The MW did away with divisions last year and went into the tie breaker to see which teams qualified for the title game and who got home edge. Boise traveled to and beat UNLV while a deserving San Jose St team which beat UNLV in the final did not play in the title game.
The MW has a unique schedule this year. Each MW team plays a 7-game schedule as they agreed to play extra games vs Oregon St and Wash St the remaining teams from the former Pac 12 conference. With a 7 game schedule 6 teams have 4 home games in MW play and just 3 on the road while the other 6 have four MW road games and just three at home.
The lucky six MW teams with 4 MW home games are UNLV, Utah St, Wyoming, Colo St, Hawaii and San Jose St.
The next category to look at is conference records from last year. When I did the Power Five blogs, I talked about how the records normally equal, but they did not equal. Well, the MAC and now the MW have the same 12 teams they had last year the records should all equal at the end and they do at 336-336 so my calculations are correct.
In this category the MW has the least amount of variation from top to with most teams hovering around .500. Nevada draws the toughest schedule based on last years win loss records for their opponents at 33-23 58.9%. Air Force is at the other end of the spectrum with their 2024 opponents having a 24-32 42.9% mark in MW play last. year.
I have the chart color coded. Now, you may disagree with my ratings but I have all my preliminary numbers done as the portal is closed and almost all good players have signed that were out there. I have put the teams in three colors.
The top level of teams are the powers. I list those teams in RED for you do not want to play them. That top level category in no particular order are UNLV, Boise, Fresno St and Air Force.
The next level is in Blue and they are teams that look like bowl teams or bowl caliber teams for this year.
The bottom level is Green for teams that you want to draw. I did rate e teams down here who combined for just a 4-12 record last year and both are going thru a coaching change which should make it a rebuilding year for both Nevada and New Mexico.
Nevada and San Jose St are the two teams that face all 4 of the MW’s top teams this year. Two teams face 3 of the top teams in San Diego St and Hawaii but since Hawaii has 4 MW home games and their opponents had a combined record of 26-20 I have them down at 6th toughest schedule. Boise St has the biggest difference as last year they played all the big boys but this year only face UNLV as they avoid both Fresno and Air Force. Air Force avoids UNLV and Boise St so also only face one RED team.
Here is the chart and here is how I grade this year’s CONFERENCE schedules, keep in mind non-conference games are not included in this strength of schedule.
This year’s Phil Steele College Football Preview is 352 pages and we went to the press later than usual on June 7th so we were able to capture all the transfer portal moves (transfer portal closed April 30). It has the most up to date rosters, three to four times the amount of information of any other College Football Preview. Don’t waste your gas driving around looking for the magazine, it is EXCLUSIVELY at Barnes and Nobles and Books-a-Million this year. You can also order online at PhilSteele.com and when you order on line you get the hard copy but also the digital copy for FREE and the digital copy is updated thru September. Check back every day for a new blog right here.
