The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. As American settlement i ...

, participating in

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

. Its

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on January 4, 1999. Geographically, the MW covers a broad expanse of the

, with member schools located in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

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 ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

and

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 ...

. Gloria Nevarez took over as commissioner of the MW on January 1, 2023, following the retirement of founding commissioner Craig Thompson. The charter members of the MW included the

United States Air Force Academy The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academies, United States service academy in Air Force Academy, Colorado, Air Force Academy Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Colorado Springs. I ...

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado, United States. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University Syst ...

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a Public university, 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 (CS ...

, the University of New Mexico, the

University of Nevada, Las Vegas The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, 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 Utah and the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming, United States. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, ...

. Before forming the Mountain West Conference, seven of its eight charter members had been longtime members of the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington. Due to ...

(WAC) and half of these had been charter members of that conference from 1962. Overall, each school that has ever been either a full or football-only member of the MW spent at least three years in the WAC before joining the Mountain West.

History

Genesis

The creation of the MW was a delayed aftereffect of the 1996 NCAA conference realignment, which had initially been triggered two years earlier when the

Big Eight Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored American football, football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate ...

agreed to merge with four members of the

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference also included schools from Oklaho ...

(SWC) to create the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...

, which would begin competition in the 1996–97 school year. The Western Athletic Conference, which had initially announced plans to expand beyond its then-current 10 members to at least 12, ended up with even more potential expansion prospects. Ultimately, the WAC took in three of the four SWC schools left out of the Big 12 merger,

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

, Southern Methodist University (SMU), and Texas Christian University (TCU). Three other schools were added to bring the total membership to 16, namely Big West Conference members San José State University and UNLV, plus the University of Tulsa, an NCAA football independent and otherwise a member of the

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the fourth-oldest collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwestern Unite ...

. The WAC's 16 teams were divided into four four-team "quadrants", two of which rotated between the Mountain and Pacific Divisions every two years. However, the newly expanded WAC was soon wracked by tension between the established and new members. In spring of 1998, BYU and Utah proposed a permanent split into two eight-team divisions. The proposal would have forced some schools into an unnatural alignment because of the geographic distribution of the conference. Air Force was the most strident opponent of this proposal, threatening to become an independent. Soon after the proposal by BYU and Utah, the presidents of Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, Utah, and Wyoming met at Denver International Airport to discuss their future, and they agreed to break away from the WAC to form a new conference. They invited the WAC members New Mexico, San Diego State, and UNLV to join them in what became the Mountain West Conference. The next move for the MW came in

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

, when the conference added TCU, who had spent the previous four seasons in Conference USA (C-USA).

Early–2010s realignment

On June 11, 2010, Boise State University agreed to join the conference as its tenth member. On June 17, 2010, Utah announced it would be leaving the Mountain West to join what would become the

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level for all sports, and its Co ...

. On August 18, 2010, amidst rumors that BYU was considering leaving the Mountain West to go independent in football and rejoin the Western Athletic Conference in all other sports, the Mountain West Conference officially extended invitations to

California State University, Fresno 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 ...

(Fresno State) and the University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada). Both schools accepted and would become the tenth and eleventh members of the league. BYU announced on August 31, 2010, that it would leave the Mountain West Conference and go Independent in football and become a member of the West Coast Conference (WCC) in other sports starting in 2011. On November 29, 2010, TCU announced all athletic teams would move to the

Big East Conference The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

effective in 2012. (Less than a year later, on October 10, 2011, TCU announced it would not join the Big East but would join the Big 12, home to fellow former SWC members Baylor,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, Texas Tech, and formerly

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

, in 2012 instead.) On December 10, 2010, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa accepted a bid to become the 10th member of the conference for football only. These changes would leave the Mountain West Conference with 10 teams for the 2012 football season. During the era of football's

Bowl Championship Series The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a college football post-season selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of America ...

