Useful Notes / Mountain West Conference Football Programs

Following

Mountain West Conference

^{Click here to see a map of the Mountain West's schools in 2026.} Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, and Utah State are leaving the MW to the rebuilding Pac-12 for the 2026 season. In response, the MW invited UTEP to flip over from CUSA, Northern Illinois to move from the MAC, and North Dakota State to make the jump from FCS that same year.

Year Established: 1998
Current schools: 10; Air Force, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota State (football only), Northern Illinois (football only),^note And also women's gymnastics. San Jose State, UNLV, UTEP, Wyoming^note Grand Canyon joined in 2025, but doesn't have a football program; UC Davis joins in 2026, but is keeping football at the FCS level for now.
Headquarters: Colorado Springs, CO through June 2026; Las Vegas, NV after then
Current commissioner: Gloria Nevarez
Past commissioner of note (and the only one): Craig Thompson
Reigning champion: Boise State
Website: themw.com

Formed in 1998 by a group of 8 disgruntled Western Athletic Conference schools unhappy with the arrangement of the WAC's "super-conference" alignment, with operations starting in 1999, the Mountain West Conference (or MW) began the CFP era as arguably the most competitive "Group of Five" conference, though the American has more recently claimed that crown, the Sun Belt is rising fast, and the rebooted Pac-12 may have something to say about that in the Group of Six era. Ironically, the MW has absorbed other former WAC schools during the realignment shakeups of the 2000s and 2010s (the most recent being San Jose State and Utah State, joining in 2013). It's also notable as being home to the first single-conference cable network, the MountainWest Sports Network (aka "the mtn."). While it only aired from 2006–12, it was the Ur-Example for power conferences' more successful networks (most notably those of the Big Ten and SEC).

Four of its members^*Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State had been courted by The American after it was raided by the Big 12 in 2021, but all chose to stay put, apparently leading to that conference's raid of CUSA. With Boise State having left the MW in 2026 (see below), the MW team most familiar to casual fans outside its region is probably either charter member Air Force or 2026 arrival North Dakota State. Before Grand Canyon joined in 2025, the MW was one of three FBS conferences, the others being the MAC and Sun Belt Conference, whose core membership consisted solely of public schools. However, it remains unique among FBS conferences in having a federal service academy as a full member, namely Air Force.^note The primary home of American Conference football members Army and Navy is the FCS Patriot League, while Coast Guard and Merchant Marine have their football teams play in the Division III NEWMAC (of which Coast Guard is a full member, while Merchant Marine's primary is the Skyline Conference). With the 2020s realignment stripping the Pac-12 of all but two of its 12 members, it appeared that the two leftovers, Oregon State and Washington State, would join in the not-too-distant future—possibly under the "Pac-12" brand—but see below for what ended up happening.

The MW adopted football divisions once it expanded to 12 teams in 2013—Mountain (schools in the Mountain Time Zone) and West (those on Pacific Time—i.e., the California and Nevada schools—plus Hawaii). However, once the NCAA gave FBS conferences full freedom in setting up their title game pairings, the MW announced it would eliminate the divisions in 2023. For that season, it adopted a "2–6" scheduling model, with each team having two permanent opponents and playing 6 other conference games. The 6 non-permanent opponents were meant to flip every year, and the format was organized to allow each team to play all of its non-permanent opponents once home and once away in a three-year cycle (not coincidentally, less than the standard length of a college playing career). The championship game features the top two teams in the conference standings.

In 2024, the MW started a scheduling alliance with what remained of the Pac-12 Conference (i.e., Oregon State and Washington State); each MW school will play one game against either of the "Pac-2" schools, giving those schools six guaranteed games. Those games did not count in the MW standings, and neither school was eligible for the MW championship game. This was initially seen as the first step in an eventual merger of some type between the MW, OSU, and Wazzu. However, quite the opposite happened; in September 2024, the Pac-12 announced Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, and San Diego State would be joining their ranks, making 2025 the four schools' final seasons in the Mountain West and leaving the future of the conference very much in question. The situation got much more critical later in the month, when Utah State accepted their invitation to join the Pac-12, leaving the remaining MW schools two short of the eight-program requirement to continue operating as an FBS conference. (Hawaii, as a football-only member, didn't count as one of the eight.) The remaining football schools then signed an agreement binding them to the conference through 2031–32, with the MW and Pac then waging battle to lure the needed schools.

