As Power 5 and Group of 5 started to become popular terms to signify the haves and the have-nots of college football, the same process was going on between the two groups themselves.
Reputation means everything. How conference wins are viewed by the bigger schools, how your record stands against the others outside that power structure. And for a long time, the Mountain West liked to view itself as the best conference outside the big boys.
Not so much last year. Teams were just 18-30 in the non-conference portion of the regular season, and 10 of those victories were against FCS schools. Only three of them (Boise State over Washington and Virginia; Hawaii beating Colorado) were against Power 5 schools.
Doesn’t look good on a resume. So it was no surprise MW commissioner Craig Thompson used the early portion of his state-of-the-conference address at media days in Las Vegas to stress member schools need to be more creative and smarter when scheduling.
His suggestion: One team that would be considered a stretch to beat. Two 50/50 games. One a MW school should be expected to win. Do that and do it well, and within the College Football Playoff structure, a team from the Mountain West should be able to lay a strong claim to the CFP party at the end of the year.
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