(BCS), which was replaced by the College Football Playoff (CFP) in 2014, the MW champion qualified for a BCS bowl four times after the BCS formula was tweaked to allow teams from non-BCS conferences to play in BCS bowls if ranked in the top 12. However, two of the three schools that qualified are no longer with the conference. On October 14, 2011, the Mountain West and C-USA announced a plan for a football only alliance. On February 13, 2012, the two leagues announced that both conferences would be dissolving after the 2012–13 season to reform into one conference with at least 15 members for all sports, and a 16th team, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa as a football-only member. However, when the two conferences discussed their plans with the NCAA, they were told that due to NCAA rules, they would forfeit substantial revenues. Specifically, the new conference would receive only one automatic bid to NCAA championships; at least one of the former conferences would lose future revenue distributions from the NCAA men's basketball tournament; and at least one former conference would not be able to collect exit fees from any members that departed to join the new conference. As a result, the Mountain West and C-USA backed away from a full merger. In late March of that year, the commissioners of both conferences stated that all 16 schools had entered into binding agreements to form a new "association", although the Mountain West and C-USA would have apparently remained separate legal entities. In the end, this alliance never materialized due to both conferences soon adding new teams. On May 2, 2012, San José State and Utah State agreed to join the conference for the 2013–14 academic year. On December 31 of that year, Boise State announced that it had backed out of its previously announced move to the Big East for football and the Big West for other sports, and would remain in the MW. On January 16, 2013, San Diego State accepted an offer to remain/return to the Mountain West Conference in all sports. Keeping SDSU in the conference gave the Mountain West 12 football members, allowing for a championship game to be held. The first championship game took place on December 7, 2013.

Further membership changes

In February 2018, '' The San Diego Union-Tribune'' reported that the MW was looking to expand in the near future. In the report, commissioner Craig Thompson revealed that the conference had discussed expansion with six schools, with WCC member Gonzaga (which has not sponsored football since World War II) the only school mentioned by name. Thompson added that Gonzaga could potentially join the MW as a full but non-football member as early as July 2018. While Thompson said that BYU had not contacted the conference, the report indicated that BYU would be open to an MW return, at least in non-football sports, should Gonzaga join. A later ''Union-Tribune'' report indicated that talks were advanced enough that the conference's presidents planned a vote on an invitation to Gonzaga during the MW men's and women's basketball tournaments in Las Vegas, but decided to delay the vote until after the Final Four. However, on April 2, the day of the Division I men's title game, Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth notified the MW, the WCC, and media that the school would remain in the WCC for the immediate future. On June 30, 2022, UCLA and Southern Cal announced their departure from the

to the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

beginning in the 2024–25 academic year. After that announcement, San Diego State had been considered one of the top candidates for Pac-12 expansion. On June 16, 2023, Pete Thamel of

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

reported that San Diego State had given the Mountain West Conference notice that the school would be departing from the conference and asked for an extension for the departure deadline of July 1, 2023, to avoid paying extra exit fees. The Mountain West Conference denied the request for a deadline extension and considered the letter from San Diego State as a formal notice of departure and began to proceed with the separation process; however, San Diego State disputed that its letter of intent was a formal notice. On June 30, 2023, with the Pac-12 still lacking a media rights agreement for 2024–25, ESPN reported that San Diego State would remain in the Mountain West Conference, rescinding the intention to withdraw from the conference. The MW and San Diego State reached a settlement of their dispute the following month, with SDSU remaining a member for the immediate future. In September 2023, after a mass exodus from the Pac-12 left Oregon State and Washington State as its only remaining members, MW commissioner Gloria Nevarez began discussions with the two schools regarding various options for partnership, affiliation, or merger. On December 1, 2023, the conference announced that it would enter into a football scheduling agreement with the two schools for the 2024 season. All 12 Mountain West members will play one game against either Oregon State or Washington State next season, giving both schools three home games and three away games. These games will not count towards Mountain West conference standings, and Oregon State and Washington State will remain members of the Pac-12. On April 16, 2024, it was also announced that Washington State would be joining the MW as an affiliate for baseball and women's swimming. On September 12, 2024, it was announced that Boise State, Fresno State, Colorado State, and San Diego State would be leaving the MW and joining the Pac-12 in 2026. On September 23, Utah State also accepted an offer to join the Pac-12 in 2026 as its seventh member. On October 1, 2024 it was announced that the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) will be joining the Mountain West starting in the 2026–27 academic year. On October 14, Craig Angelos, athletic director of football-only member

