Week One Bowl Projections

Our team will be predicting where we think Mountain West school will end this bowl season (if they happen). With so much up in the air (no win requirements), we are sticking with Mountain West bowl tie-ins and New Year’s Six games. That will change as the season progresses. For the first few weeks, we are just going to project where we think Mountain West teams will land. After seeing the teams on the field, our team made some adjustments to our projections. Here we go...

Zach:

Los Angeles Bowl: Boise State

New Mexico Bowl: Nevada

Potato Bowl: Hawaii

Arizona Bowl: Wyoming

Frisco Bowl: San Diego State

A few changes this week and quite a bit of movement. Boise State slept through the third quarter, but was completely dominant the other three. They keep the top spot for this week. Hawaii in the Potato Bowl is something I REALLY want to see. Great win for SJSU, but I’m not sure where a sixth bowl team can land at this point and I need to see one more solid performance from the Spartans. Cincinnati looked dominant last night against SMU. They may need to drop two games before a Mountain West team can enter the NY6 conversation.

Graham:

Los Angeles Bowl: San Diego State

New Mexico Bowl: Hawaii

Potato Bowl: Utah State

Arizona Bowl: Nevada

Frisco Bowl: Wyoming

Fiesta Bowl: Boise State

Week one showed me that Boise State is legit. While they did play conservative throughout the second half, the second quarter of the season opener was enough to convince me that the Broncos are for real and could beat out a one loss Memphis, SMU, Cincinnati or Memphis team. They have BYU after Air Force this coming week so that will be huge. As for Hawaii, I don’t see them as a championship level team yet but that could change. The win against Fresno State was good but Hawaii has a very long road ahead before they are ready to play for a championship team again. I think that this year San Diego State beats out Hawaii for the right to play in the Mountain West title game since the game is in San Diego and the Aztecs also look really good defensively, which could prove to be a problem for a Hawaii team that has struggled against good defenses recently. There was a lot of hype surrounding Air Force and Wyoming going into the season as Air Force had just beaten Navy and Wyoming was bringing back Sean Chambers at quarterback, but Chambers is likely done for the season now with a broken fibula on his left leg and Air Force lost to San Jose State. Utah State still has an opportunity to make a bowl game, I think they will start to figure some things out and not everything in the blowout loss to Boise State was bad, Jaylen Warren was able to get going and maybe the Aggies can lean on that. The championship game may come down to Boise State vs San Diego State and I just think Boise State’s offense will be able to do enough to wear down the Aztecs. Going back to Wyoming, I think they will bring it together after an overtime loss to Nevada and keep themselves in contention. I think they perform well enough to get a stronger invite than the New Mexico or Potato bowl, however I don’t think they do good enough to get past San Diego State for a potential bid in the Los Angeles Bowl. As for Nevada it was a good win against Wyoming but the Wolf Pack still have San Diego State and Hawaii. If the Wolf Pack beat Hawaii, then I predict they will get an invite to the Arizona Bowl against a MAC team and Hawaii would then go to the New Mexico Bowl. If Nevada beats both Hawaii and San Diego State, then I think the Wolf Pack play for the Los Angeles Bowl against Boise State.

Mike:

Los Angeles Bowl: Boise State

New Mexico Bowl: Hawaii

Potato Bowl: Nevada

Arizona Bowl: Wyoming

Frisco Bowl: San Diego State

A reminder that my predictions are made as if bowl games were selected this week. Boise State clearly showed they were the best team in the conference and hopefully the LA Bowl is not cancelled so they can play in it. San Diego State looks like a strong team, although their competition was week. Likewise, Nevada and Hawaii looked talented enough to play in a bowl game this year. Wyoming and Air Force took steps back this week, although the Cowboys less so, which is why I still list them here. I’ll keep my eye on Air Force and Colorado State, who was unable to play, in the weeks to come as teams who could appear in these predictions in coming weeks.

NittanyFalcon:

Los Angeles Bowl: San Diego State

New Mexico Bowl: Nevada

Potato Bowl: Hawaii

Arizona Bowl: Wyoming

Frisco Bowl: Boise State

Danny:

Los Angeles Bowl: Boise State

New Mexico Bowl: SJSU

Potato Bowl: Hawaii

Arizona Bowl: Wyoming

Frisco Bowl: San Diego State

My projections didn’t change much from the preseason projections. The biggest difference is that I moved Boise State out of the New Year’s Day bowl game. The Broncos looked the part on Saturday, but there are four G5 teams ahead of them in the polls and each of those teams will play more games than Boise. I also notice that I am STILL the only prognosticator that projects SJSU to a bowl game. Vindication will come as the Spartans keep proving people wrong.

Alex:

Los Angeles Bowl: Boise State

New Mexico Bowl: Nevada

Potato Bowl: Hawaii

Arizona Bowl: Wyoming

Frisco Bowl: San Diego State

I do not want to overreact to just one weeks worth of games, but I will because there are eight (scheduled) and not 12. That is why I dropped Air Force out of my projections this week. They already had a game and could not do anything against an, at best, .500 team. It is clear that the two top teams in the league are Boise State and San Diego State. I was surprised at how the Aztecs looked on offense, and if they can keep that going they might end up overtaking the Broncos in the LA Bowl spot.

That’s it for this week of bowl projections. Where do you have the teams of the Mountain West going?