The MW fired the first shot by bringing in UTEP from CUSA to rejoin some of its former WAC conference mates for 2026, and followed it up by getting Hawaii to upgrade its membership from football-only to all-sports in 2026, giving the MW the eighth member needed to maintain its FBS status. Next, the MW got the controversial Grand Canyon, a non-football school, to go back on a planned 2025 move to the non-football West Coast Conference to instead join the MW no later than 2026 (eventually joining in 2025), making it the first private school to become a full MW member since TCU's 2012 departure, and also making the MW the only FBS conference with a full member that has never sponsored football.^note GCU's controversy is similar to that of Liberty in that it's been accused of being an evangelical diploma mill, but complaints are less about zealous ideology and more towards it effectively being a for-profit school. GCU had formally become a for-profit school in 2004 amid financial problems, but decided to transition back to nonprofit status in 2018. The Internal Revenue Service approved its application (with the state of Arizona and the NCAA following suit), but the US Department of Education did not, citing GCU's ties to a publicly traded company. That led to a years-long legal battle; in November 2024, a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that DoEd had exceeded its authority by denying GCU's nonprofit status and kicked the case back to DoEd.^MoreAmerican Conference member Wichita State last played football in 1986, and incoming Pac-12 member Gonzaga last had a team in 1941. The MW's next moves were to add UC Davis as a full but non-football member effective in 2026, with the Aggies' football team staying in FCS for now, then bringing in Northern Illinois from the MAC as a football-only member also starting in 2026,^note NIU would later add women's gymnastics to its MW membership, also starting in 2026. which put them back up to 9 members for football, allowing an 8-game round-robin conference schedule. At that point commissioner Gloria Nevarez said they were pausing expansion, but added "I would never say never." She was right—the MW would add FCS superpower North Dakota State as a football-only member starting with the 2026 season. Other commonly-floated possibilities for further expansion are UTEP's soon-to-be-former CUSA mate New Mexico State, a second MAC school in Toledo, new MAC football member Sacramento State, and raiding FCS conferences (specifically adding other blue bloods on the frontier like Idaho, Montana, Montana State, or South Dakota State). Additionally, GCU isn't the only non-football school theorized as being on the radar as well, following the Pac-12's pickup of Gonzaga. Meanwhile, the resurgence of UNLV's football program has led to talk of a possible Big 12 invite in the future (talk that's almost entirely on UNLV's end, mind you). Stay tuned for further developments.

This page lays out the conference programs as of the 2026 season. Win-loss records are (mostly) accurate as of the end of the 2025 season.^note Disclaimer: Listing win-loss numbers and even national championships is complicated, to say the least. College programs (and even colleges themselves) frequently dissolve and re-form, change divisions and conferences, play in games not recognized by the NCAA, have wins officially rescinded due to rule violations, and do other things that make it hard to judge schools' true performance. Since the NCAA doesn't even officially recognize a national champion at the FBS level, teams are often inconsistent with what titles they acknowledge, sometimes leaving them unclaimed even if picked by numerous selectors and other times jumping on a title given by a random panel that no other school takes seriously. We try to provide context and qualifications when possible, but this isn't The Other Wiki.

Air Force Falcons

Location: USAF Academy, CO (just outside Colorado Springs)
School Established: 1954
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1955–79), WAC (1980–98), MW (1999–)
Overall Win Record: 442–357–13 (.552)
Bowl Record: 16–13–1 (.550)
Colors: Blue and silver
Fight Song: "Falcon Fight"^note Not "The U.S. Air Force" (aka "Wild Blue Yonder"), which is the official USAF anthem.
Stadium: Falcon Stadium (capacity 46,692)
Current Head Coach: Troy Calhoun
Notable Historic Coaches: Buck Shaw, Bill Parcells, Ken Hatfield, Fisher DeBerry
Notable Historic Players: Brian Billick^*Transferred to BYU after one year when he found out he was too tall to qualify as a fighter pilot. Seriously.
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 3 (WAC – 1985, 1995, 1998)