, confirmed outside reports that the school would upgrade to full MW membership in 2026. This move was officially announced the next day. On November 1, 2024, Grand Canyon University announced it was joining the Mountain West no later than July 1, 2026. On December 10, 2024 it was announced that UC Davis would join the Mountain West Conference in all sports except football, for which it will remain in the Big Sky Conference. This move is expected on July 1, 2026. On January 3, 2025, Northern Illinois University accepted an invitation from the MW to join for

only in 2026. The move became official on January 7, after approval by NIU's governing board.

Member schools

Current full members

Members departing for the

in 2026.

Future members

;Notes

Current affiliate members

;Notes:

Future affiliate members

Former full members

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1998 till:2030 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:5 left:5 bottom:20 top:5 Colors = id:line value:black id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # all sports id:FullxF value:rgb(0.551,0.824,0.777) # all sports except for football id:AssocF value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) # football only id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.5,0.691,0.824) # some sports, but not all id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference where OtherC1 has already been used, to distinguish the two PlotData = width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:OtherC1 from:1998 till:1999 text: WAC bar:1 color:Full from:1999 till:end text:

Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

(1999–present) bar:2 color:OtherC1 from:1998 till:1999 text: WAC bar:2 color:Full from:1999 till:2011 text: BYU (1999–2011) bar:2 color:OtherC1 from:2011 till:2023 text: WCC (FB Independent) bar:2 color:OtherC2 from:2023 till:end text: Big 12 bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:1998 till:1999 text: WAC bar:3 color:Full from:1999 till:end text: Colorado State (1999–2026) bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:2026 till:end text: Pac-12 bar:4 color:OtherC1 from:1998 till:1999 text: WAC bar:4 color:Full from:1999 till:end text: UNLV (1999–present) bar:5 color:OtherC1 from:1998 till:1999 text: WAC bar:5 color:Full from:1999 till:end text:

(1999–present) bar:6 color:OtherC1 from:1998 till:1999 text: WAC bar:6 color:Full from:1999 till:end text: San Diego State (1999–2026) bar:6 color:OtherC1 from:2026 till:end text: Pac-12 bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:1998 till:1999 text: WAC bar:7 color:Full from:1999 till:2011 text:

(1999–2011) bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:2011 till:end text: Pac-12 bar:7 color:OtherC2 from:2024 till:end text: Big 12 bar:8 color:OtherC1 from:1998 till:1999 text: WAC bar:8 color:Full from:1999 till:end text:

(1999–present) bar:9 color:OtherC1 from:1998 till:2001 text: WAC bar:9 color:OtherC2 from:2001 till:2005 text: Conference USA bar:9 color:Full from:2005 till:2012 text: TCU (2005–2012) bar:9 color:OtherC2 from:2012 till:end text: Big 12 bar:10 color:OtherC2 from:1998 till:2001 text: Big West bar:10 color:OtherC1 from:2001 till:2011 text: WAC bar:10 color:Full from:2011 till:2026 text: Boise State (2011–2026) bar:10 color:OtherC1 from:2026 till:end text: Pac-12 bar:11 color:OtherC1 from:1998 till:2012 text: WAC bar:11 color:Full from:2012 till:2026 text: Fresno State (2012–2026) bar:11 color:OtherC1 from:2026 till:end text: Pac-12 bar:12 color:OtherC1 from:1998 till:2012 text: WAC bar:12 color:AssocF from:2012 till:2026 text: Hawaiʻi (2012–present) bar:12 color:Full from:2026 till:end bar:13 color:OtherC2 from:1998 till:2000 text: Big West bar:13 shift:(20) color:OtherC1 from:2000 till:2012 text: WAC bar:13 color:Full from:2012 till:end text:

