The 2020 Mountain West Conference football season, part of that year's

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division I FBS football season, is the 22nd season of

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for the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...

(MW). Since

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, 12 teams have competed in the MW football conference. On August 10, 2020, the conference suspended all fall sports competitions due to the

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. The season was scheduled to begin on September 3, 2020 and end on November 28, 2020. The Mountain West football Conference Championship Game was to be played on December 5, 2020. The entire schedule was released on February 27, 2020. On September 24, 2020, the conference resumed Football, and is working on resuming other fall sports competitions. The Conference's amended regular-season schedule will begin on Saturday, Oct. 24, with the intent to play eight games. The MW Football Championship Game is slated for Saturday, Dec. 19. The new Mountain West schedule was released October 1.

Previous season

In 2019

Boise State Boise State University (BSU) is a public research university in Boise, Idaho, United States. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding baccalaureate and master's degrees It ...

won the Mountain Division with perfect a 8–0 Conference record conference record while

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

won the West Division with a 5–3 Conference record. Boise State defeated Hawaii 31–10 in the 2019 Mountain West Conference Football Championship Game which was held At Albertson's Stadium in

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Preseason

Potential COVID-19 disruption

On May 12, 2020,

California State University The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a Public university, public university system in California, and the List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment, largest public university system in the United States ...

system chancellor Timothy White announced that all of its 23 campuses would hold essentially all classes in the 2020 fall term online. This in turn raised serious questions whether its member campuses—three of which (

Fresno State California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California, United States. It is part of the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers 60 ba ...

San Diego State San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system. SDSU is ...

, and

San Jose State San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the List of oldest schools in California, oldest public university on the West Coast of ...

) are MW members—would be able to field teams in fall sports, including football, in light of statements by NCAA president

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made on that organization's

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account on May 8: No decision on football at any of the CSU institutions has been made. However, on the same day that the CSU chancellor made his remarks, the

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(CCAA), an

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non-football league whose members are all CSU campuses, publicly announced that it had canceled its 2020 fall sports season.

Mountain West Media

The Mountain West Media days will be held at the

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July 28 and 29.

Preseason Poll

The Preseason Poll will be released in August 2020.

Rankings

Coaches

Coaching changes

There were six coaching changes for Mountain West football programs for the 2020 season.

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

head coach Bob Davie resigned on November 25 and was replaced by

Arizona State Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is one of the largest ...

defensive coordinator

Danny Gonzales Daniel Ray Gonzales (born January 13, 1976) is an American football coach and former player. He is the defensive coordinator at the University of Arizona, a position he has held since 2024. He previously was the head football coach at the Univ ...

on December 17. Later that same day

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. ...

head coach Tony Sanchez also resigned and he was replaced by

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo On December 11. Colorado State's Mike Bobo resigned on December 4 and was replaced by former

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

head coach

Steve Addazio Stephen Robert Addazio (born June 1, 1959) is an American football coach and broadcaster and former player. He became a color commentator for ESPN's college football broadcasts before the 2024 season. Before becoming a broadcaster, Addazio ser ...

head coach

Jeff Tedford Jeffrey Raye Tedford (born November 2, 1961) is an American football coach and former player. From 2002 to 2012, Tedford was the head football coach for the California Golden Bears, where he was twice named Pac-10 Coach of the Year and holds ...

resigned on December 5 and was replaced on December 17 by

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offensive coordinator and former Fresno State assistant Kalen DeBoer. On January 8,

head coach Rocky Long announced his retirement from coaching and was replaced that same day by Aztecs defensive line coach and former head coach Brady Hoke. The final coaching change took place on January 14, when

head coach Nick Rolovich resigned to accept the head coaching position at

Washington State Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...

and was replaced by ex-

head coach

Todd Graham Michael Todd Graham (born December 5, 1964) is an American college football coach and former player who serves as an offensive analyst for TCU. He was most recently the head football coach at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Playing car ...

On January 21.

Head coaches

Schedule

The season began on October 3, 2020 and will end on December 19, 2020.

