Mountaintop View 2-28-22. Playoff Expansion, CSU resume, NCAA changes, T&F/WBB champions

It’s Monday and we are back at it! As always, a lot going on. Basketball season is nearing conference tournament time. Football news is always plentiful even in the off-season. Through it all, coverage is still coming your way today in the form of the latest news around the internet and original content later today and all of this week.

Behind of the scenes of playoff expansion.

The Athletic dives into how playoff expansion talks fell apart. The Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 voted against expansion and derailed the process, with disagreements ranging from the number of teams and auto bids to the Rose Bowl, plus there were talks of secrecy in subgroups. The ACC was against the 12-team model almost from the start, the Big Ten wanted to prioritize the Rose Bowl as well keeping automatic qualifiers tied only to P5 champs, and the PAC-12 and uncertainty about how revenue was distributed. Then, the Big 12 felt betrayed by the SEC after Texas and Oklahoma announced they were moving conferences. Thus, a stalemate occurred.

CSU Rams MBB tournament resume.

Colorado State is having a tremendous season and in the event they don’t win the conference tournament, this article looks at their resume. In their quest to make their first NCAA tourney in 9 seasons, the Rams currently have a NET of 27, 30 in KenPom, Quad 1 wins of Boise State, St. Marys, and Utah State. Their bad losses are to UNLV (who is getting better). 112 out of 112 bracket projections have them in the tournament and they range as high as a 5 seed and as low as a 12, with the average being 7.68.

Changes coming?

T&F Indoor Champions

Rebels win the regular-season championship.

Spring Practice Schedule:

Although the football season hasn’t been over for too long, teams are already starting on preparations for next year. Spring practices are already underway for some teams and are coming up quickly for others. Below is the spring practice schedule list for each of the teams in the Mountain West who have announced so far.

Air Force: February 16th - March 16th

Boise State:

Colorado State: March 22-April 23

Fresno State:

Hawaii: March 1st-April 15th

Nevada: -April 23rd

New Mexico: February 8th - March 12th

San Diego State: February 28th-

San Jose State: March 1st - March 26th

UNLV: March 29th - April 30th

Utah State: March 21st - April 23rd

Wyoming:

On the horizon:

• Later today: A new MWC Recruiting Roundup, looking ahead to the 2023 class.
• Coming Tuesday: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: Offensive Line Preview
• Coming Tuesday: Another round of MWC Basketball Rankings
• Coming Wednesday: Peak Perspective: An Interview With Lawrence Fan