Mountaintop View 4-2-18

For those readers who celebrate Easter, in whatever form, on behalf of the team hear, hope it was enjoyable. For those who don’t celebrate Easter, hope your Sunday was enjoyable. As you munch on those chocolate bunnies, peeps, jellybeans, or cereal, take a look at some links:

After all the Gonzaga/MWC talk, things seem to be trending in the other direction.

In true college football offseason tradition, there was lots of talk and very little/no change. Reports are now indicating that Gonzaga will stay in the WCC. Based on this article, they don’t seem to like the MWC’s deal with CBS sports, which doesn’t reach as much or pay as much as ESPN. Thompson’s quote about Boise State football’s deal with ESPN was telling in terms of the likelihood of other schools being happy with Gonzaga getting a similar deal, which wouldn’t made sense in many ways to persuade them to join.

The best undefeated Non Power 5 teams who would’ve made things interesting in a playoff.

This discusses teams who didn’t get a fair shot in the BCS era as far as championship chances. Even if there was a playoff format then, they still probably wouldn’t have, but it’s something to talk about. Old MWC teams TCU and Utah of course make the list. The Horned Frogs appear once while the Utes are featured twice. Boise State is mentioned three times, twice on the official list, and once as an honorable mention (since only undefeated teams count), but states the 1-loss team may be the best of the entire list. Oh missed FGs.

A look at year 2 of the Spartans rebuilding effort.

The Spartans will continue the youth movement, looking to play lots of freshman on both sides of the ball. This article is extremely in depth, taking a look at reasons why they struggle to win there over the years, lots of stats from last season, and what they return going into next year.

A look at year 3 of the Rainbow Warriors rebuilding effort.

Continuing the tour of the MWC schools, this series turns to Hawaii. As our site has documented, there was an unfortunate step back from year 1 to year 2. This suggests going back to square 1 in many ways, making an open competition for most/all positions going into the fall. They also talk about how the team lacked depth in many areas last year and likely will again due to the transfers and attrition.

On the horizon:

• Later today: the weekly MWC Recruiting Roundup
• Mid-week: coverage of Boise State’s pro-day, which takes place on Tuesday
• Coming Thursday: the second week of our collaboration with OBNUG, I’ll be answering their questions over on their site this Thursday.