Regular season

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Week Four

Week Five

Week Six

Week Seven

Week Eight

Week Nine

Week Ten

Championship Game

Canceled regular season games

The following non-conference games were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic: Aug. 29
* Idaho State at New Mexico * Hawaii at Arizona * UC Davis at Nevada * California at UNLV Sep. 3 * Washington State at Utah State Sept. 5
* Duquesne at Air Force * Georgia Southern at Boise State * New Mexico at Mississippi State * UCLA at Hawaii * Colorado at Colorado State * Weber State at Wyoming * Idaho State at Fresno State * Nevada at Arkansas * Sacramento State at San Diego State * San Jose State at Central Michigan * Louisiana Tech at UNLV Sept. 12
* Arizona State at UNLV * New Mexico at USC * Fresno State at Colorado * Southern Utah at Utah State * Wyoming at Louisiana * Fordham at Hawaii * UTEP at Nevada * Colorado State at Oregon State * San Diego State at Toledo * UC Davis at San Jose State Sept. 19
* Air Force at Purdue * Florida State at Boise State * Northern Colorado at Colorado State * UCLA at San Diego State * New Mexico at New Mexico State * Utah at Wyoming * Hawaii at Oregon * San Jose State at Penn State * Nevada at South Florida * Utah State at Washington * UNLV at Iowa State Sep. 26 * Boise State at Marshall * Colorado State at Vanderbilt * Wyoming at Ball State Oct. 2 * Utah State at BYU Oct. 3 * UMass at New Mexico Oct. 10
* Fresno State at Texas A&M * New Mexico State at Hawaii Oct. 17 * New Mexico State at Fresno State Nov. 14 * UConn at San Jose State

Postseason

Bowl Games

Rankings are from AP rankings. All times Mountain Time Zone. Mountain West teams shown in bold.

Awards and honors

Player of the week Honors

Mountain West Individual Awards

The following individuals received postseason honors as voted by the Mountain West Conference football coaches at the end of the season

All-conference teams

Ref:

All-Americans

The 2020 College Football All-America Teams are composed of the following

College Football All-American The College Football All-America Team is an honor given annually to the best college football players in the United States at their respective positions. The original use of the term ''All-America'' seems to have been to the 1889 College Football ...

first teams chosen by the following selector organizations:

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(AP),

Football Writers Association of America The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) is an organization of college football media members in the United States founded in 1941. It is composed of approximately 1,200 professional sports writers from both print and Internet media out ...

(FWAA),

American Football Coaches Association The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) is an association of over 11,000 American football coaches and staff on all levels. According to its constitution, some of the main goals of the American Football Coaches Association are to "mainta ...

(AFCA), Walter Camp Foundation (WCFF), ''

The Sporting News ''The Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a ...

'' (''TSN''), ''

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'' (''SI''), ''

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'' (USAT)

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(CBS),

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(FOX) ''

College Football News ''College Football News'' (''CFN'') is a magazine and website published by College Football News, Inc., headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. News coverage includes scores, statistics, rankings, and reports on college football games. Analysis incl ...

'' (''CFN''),

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(BR), Scout.com,

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(PS),

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(SB),

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, Pro Football Focus (PFF) and

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(Yahoo!). Currently, the NCAA compiles consensus all-America teams in the sports of Division I-FBS football and Division I men's basketball using a point system computed from All-America teams named by coaches associations or media sources. The system consists of three points for a first-team honor, two points for second-team honor, and one point for third-team honor. Honorable mention and fourth team or lower recognitions are not accorded any points. Football consensus teams are compiled by position and the player accumulating the most points at each position is named first team consensus all-American. Currently, the NCAA recognizes All-Americans selected by the AP, AFCA, FWAA, ''TSN'', and the WCFF to determine Consensus and Unanimous All-Americans. Any player named to the First Team by all five of the NCAA-recognized selectors is deemed a Unanimous All-American.

Home game attendance

TBA

NFL Draft

The following list includes all Mountain West players who were drafted in the

2021 NFL draft The 2021 NFL draft was the 86th National Football League draft, the annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2021 NFL season. The draft was held in Cleveland, Ohio from April 29 to May ...

Footnotes

References

{{2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season navbox Mountain West Conference football season