The youngest of the five service academies, The United States Air Force Academy began as the Quietly Performing Sister Show to Army and Navy, often succumbing to Every Year They Fizzle Out syndrome, apart from two early standout seasons: 1958 (Cotton Bowl, #6 final poll finish) and 1970 (Sugar Bowl, #11 poll finish). Two major factors kickstarted the rise of Falcon football: the hiring of Ken Hatfield as head coach in 1979, and joining the Western Athletic Conference the next year. While the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy was introduced in 1972 to go to the winner of the series between Army, Navy, and Air Force, the Falcons didn't win it until 1982. Since then, they've won the trophy 20 times, compared to 11 for Navy and 7 for Army in that span of time. Hatfield brought the option offense with him, and the Falcons have run it ever since, even after most college teams abandoned the run-based option for looser passing or spread offenses. The option helps them deal with the stringent requirements for admission to the academy that limit the team's ability to attract top athletes. The discipline, finesse, and proactive nature of the option mesh well with military training, and after Air Force's success with the offense, Army and Navy have generally run it as well. Hatfield quickly catapulted off of his early success to take other high-profile coaching gigs, but since his departure in 1983, the program has only had two head coaches: Hall of Famer Fisher DeBerry, who took the program within one game^note arguably one special teams breakdown—the winning margin in the Falcons' only loss of that season was provided by a BYU punt return for a TD of playing for a national title in 1985, and Troy Calhoun, who took over in 2007 and has kept the team competitive in the west.

Despite putting up most of its yards on the ground, Air Force lives up to its name in more ways than one. Besides its (living) Falcon mascot, its stadium near Colorado Springs has the second-highest elevation of any FBS venue (6,621 feet), and its cadets live more than 600 feet higher (7,258 feet).^note Most indoor sports play in the Academy's field house, which is at about 7,080 feet. The Academy also has one of the longest-standing helmet designs at any level of football, the lightning bolts that have adorned the Falcons' helmets since the early years of the program, riffing on the frequent use of lightning bolts in fighter pilot insignias dating back to World War II. Fun fact: the Los Angeles Chargers' use of bolts on their helmets was directly inspired by Air Force, though the Chargers deliberately used a different design.

Hawaiʻi Rainbow Warriors

Location: Honolulu, HI
School Established: 1907^note as the "College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts of the Territory of Hawaiʻi"; became the University of Hawaiʻi in 1919. With the university having expanded to a statewide system in later decades, the phrase "at Mānoa", reflecting the neighborhood that hosts the campus, was added in 1972.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1909-78),^note Did not play in 1912–14 or 1942–45. Dropped football after the 1960 season but reinstated it in 1962 after a new AD took over. WAC (1979-2011), MW (2012-)
Overall Win Record: 598–503–25 (.542)
Bowl Record: 9–6 (.600)
Colors: Green, black, silver, and white^note Yes, not rainbow.
Fight Song: "Co-Ed Fight Song"^note The Hawaii Five-O theme song is also played frequently by the school marching band at sporting events and has become a de facto fight song as well.
Stadium: Clarence T. C. Ching Athletics Complex (16,909 capacity)^note Capacity was only 4,106 before a crash expansion to 10,000 in 2021. A further expansion to the then-current FBS minimum of 15,000 started immediately after the 2021 season, and further additions pushed it to nearly 17,000 for the 2024 season (just in time for FBS attendance requirements to be abolished).
Current Head Coach: Timmy Chang
Notable Historic Coaches: Clark Shaughnessy, June Jones, Todd Graham
Notable Historic Players: Jesse Sapolu, Ken Niumatalolo, Jason Elam, Nick Rolovich, Timmy Chang, Cole Brennan, Kansei Matsuzawa
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 4 (WAC – 1992, 1999, 2007, 2010)

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa's football team has had a proud history as the most prominent athletic representative of its island home. A bit of a novelty for most of its history because of its exotic location, the school received the same conditional invitation to the Western Athletic Conference in 1978 that UNLV did, giving them four years to demonstrate a commitment to improve their program. Unlike UNLV, the WAC was so impressed with UH's progress that they fast-tracked them and gave UH full membership in 1979. Former UCLA assistant Dick Tomey took over as HC in 1977 and built a solid football program, and after he left for Arizona in 1986, his replacement Bob Wagner picked up where he left off, leading them to a conference championship in 1992. The program's on-field peak came under the revolutionary passing offense of June Jones in the 2000s that helped QBs Timmy Chang and Cole Brennan break NCAA passing records; the latter helped the Rainbow Warriors (then just the Warriors) join the BCS Buster ranks with an undefeated 2007 regular season (though they also became the first BCS Buster to lose their bowl game, getting blown out by Georgia). Jones left for SMU after that year, and they've struggled since then, going through five head coaches before the aforementioned Timmy Chang took the job in 2022, hoping to bring back some of the magic from his QB tenure, to the point of reinstalling Jones' run-and-shoot offense.

