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Mountain West Connection

All you need to know about the Mountain West, and then some

Latest Entries

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: Way Too Early Mountain West Rankings

The 2025 season is over and we are entering a new era of college football on the west coast with the PAC 12 rebuilding itself with five teams from the Mountain West. Meanwhile, the Mountain West reloaded with the additions of UTEP and Northern Illinois. Over the next few weeks, we are going to take […]

Mountaintop View 1-13-26

UH Athletics could be getting $4.1 million in NIL funding The never-ending race for financial support in college athletics continues. Hawaii is looking to the state government for help. In a pleasant surprise, Hawaii football retained the services of Micah Alejado this portal cycle. Hawaii wants to keep that NIL momentum going. The Aggies are […]

Jaxton Eck Video Interview Out Now!

If you missed the latest episode of the Hike’s Peak podcast, we talked to New Mexico star linebacker Jaxton Eck about his historic first season in Albuquerque. Don’t worry if you haven’t gotten to it yet, because the video version has just been uploaded! You can find that below. Graduating from Brookings High School in […]

2025-26 Mountain West Basketball Power Rankings: Jan. 12

Happy Monday, everyone! We are approaching the two-month mark until the Mountain West men’s basketball tournament and Selection Sunday! Time flies — opening night felt like it was yesterday! Anyway, what do our power rankings look like for this week after another week of exciting action?! Let’s dive into it! 1. Utah State Utah State […]

Mountain West Recruiting Roundup 1-12-26. Transfer Portal Madness.

It’s another week of the Mountain West Recruiting Roundup. The portal has only been open for ten days, but Mountain West teams have packed about a month’s worth of action into the past week, as can be seen below. And as discussed last week, we know that not all transfer players even report offers or […]

Mountain West Connection Players of the Week 1/12/26

The second full week of conference play is behind us and a clear leader has emerged for the conference championship. With that being said, there have been a number of outstanding performances and the race for postseason honors appears to be a tight one. Let’s take a look at which players stood out from this […]

Fresno State splits week, sits at 7-9.

The Fresno State Bulldogs ended this week with a split in their contests, beating San Jose State 70-55 on Wednesday, and dropped a 71-52 decision to San Diego State on Saturday. In Wednesday’s contest, in which the Bulldogs ended a six-game losing streak, DeShawn Gory ended with a double-double in scoring 16 points and grabbing […]

2025-26 Mountain West Bracketology: January 9

Happy Friday, everyone! As we continue forward with the Mountain West men’s basketball season, we will be updating the conference’s bracketology outlook as we approach the big dance in March! Let’s dive into this week’s update! At Large Candidates: Utah State: NET: 16 KenPom: 26 Lunardi: No. 7 seed Bracket Matrix (out of 58 brackets; Jan. 7): […]

The Transfer Portal Era of College Athletics, 2026

College athletics, once grounded in loyalty, growth, and tradition, now seems more like free agency without guidelines. It is getting to where there have to be more regulations or guidelines for it to survive. College sports are changing at breakneck speed, and not everyone believes it’s for the better. As the transfer portal and NIL […]

Boise State has a guard problem

Through 16 games, the Boise State Broncos have maintained their status quo on the defensive end of the floor. They have the No. 26-ranked defensive effciency with the nation’s second-highest defensive rebound rate (77.1). While they don’t typically force a ton of turnovers, Leon Rice’s squads have typically been among the sound units defensively in […]

Stats Corner: Understanding Basketball Ranking Methods

Every year, the NCAA Selection Committee faces the monumental task of seeding the NCAA Tournament, a decision heavily influenced by complex ranking systems. But what exactly are these systems, and how do they determine a team’s fate? For decades, the NCAA relied on the RPI, but starting in the 2019 season, a new contender emerged: […]

2026 Hula Bowl Preview

The 2025 college football season is over, but all-star bowls will be occurring over the next few weeks. The most prominent of these bowls are the Hula Bowl, the American Bowl, the East-West Shrine Game, and the Senior Bowl. This post will focus on the Hula Bowl. These events are used primarily as camps with […]

Mountaintop View 1-8-26

QB Jackson Arnold headed to UNLV, third team in three seasons It is official, UNLV has signed former super recruit Jackson Arnold. A headline that would confuse many a month ago when offensive player of the year Anthony Colandrea stated he would be returning to UNLV. Since then, Colandrea has left for Nebraska, and the […]

Lobos get the road victory against CSU at Moby Arena

photo courtesy of UNM Athletics Lobos Earn Statement Road Win at Colorado State Mountain West ConnectionBy Roger A. Holien FORT COLLINS, Colo. — New Mexico passed one of its early Mountain West Road tests Tuesday night, leaving Moby Arena with an impressive 80–70 victory over Colorado State in a performance that showcased maturity, balance, and […]

Mountain West Basketball Transfer Portal Team: Mid-season

Welcome back to the transfer portal team of the week! We took a few weeks off after the end of the football season, but with basketball in full swing, it’s time to get going on the hardwood. The Mountain West is roughly halfway through their regular season, so to catch us up, here are the […]

Peak Perspective: Mid-majors find a way, despite moving goalposts.

The expanded College Football Playoff has seen Group of 5 schools smash the glass ceiling two years in a row. 2024: Boise State earned the three seed, one spot higher than the Big 12 champion (Arizona State) and edging out ACC champ SMU. 2025: Two Group of 5 schools (Tulane, JMU) earned playoff spots due […]

Mountaintop View 1-7-26. Football calendar changes? Disappointing teams, MBB Rankings, Phil Steele All-American, WBB POTW

It’s Wednesday, and we are up and running! Keep up with all the basketball news, and we will continue to provide lots of coverage around the transfer portal! See what is coming your way today on our site and around the internet. CFB’s cluttered calendar. Ross Delinger says there may be some changes to college […]

UNLV overwhelmed early, falls 98–66 against Wyoming

UNLV’s momentum came to a crashing stop Tuesday night at Laramie as Wyoming shot lights out from three and dominated inside to hand the Rebels a 98-66 loss.  Historically, UNLV dominated the matchup, holding a 47-21 series lead over Wyoming heading into this one, but none of its previous success against the Cowboys carried over. […]

Spartans flat in loss to Fresno, as Garland exits but Bell shines

San Jose State (5-10, 0-4 MW) came into Tuesday night knowing the margin for error was already thin. By the time the final horn sounded at Provident Credit Union Event Center, it was clear just how fragile that margin had become. Fresno State (7-8, 1-3 MW) handed the Spartans a 70–55 loss in a Mountain […]

Interview w/ New Mexico star LB Jaxton Eck! MW DPOY on Lobo fans, family, & staying in New Mexico! Portal Update for ALL 12 TEAMS! HP Ep. #136 OUT NOW!

Welcome back everyone, to the Hike’s peak podcast, thank you for coming back to the mountain! We have a very, very special episode for you all today, as we will be joined by none other than Mountain West defensive player of the year and New Mexico star linebacker Jaxton Eck! We got his thoughts on […]