2018 Mountain West football schedule announced

By Kevin Kelley -

The 2018 Mountain West football schedule has been announced. Conference play begins on Saturday, Aug. 25 with Hawaii at Colorado State.

Featured 2018 non-conference match-ups for the MWC include Air Force at Army, Boise State at Oklahoma State, Colorado State at Florida, Fresno State at UCLA, Hawaii at BYU, Oregon State at Nevada, New Mexico at Wisconsin, Arizona State at San Diego State, San Jose State at Oregon, UNLV at USC, Utah State at Michigan State, and Wyoming at Missouri.

The 2018 Mountain West Championship Game will be played on Saturday, Dec. 1. It will be a match-up of the Mountain and West Division winners and will be hosted by the highest ranked team.

2018 Mountain West Football Schedules

Mountain Division

West Division

2018 Mountain West Football Schedule (Composite)

Saturday, Aug. 25
Hawai‘i at Colorado State
Wyoming at New Mexico State

Thursday, Aug. 30
UC Davis at San José State

Friday, Aug. 31
Utah State at Michigan State
San Diego State at Stanford
Colorado State vs. Colorado (in Denver)

Saturday, Sept. 1
Stony Brook at Air Force
Boise State at Troy
Incarnate Word at New Mexico
Washington State at Wyoming
Idaho at Fresno State
Navy at Hawai‘i
Portland State at Nevada
UNLV at USC

Saturday, Sept. 8
Air Force at Florida Atlantic
Connecticut at Boise State
Arkansas at Colorado State
New Mexico at Wisconsin
New Mexico State at Utah State
Wyoming at Missouri
Fresno State at Minnesota
Rice at Hawai‘i
Nevada at Vanderbilt
Sacramento State at San Diego State
San José State at Washington State
UTEP at UNLV

Thursday, Sept. 13
Tennessee Tech at Utah State

Saturday, Sept. 15
Boise State at Oklahoma State
Colorado State at Florida
New Mexico at New Mexico State
Wofford at Wyoming
Fresno State at UCLA
Hawai‘i at Army
Oregon State at Nevada
Arizona State at San Diego State
San José State at Oregon
Prairie View A&M at UNLV

Saturday, Sept. 22
Air Force at Utah State
Illinois State at Colorado State
Duquesne at Hawai‘i
Nevada at Toledo
Eastern Michigan at San Diego State
UNLV at Arkansas State

Saturday, Sept. 29
Nevada at Air Force
Boise State at Wyoming
Liberty at New Mexico
Toledo at Fresno State
Hawai‘i at San José State

Friday, Oct. 5
Utah State at BYU

Saturday, Oct. 6
Navy at Air Force
San Diego State at Boise State
Colorado State at San José State
New Mexico at UNLV
Wyoming at Hawai‘i
Fresno State at Nevada

Friday, Oct. 12
Air Force at San Diego State

Saturday, Oct. 13
Boise State at Nevada
New Mexico at Colorado State
UNLV at Utah State
Wyoming at Fresno State
Hawai‘i at BYU
Army at San José State

Friday, Oct. 19
Air Force at UNLV
Colorado State at Boise State

Saturday, Oct. 20
Utah State at Wyoming
Fresno State at New Mexico
Nevada at Hawai‘i
San José State at San Diego State

Friday, Oct. 26
Wyoming at Colorado State

Saturday, Oct. 27
Boise State at Air Force
New Mexico at Utah State
Hawai‘i at Fresno State
San Diego State at Nevada
UNLV at San José State

Saturday, Nov. 3
Air Force at Army
BYU at Boise State
San Diego State at New Mexico
Utah State at Hawai‘i
San José State at Wyoming
Fresno State at UNLV

Friday, Nov. 9
Fresno State at Boise State

Saturday, Nov. 10
New Mexico at Air Force
Colorado State at Nevada
San José State at Utah State
UNLV at San Diego State