However, the program is most famous for its location and the various logistical challenges it provides. With the island chain sitting nearly 2,400 miles away from the nearest airport in the contiguous United States, the team is often by far the most traveled American athletic program every year despite only playing six or seven away games. The NCAA allows Hawaiʻi and all of its home opponents to play one extra game per season in an attempt to partially offset these expenses.^note  This exception applies to any team that plays a regularly scheduled game in Alaska or Hawaiʻi. However, no other NCAA school in either state has a football program. From 2010–19, games at the only NCAA member in Canada, D-II Simon Fraser University, also counted; it's in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, British Columbia, about a half-hour's drive from the US border. However, they didn't play football in 2020 due to COVID-19 and played all their 2021 and 2022 "home" games in Washington state due to COVID-related border restrictions, before dropping the sport entirely after the 2022 season (and eventually announcing plans to leave the NCAA and go back to Canada's U Sports in 2027). Until Hawaiʻi started trying to balance out its home-and-away schedule, it often played as many as 9 home games in a season! That's not to say home games are any easier. Hawaiʻi's 50,000-capacity Aloha Stadium, which had served as the team's home since 1975 (and also hosted the NFL's Pro Bowl from 1979-2008, plus 2010-13 and 2015), has been a major concern for decades due to the architects not properly accounting for the effects of the island's climate; the ocean air led the stadium to rapidly rust, leading to the venue being essentially condemned in 2020 and forcing the team to move home games to its athletic practice field, where UH hastily erected some bleachers. After building up and expanding the on-campus stadium a bit, they'll play home games there at least through the 2028 season, while the current Aloha Stadium is demolished and a new facility is built on the site, though plans for the new stadium have been constantly delayed (2029 is now the tentative opening date) and scaled back and forth (from 30,000 to 22,500 to 31,000 seats). With all those challenges in mind, the team's successes only stand as more impressive. After the raid by the Pac-2, Hawaiʻi decided to go all-in on the MW, upgrading its membership from football-only to all-sports effective in 2026.

Nevada Wolf Pack

Location: Reno, NV
School Established: 1874^note Originally called State College of Nevada and located in Elko. Moved to Reno and changed to Nevada State University in 1881. Became the University of Nevada in 1906. In 1969 the Reno and Las Vegas schools became co-flagships as University of Nevada, Reno and University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with the Reno school branded as Nevada–Reno and UNR in athletics, but to reassert its identity as the original campus in the wake of UNLV's rise, they reverted to the older Nevada branding with the move to the FBS level in 1992.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1896–1924, 1940–53, 1969–78), Far Western Conference (1925–39, 1954–68), Big Sky (1979–91), Big West (1992–99), WAC (2000–11), MW (2012–)^note Did not play 1906-14 (briefly switched to rugby union), 1918 (WWI), and 1951 (the board of regents dropped the sport, but with community and student support it was reinstated the next year)
Overall Win Record: 583–540–33 (.519)
Bowl Record: 7–12 (.368)
Colors: Navy blue and silver
Fight Song: "Nevada Fight Song"^note uses the tune of the Yale and Tennessee fight song "Down the Field"
Stadium: Mackay^*Pronounced "MACK-ee" Stadium (capacity 27,000)
Current Head Coach: Jeff Choate
Notable Historic Coaches: Buck Shaw, Chris Ault
Notable Historic Players: Marion Motley, Horace Gillom, Stan Heath, Bill Afflis, Chris Ault, Charles Mann, Tony and Marty Zendejas, Charles Wright, Trevor Insley, Nate Burleson, Colin Kaepernick, Joel Bitonio
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 14 (3 Far Western – 1932–33, 1939; 4 Big Sky – 1983, 1986, 1990–91; 5 Big West - 1992, 1994–97; 2 WAC - 2005, 2010)

Before the rise of Marshall and Boise State, the University of Nevada, Reno was the gold standard for a team moving up to the I-A/FBS level and gaining success. While they already had a bit of a football tradition (early NFL star Marion Motley was an alum), the hiring of 30-year-old former Wolf Pack QB Chris Ault as head coach in 1976 set the team's rise in motion, as they went from a D-II independent to a national I-AA power to joining I-A in 1992 and winning a conference title in their very first season. Ault retired from coaching (twice!) to focus on his AD duties, but the Wolf Pack hit an Audience-Alienating Era while he was gone. His return to the sidelines in 2004 gave the program a shot in the arm, aided by the launch of the Pistol offense and the arrival of QB Colin Kaepernick, who led them to their standout season in 2010 where they went 13–1 and finished at #11 in the final AP poll. After Ault retired for good in 2013, they've never quite reached the same heights but have performed modestly well. They're also notable for having a two-word singular form nickname (as opposed to the NC State Wolfpack)^note In their early history, they had the much more unique nicknames of "Sagebrushers" and "Desert Wolves". and the odd design of their stadium (the end zone bleachers are squeezed inside the track, with the track going underneath the south end zone stands).

