MWCConnection Roundtable: Who will win the MWC this year?

Here we are, the final roundtable of the offseason. With a longer offseason, there were more roundtable posts than any of us would have liked, but the final one will be a familiar one. Although usually occurring in August, it always comes on the eve of the first Saturday of football. Which team will win the Mountain West this season?

Graham_Gibson: I think it is difficult to tell what teams are going to be good this year in the Mountain West. You have a couple of new coaches so that will be interesting and you also have teams like Fresno State who were not very good last year but return talent this year. In terms of who is going to win the Mountain West this year I’m going to go with Boise State. Any other year this may be an easier choice however the 2020 college football season has been weird. Oklahoma was picked to win the Big 12 and they already have two losses. Florida was picked to win the SEC East and though they are tied with Georgia many didn’t expect them to lose to Texas A&M. I just think Boise State’s consistency will be too much for the Mountain West; they have a lot of talent with Bachmeier, Holani and Shakir helming the offense.

NittanyFalcon: As Graham said above, this is a whacky year. Normally I would go with Boise State because of their consistency and talent level. But because it’s 2020 and so many things in college football and in the country are unusual this year, I’m going to take San Diego State. Their defense is loaded with experienced talent that will serve them well in a year that doesn’t have much practice time. Brady Hoke has returned with a new offensive coordinator that may be able to improve the offense just enough to win a couple more games than last year. They also avoid Boise, Air Force, and Wyoming out of the Mountain division.

Mike: This is difficult enough to predict in a normal year, let alone a year in a pandemic. It’s going to come down to who stays the healthiest, and part of that entails which team has the best depth. That other part will come down to the team that can avoid the game cancellations. When it comes to talent and depth, Boise State would appear to have the upper hand. They are also the defending champs and there’s no reason to think they don’t have as good of a chance as anyone to repeat. Without the other team needing to come from the West division, that brings in some interesting options. I think Air Force, Wyoming, and SDSU (in that order), are all talented enough to be the other representative in the championship game. Anything can happen, especially this year, but I give the nod to the defending champs, at least we can judge off of actual games.

Alex: It would be safe to ride with the Broncos given that this will be one of the wildest years we will ever see in college football, but that’s the issue. This year will be so wild that we should just expect the unexpected. Now, that does not mean New Mexico or San Jose State will win the league? No. I think that Air Force, San Diego State, Wyoming, along with Boise State are the top four teams in the league and two of these four will be playing for the Mountain West title. But with all that being said, I’ll take Boise State to be victorious in the conference, even though I am not entirely confident in that pick. I will just sit back and enjoy the craziness that this season will bring with the rest of Mountain West nation.