Mountaintop View 9-7-22. Coaching tiers, CFP Expansion, Nevada’s win streak, Polls, POTW

We are right about at the halfway point between the games that were played and the games that are about to be played. To get there a bit quicker, take a look at today’s links plus the content coming your way on our site.

Coaching Tiers

The Athletic ranks their coaches in tiers. Saban is alone at the top, with another 9 a step behind him. Looking at MWC coaches, Troy Calhoun is in Tier 2 (proven goods), 5 are in Tier 3 (solid, good job security), 2 in Tier 4 (mixed bag, need to prove something), and 2 in Tier 5 (either too soon to tell or on the hot seat). It looks like Ken Wilson and Timmy Chang did not crack the rankings, so we will call them Tier 6.

New Playoff model expected to make $$$

Duh. But for real, this will likely double the current payout, reaching about $2.2 billion. With a B. This is partly because it’s more games, partly because it’s a marquee event, and partly because of strategy. The CFP is expected to follow the NFL model of splitting its playoff to be televised on multiple networks, with the idea being each network will pay max value to have a slice of something rather than allowing one network to have exclusive rights.

Can Nevada keep this up?

Chris Murray asks that question. He cites the struggles on offense being minimized due to the tremendous display of defense so far. Field position and playing mistake-free football have also assisted them greatly in the early going. He also attempts to distinguish what is luck versus what has been skill so far.

Week 1 Polls

Olympic Sports Players of the Week

On the horizon:

• Later today: Peak Perspective: 2022 Instant Impressions and Small Sample Sizes
• Later today: Bowl Projections: Week 1
• Coming Thursday: Mountain Bets: Week 2
• Coming Thursday: Stats Corner
• Coming Thursday: Mountain West previews
• Coming Friday: Mountain West Fan Guide
• Coming Friday: More previews!