(2012–present) bar:14 color:OtherC1 from:1998 till:2013 text: WAC bar:14 color:Full from:2013 till:end text: San Jose State (2013–present) bar:15 color:OtherC2 from:1998 till:2005 text: Big West bar:15 color:OtherC1 from:2005 till:2013 text: WAC bar:15 color:Full from:2013 till:2026 text: Utah State (2013–2026) bar:15 color:OtherC1 from:2026 till:end text: Pac-12 bar:16 color:AssocOS from:2014 till:end text: Colorado College (2014–present) bar:17 color:AssocOS from:2024 till:end text: Washington State (2024–present) bar:18 color:OtherC1 from:1998 till:2004 text: CCAA bar:18 color:OtherC2 from:2004 till:2005 shift:(-5) text: D-II Ind. bar:18 color:OtherC1 from:2005 till:2013 text: PacWest bar:18 color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:2026 text: WAC bar:18 color:FullxF from:2026 till:end text:

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a mile (). The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon Nati ...

(2026–future) bar:19 color:OtherC1 from:1998 till:2026 text: MAC bar:19 color:AssocF from:2026 till:end text: Northern Illinois (2026–future) bar:20 color:OtherC1 from:1998 till:2004 text: CCAA bar:20 color:OtherC2 from:2004 till:2007 text: D-I Ind. bar:20 color:OtherC1 from:2007 till:2026 text: Big West bar:20 color:FullxF from:2026 till:end text:

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

(2026–future) bar:21 color:OtherC1 from:1998 till:2005 text: WAC bar:21 color:OtherC2 from:2005 till:2026 text: Conference USA bar:21 color:Full from:2026 till:end text: UTEP (2026–future) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:2000 # > Legend: <#

NCAA team championships

Excluded from this list are all national championships earned outside the scope of NCAA competition, including Division I FBS football titles, women's AIAW championships (17), equestrian titles (0), and retroactive Helms Athletic Foundation titles.

Sports

The Mountain West Conference sponsors championship competition in eight men's and 11 women's NCAA sanctioned sports. Hawai'i is only an associate member for football, and Colorado College is only an associate member for women's soccer.

Men's sports

Men's varsity sports not sponsored by the Mountain West

Future members in gray.

Women's sports

Women's varsity sports not sponsored by the Mountain West

Future members in gray.

Athletic department revenue by school

Total revenue includes ticket sales, contributions and donations, rights and licensing, student fees, school funds and all other sources including TV income, camp income, concessions, and novelties. Total expenses includes coach and staff salaries, scholarships, buildings and grounds, maintenance, utilities and rental fees, recruiting, team travel, equipment and uniforms, conference dues, and insurance. The following table shows institutional reporting to the

United States Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a cabinet-level department of the United States government, originating in 1980. The department began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and ...

as shown on the DOE Equity in Athletics website for the 2022–23 academic year. However, since Air Force is not available from that source, it was obtained from Knight Commission for the 2022–2023 academic year.

Conference champions

Rivalries

Conference (football)

Totals and records following the completion of the 2022 football season.