Friday, Nov. 16
Boise State at New Mexico

Saturday, Nov. 17
Air Force at Wyoming
Utah State at Colorado State
Nevada at San José State
San Diego State at Fresno State
UNLV at Hawai‘i

Thursday, Nov. 22
Colorado State at Air Force

Saturday, Nov. 24
Utah State at Boise State
Wyoming at New Mexico
Hawai‘i at San Diego State
Nevada at UNLV
San José State at Fresno State

Saturday, Dec. 1
Mountain West Football Championship Game

Comments (11)

Finally, the MWC (almost) got it right with Thanksgiving weekend. Colorado St.-Wyoming and Air Force-New Mexico would have been better.

AIr Force-CSU is better because it’s in-state. Keep in-mind that the MWC’s TV partners ideally want as many in-state rivalries on the final week schedule as possible. Also ideally, the California teams and Hawaii will take turns playing each other on this final week, giving each of the Cali rivalries a chance to be featured on rivalry week.

Z Man, sorry but I disagree. Colorado St.-Wyoming has a longer history of 109 games. They are each other’s most played opponent (and the second most played opponent for each team is 89 and 83 games respectively, neither of which is against Air Force). Air Force and Colorado St. have only played 56 times. Air Force is Colorado State’s 7th most played opponent. Colorado State and Wyoming are 65 miles apart, while Colorado State and Air Force are 125 miles apart. Also, New Mexico is closer to Air Force than any other MWC school, and Air Force is closest to New Mexico (other than to Colorado St. and Wyoming). While I prefer in-state rivalries, this is one exception to the rule.

As for California teams and Hawaii, San Jose St.-Fresno St. and San Diego St.-Hawaii makes the most sense. San Jose State and Fresno State are each other’s most played opponent at 81 games. Again, any other rivalry between any of the four teams is at 57 games or less. Again, San Jose State and Fresno State are 155 miles apart. Next closest is Fresno State to San Diego State at 350 miles. Also, Hawaii is probably closest to San Diego State. Ohio State doesn’t rotate the other Ohio FBS teams during rivalry week, so neither should the California MWC teams. You don’t establish a rival by rotating it.

On an unrelated note, I hated when the AAC added Wichita State, and I am not liking that the MWC is talking to Gonzaga. Hawaii should come all in as a full member.

Hawaii is in the Big West for travel cost reasons. I’d prefer the MWC add Seattle anyway because of market size. Wichita State joined the American because they provide a strong basketball team to the conference and offset Navy being football-only.

While Gonzaga is the better basketball team, Seattle is in a larger market and has the WAC connection that other MWC members have.

I don’t like these hybrid affiliations. You should be all in as a full member or not at all. Isn’t that why the original Big East broke up? And isn’t Gonzaga the same as Wichita St. as to what they bring to table.

The American hasn’t made the same mistakes its predecessor made.

While Gonzaga is a strong basketball program it is hampered by being in the 73rd-ranked market. Seattle on the other hand is in the 14th-ranked market. Conferences added a lot of new members for the markets they brought in in the last round of realignment (Big Ten as an example, added Maryland and Rutgers to get into Baltimore/Washington and NYC).

while although the MWC may want Seattle, SU may not want to be in the MW.
They’re a small private school, while the rest of the MW schools are big public schools (with the exception of Air Force, which is rather small). WCC would be a better fit for them, as they would have geographic rivalries with Portland and Gonzaga, and they fit the WCC theme of small private religious schools. Plus Seattle U was in the WCC way back in the day. Small schools like Seattle could probably care less about what their market size is in relation to athletics.
Smaller conferences and schools, especially ones with no history of success, aren’t ran like corporations, like the ACC and Big Ten are. They just want their students to have a good time, and occasionally get a game televised.
If the MW wants to add another school it should be NMSU or UTEP imo.

P.S. Kevin, we can’t see which comments are replying to what. Every comment except for yours is just shown as a comment to the article, while some are probably replies to other comments.