Another example of how far MWC has come

Everything Wyoming Cowboy and Mountain West football!
Post Reply
ragtimejoe1
Bronco-Buster
Posts: 5114
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2013 1:21 pm
Has liked: 20 times
Been liked: 116 times

You can decide which direction. Yikes.
Complain all you want about the article but reality is what it is.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/s ... tertaining
WYO1016 wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 8:10 am I'm starting to think that Burman has been laying the pipe to ragtimejoe1's wife
Insults are the last resort of fools with a crumbling position.
User avatar
J-Bone
Ranch Hand
Posts: 331
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2014 3:44 pm
Location: Sheridan, WY
Has liked: 16 times
Been liked: 11 times

ESPN is garbage.
User avatar
WestWYOPoke
WyoNation Addict
Posts: 3315
Joined: Fri Sep 26, 2008 9:35 am
Has liked: 8 times
Been liked: 8 times

I don't agree with their bowl rankings, but it is very apparent that the MWC is no longer the best non-Power 5 conference. The AAC is significantly better this year and, I would argue, the last couple years.

In fact, if you look at the RPI confernce ratings, the AAC is actually #5, ahead of the ACC with MWC at #7.
Image
ragtimejoe1
Bronco-Buster
Posts: 5114
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2013 1:21 pm
Has liked: 20 times
Been liked: 116 times

J-Bone wrote: Fri Dec 13, 2019 10:57 am ESPN is garbage.
Agreed.
Doesn't change the fact that the conference visibility, quality, significance, and bowl tie-ins have deteriorated to near laughable levels. Ok, laughable is a bit harsh, but certainly very significant. I'l bet a national poll would yield similar results.
WYO1016 wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 8:10 am I'm starting to think that Burman has been laying the pipe to ragtimejoe1's wife
Insults are the last resort of fools with a crumbling position.
wyokoke
A Real Cowboy
Posts: 1681
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2013 10:24 am

J-Bone wrote: Fri Dec 13, 2019 10:57 am ESPN is garbage.
So is the MWC
Lost Poke
Cowpoke
Posts: 530
Joined: Thu Sep 25, 2008 9:26 am
Been liked: 15 times

How much have the bowl tie-ins really deteriorated?

Since the Liberty Bowl, which was a notch above what we have now, it's all pretty much the same "meh" tie-ins in some quantity every year.
User avatar
WestWYOPoke
WyoNation Addict
Posts: 3315
Joined: Fri Sep 26, 2008 9:35 am
Has liked: 8 times
Been liked: 8 times

Lost Poke wrote: Fri Dec 13, 2019 4:28 pm How much have the bowl tie-ins really deteriorated?

Since the Liberty Bowl, which was a notch above what we have now, it's all pretty much the same "meh" tie-ins in some quantity every year.
I was thinking about this earlier today actually. I thought about when Wyoming was in the Las Vegas Bowl (2004), they played UCLA. Wyoming finished 4th in the MWC that year but played against a Pac-12 team in the Vegas Bowl. Other mwc bowl games that year: New Mexico vs Navy in Emerald Bowl and Utah vs Pitt in the Fiesta Bowl (an outlier I know).

That's a decent bowl game slate, 3rd bowl bid team gets a Pac-12 opponent, now the best bet (besides NY6) is Vegas against Pac-12.
Image
Expat_Poke
Ranch Hand
Posts: 211
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2014 8:58 pm
Location: Under the evening shadow of the Big Horns
Been liked: 3 times

WestWYOPoke wrote: Fri Dec 13, 2019 10:31 pm
Lost Poke wrote: Fri Dec 13, 2019 4:28 pm How much have the bowl tie-ins really deteriorated?

Since the Liberty Bowl, which was a notch above what we have now, it's all pretty much the same "meh" tie-ins in some quantity every year.
I was thinking about this earlier today actually. I thought about when Wyoming was in the Las Vegas Bowl (2004), they played UCLA. Wyoming finished 4th in the MWC that year but played against a Pac-12 team in the Vegas Bowl. Other mwc bowl games that year: New Mexico vs Navy in Emerald Bowl and Utah vs Pitt in the Fiesta Bowl (an outlier I know).

That's a decent bowl game slate, 3rd bowl bid team gets a Pac-12 opponent, now the best bet (besides NY6) is Vegas against Pac-12.
Wyoming finished 4th in the Conference standings, yes, but BYU the third place team in conference standings finished 5-6 so no bowl game for them. If BYU had finished 6-5 there is a good chance Wyoming wouldn't have gone bowling that year. Only three MWC teams went bowling that year. 1999 was mediocre I would argue worse than this year, 2000-2001 was a little better though I would still say worse than this year, 2002-2010 were the height, and then since 2011 it starts trending down.

A number of things the loss of the top three programs of the conference at the time. I don't care what conference you are, you lose your top three programs you are going to be hurting and it will take time to recover from that. Imagine a Big Ten without Ohio State, Michigan, Penn St, a PAC without Oregon, Washington, USC, Big 12 without Oklahoma, Texas, Baylor, ACC without Clemson, Florida St, Miami, or SEC without Alabama, LSU, Georgia. Utah, TCU, and them other guys had shown they could compete with the big guys and that resulted in the benefit of better bowls. Now we have one school that has shown that Boise State. We need 2-3 more programs to get at that point if we want to get back to the similar bowl matchups we had 2000-2011 as a conference. There are signs of that happening with this year being a better OOC year than some recent ones in the past.

Another factor that hurt the MW was the killing of the WAC. Now the MW needed to raid the WAC after getting scalped by the PAC and Big 12 in order to survive, but there are negative aspects. WAC with good to great Boise St, Nevada, Fresno, Hawaii, and even San Jose St a few years looks better than the MAC.

I think the MWC can get to a similar position eventually and is on the way. We need 3-4 good to great teams in each division and that is obtainable. Keep in mind this year a down Fresno nearly beat a Minnesota team that ended the regular season ranked in the top 25. We had a few bad OOC losses Boise State to BYU, Wyoming to Tulsa (this one hurt), Utah State to BYU (thank goodness San Diego State beat those deserets and I hope Hawaii destroys them on the Island), CSU to Toledo, and then Nevada and Hawaii getting absolutely obliterated by Oregon and Washington respectively. The Wyoming-Tulsa and the Air Force - Navy games hurt the MW vs AAC perspective this year. With that said we had some good OOC wins this year Wyoming - Missouri, Boise State - FSU, Hawaii - Arizona, Nevada - Purdue, Air Force - Colorado, San Jose State - Arkansas.

All in all I see improvement in the conference as a whole. There is still work that needs to be done and that means SDSU, Fresno, Nevada stepping it up in the West while Wyoming needs to get over the hump and figure things out on offense, and hopefully this new Italian Bohl guy the sheep hired rights the ship for them while Air Force keeps doing what they do, and hopefully Utah State avoids falling off. That happens and you will see the conference start to make up ground and it may be faster than expected. Hey I choose to be an optimist today.
Returned from my 4 year exodus in Greenieville
Post Reply