, "Division I-AA" was renamed "Division I Football Championship Subdivision" or "Division I FCS" for short.
^ The "NCAA College Division" was renamed "NCAA Division II" in 1973.
^ 2007 Bowl Challenge Cup standings
^ Mountain West Posts Top Bowl Win Percentage Among FBS Subdivision Conferences
^ 2009-2010 Conference Bowl Wins
^ Adelson, Andrea. "Mountain West wins Bowl Challenge Cup". ESPN. Retrieved 2013-08-09.
^ "Missouri Valley, MWC to start basketball series". Las Vegas Review-Journal. January 15, 2009. Retrieved January 16, 2009.

External links

Official website

[16] Fencing is officially a coeducational team sport, although a few schools field only a women's team. Air Force, like most NCAA fencing schools, has a coed team with men's and women's squads.

[17] Rifle is technically a men's sport, but men's, women's, and coed teams all compete against each other. Air Force and Nevada both field coed teams.

[18] Skiing is officially a coeducational team sport.

[19] Fencing is officially a coeducational team sport, although a few schools field only a women's team. Air Force, like most NCAA fencing schools, has a coed team with men's and women's squads.

[20] Rifle is technically a men's sport, but men's, women's, and coed teams all compete against each other. Air Force and Nevada both field coed teams.

[21] Skiing is officially a coeducational sport with teams having men's and women's squads.

[Deinhart_2011-09-14-1] Deinhart, Tom (September 14, 2011). "WAC a cautionary tale for superconferences". Rivals.com. Yahoo! Sports. Retrieved July 12, 2013.

[ESPN-2] "Fresno State, Nevada to remain in WAC until 2012". ESPN. 2010-10-28. Retrieved 2013-08-09.

[3] Adelson, Andrea. "Utah State turned down invite to MWC". ESPN. Retrieved 2013-08-09.

[4] "BYU to leave Mountain West Conference, join West Coast Conference in all sports except football". ESPN. 2010-09-01. Retrieved 2013-08-09.

[5] Archived 2010-12-01 at the Wayback Machine

[TCUBig12-6] "TCU Accepts Invitation To Join Big 12 Conference". TCU Athletic Department. October 10, 2011.

[7] Archived 2010-12-13 at the Wayback Machine

[8] "Mountain West, Conference USA announce football-only alliance". ESPN. 2011-10-15. Retrieved 2013-08-09.

[9] "MWC, C-USA to form new league". CNN. February 13, 2012.

[McMurphy_2012-04-17-10] McMurphy, Brett (April 17, 2012). "Conference Mountain West merger "unlikely"". College Football Insider. CBSSports.com. Retrieved April 21, 2012. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

[McMurphy_2012-03-28-11] McMurphy, Brett (March 28, 2012). "New C-USA, MWC league will be completed by early June". College Football Insider. CBSSports.com. Retrieved April 10, 2012. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

[McMurphy_2012-12-31-12] McMurphy, Brett (December 31, 2012). "Boise State spurns Big East". ESPN. Retrieved December 31, 2012.

[13] Mountain West planning title game with 'addition' of SDSU

[14] ttp://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/champs_records_book/Overall.pdf

[15] "Mountain West Conference". Themwc.com. Retrieved 2013-08-09.

[22] Paul Myerberg, USA TODAY Sports (2013-01-22). "Mountain West splits 12 football schools into six-team divisions". Usatoday.com. Retrieved 2013-08-09.

[23] "Mountain West Conference". Themwc.com. Retrieved 2013-08-09.

[24] In 2006, "Division I-AA" was renamed "Division I Football Championship Subdivision" or "Division I FCS" for short.

[25] The "NCAA College Division" was renamed "NCAA Division II" in 1973.

[espn-26] 2007 Bowl Challenge Cup standings

[mwc-27] Mountain West Posts Top Bowl Win Percentage Among FBS Subdivision Conferences

[28] 2009-2010 Conference Bowl Wins

[29] Adelson, Andrea. "Mountain West wins Bowl Challenge Cup". ESPN. Retrieved 2013-08-09.

[30] "Missouri Valley, MWC to start basketball series". Las Vegas Review-Journal. January 15, 2009. Retrieved January 16, 2009.

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v t e Mountain West Conference
Full members	Air Force Falcons Boise State Broncos (leaving in 2026) Colorado State Rams (leaving in 2026) Fresno State Bulldogs (leaving in 2026) Nevada Wolf Pack New Mexico Lobos San Diego State Aztecs (leaving in 2026) San Jose State Spartans UNLV Rebels Utah State Aggies (leaving in 2026) Wyoming Cowboys and Cowgirls
Future members	Grand Canyon Antelopes (non-football; joining no later than 2026) UTEP Miners (joining in 2026)
Football associate	Hawaii Rainbow Warriors (becoming full member in 2026)
Women's soccer associate	Colorado College Tigers
Baseball & women's swimming associate	Washington State Cougars (leaving in 2026)
Championships & awards	List of Mountain West Conference champions
History	2010–2013 Mountain West Conference realignment 2021–2026 NCAA conference realignment