Non–conference (including other sports)

Football

Divisions

Beginning in 2013, the conference split into two divisions, named the "Mountain Division" and "West Division," of six teams each for football. The Mountain West also added a conference championship game, pitting the winners of the two divisions. This first championship game took place on December 7, 2013, at Bulldog Stadium in

Fresno, California Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

, the home stadium of Fresno State, the divisional winner with the higher BCS ranking. Each team played five divisional games and three cross-divisional contests annually. The 2015 championship game featured the Air Force Academy Falcons against the San Diego State University Aztecs. The 2016 championship game featured the San Diego State University Aztecs against the University of Wyoming Cowboys. On May 20, 2022, the conference approved a new football schedule format, set to take effect in the 2023 season. Under this format, the conference will remove divisions, and instead play a 2–6 format, where each team plays 2 designated rivals every year along with six separate 6-team rotations that flip every other year, such that every team will have at least one home game and one away game against every other team in a three-year cycle (less than the standard length of a college player's career). The MW Championship will also no longer be determined by the winners of the two divisions; the two teams with the highest conference winning percentage will play instead. The designated rivals under this system are as follows: Prior to this, the division format was as follows: * No other MW sport is split into divisions—including women's soccer, the only other conference sport with 12 competing schools (with Colorado College as the 12th member).

Bowl games

The Mountain West Conference has agreements with six bowls. Since the 2014 season, the Mountain West champion is eligible for an at-large berth in the Cotton Bowl Classic, Fiesta Bowl, or Peach Bowl, if it is the highest-ranked conference champion among the "Group of Five" conferences (which also includes The American, CUSA, MAC, and Sun Belt) in the final College Football Playoff rankings, if it is not in the top 4. In the 2014 season, Boise State became the first team to receive this berth, being selected for and winning the Fiesta Bowl. As of 2020, * If

is bowl eligible and not MW champions or selected for a CFP bowl, they will receive a berth in the Hawaii Bowl. * The MW will only send a team to the Cactus or San Francisco Bowls if one of the primary conferences affiliated with those bowls is unable to fill their slots.

Bowl records

As of the 2024-25 bowl games

Bowl Challenge Cup

created the Bowl Challenge Cup in 2002 for the conference that had the best college football bowl record among Division I Football Bowl Subdivision conferences. The conference has won it five times, more than any other conference, by finishing with bowl game records of 2–1 in 2004–05, 4–1 in 2007–08,Mountain West Posts Top Bowl Win Percentage Among FBS Subdivision Conferences
/ref> 4–1 in 2009–10, 4–1 in 2010–11 and 5–1 in 2021–22.

Men's basketball

The Mountain West and

s hold an annual challenge series that was renewed in the 2015–16 season after a two-year hiatus. The series began in the 2009–10 season but temporarily ended when the original contract ran out after the 2012–13 season, During the first four seasons of the series, it involved all members of the MW and an equal number of the 10 MVC teams in basketball. With the MW now having 11 basketball members to the MVC's 10, the renewed series involves all MVC teams, with one MW team sitting out. The first game was on November 13, 2009, featuring the

Bradley Braves The Bradley Braves are the intercollegiate athletics teams of Bradley University, located in Peoria, Illinois, United States. The Braves' athletic program is a member of the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) and competes at the Division I (NCAA), ...

and the BYU Cougars in Provo and it concluded on December 23 with the Wyoming Cowboys visiting the Northern Iowa Panthers in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The challenge is similar to the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, which pits men's basketball teams from the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

and the

NCAA tournament records

As of the 2023–24 NCAA Division I men's basketball season

Women's basketball

NCAA tournament records

Facilities

;Notes

Elevation

The Mountain West's slogan is "Above the rest", and over half of the member institutions, plus women's soccer-only member Colorado College, are at more than above sea level. This impacts endurance in sports like football, soccer, and the distance races in track & field and swimming meets; air resistance in sprints and horizontal jumps in track & field; and aerodynamics in baseball, softball, tennis, golf, and the discus and javelin throws. The Mountain West's institutions have the highest average elevations in

sports.

Campus and football stadium elevations

Schools in ''italics'' are single-sport members. In the case of women's soccer-only member Colorado College, "stadium elevation" refers to the school's soccer venue.

References

External links

* {{Subject bar, auto=y, d=y 1998 establishments in the United States Organizations based in Colorado Springs, Colorado Sports in the Western United States Organizations established in 1998 Articles which contain graphical timelines