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On Monday, the Mountain West held meetings to discuss what schools would be placed in what divisions for the upcoming 2013 football season. The league came to an agreement, and made the announcement on Tuesday with the very simple division names: Mountain and West.
Mountain
Air Force Falcons
Boise St. Broncos
Colorado St. Rams
New Mexico Lobos
Utah State Aggies
Wyoming Cowboys
West
Fresno St. Bulldogs
Hawaii Warriors
Nevada Wolf Pack
San Diego St. Aztecs
San Jose St. Spartans
UNLV Rebels
I get why the divisions are named Mountain and West, and while it is not all that confusing. It might have been better to go with Mountain and Pacific, as we suggested on the site, or even East and West. Overall, it is not a bad name for divisions, and certainly is better than Legends and Leaders of the Big Ten, or the Coastal and Atlantic for the ACC.
Other news that came out from the meetings is that there will be an eight-game conference schedule; five division games and three cross-over games. This makes sense to help accommodate Air Force who already plays Army and Navy each year. Plus it does not guarantee and extra loss by going to a nine-game league schedule; the Mountain West needs all the bowl eligible teams it can get.
One last note is that the championship game will be held on Saturday Dec. 7, 2013, and will be hosted at the highest rated team in the BCS standings. As for 2014 and beyond when a playoff is up and running, there is no word on what metric will be used.
As for basketball, there will be no divisional format, and both there will be an 18-game league schedule.