New Mexico Lobos

Location: Albuquerque, NM
School Established: 1889
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1892-1930), Border (1931-50), Skyline (1951-61), WAC (1962-98), MW (1999- )
Overall Win Record: 513–652–31 (.442)
Bowl Record: 4–9–1 (.321)
Colors: Cherry red and silver
Fight Song: "UNM Fight Song"
Stadium: University Stadium (capacity 39,224)
Current Head Coach: Jason Eck
Notable Historic Coaches: Marv Levy, Dennis Franchione
Notable Historic Players: Don Perkins, Brian Urlacher, Katie Hnida
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 4 (1 Border – 1938; 3 WAC – 1962-64)

At a school where men's basketball is the main sport, the University of New Mexico's Lobo football team counts as The Determinator for the conference. They have the embarrassing distinction of being the only team who's been in the top level of college football for the entire existence of the AP poll (since 1936) to have never been ranked once, not even when they finished 10–1 in 1982 (they also got snubbed by the bowls that year), and their already terrible all-time win-loss record is only as high as it is because there's little competition in their region (over 25% of their wins have been against regional rivals New Mexico State and UTEP, two of the few programs that have been even worse than the Lobos). Their last conference title came when Lyndon Johnson was President, they've often struggled mightily on the field (with completely winless seasons in 1968 and 1987), yet they still keep plugging away. The last few decades have seen UNM occasionally become competitive, starting with the tenure of HC Dennis Franchione, who recruited future Pro Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher to the team in 1996 and ended the Lobos' 36-year bowl drought in 1997. They're also notable for fielding the first woman to play in an FBS game, placekicker Katie Hnida^*the "H" is silent, who played in a bowl game in 2002 and converted two extra points in a 2003 game.

North Dakota State Bison

Location: Fargo, ND
School Established: 1890^note Went by "North Dakota Agricultural College" until 1961. The full legal name is "North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences".
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1894–1921),^note Did not play in 1918 due to Spanish flu... North Central (1922–2003),^note ...or in 1943–44 due to the war. Great West (2004–07), MVFC (2008–2025), MW (2026–)
Overall Win Record: 803–382–34 (.673)^note 240–45 (.842) since joining D-I in 2004
Bowl Record: Not eligible for FBS bowls until 2028 under current rules.^{note 1}This may change in 2026; FBS is preparing to vote on a proposal to make transitional FBS teams bowl-eligible from Day One.^{note 2}Small-college bowl record is 5–1 (.833). They played these six bowls between 1964 and 1970, when the NCAA sponsored regional bowl games for lower division schools in the pre-playoff era.
Playoff Record: 30–12 (.714) in D-II; 51–6 (.895) in FCS
Colors: Green and yellow
Fight Songs: "On Bison", "We Are the Pride"
Stadium: Fargodome (19,000 capacity)^note Located on land owned by the university, but financed, owned, and operated by the city of Fargo.
Current Head Coach: Tim Polasek
Notable Historic Coaches: Gil Dobie, Darrell Mudra, Jim Wacker
Notable Historic Players: Gus Bradley, Carson Wentz, Trey Lance
National Championships: 18 (8 D-II – 1965, 1968-69, 1983, 1985-86, 1988, 1990; 10 FCS – 2011–15, 2017–19, 2021, 2024)
Conference Championships: 39 (26 NCC – 1925, 1932, 1935, 1964–70, 1972–74, 1976–77, 1981–86, 1988, 1990–92, 1994; 1 Great West – 2006; 12 MVFC – 2011–19, 2021, 2024–25)

North Dakota State University has one of the most decorated programs in college sports. In simple terms, the Bison^note locally pronounced with a "z" sound instead of the "s" sound used in most North American dialects, possibly due to French Canadian influence have won more national championships (18) than any other team on any level of college football, starting on the Division II level. Fairly mediocre for much of their history, the turning point came after a winless season in 1962. With the university facing academic as well as athletic woes, president Herb Albrecht decided to use the football program to "rejuvenate interest in the institution", pouring more money and resources into it. His plan was an immediate success, and in 1965 they won their first national title. Since then they've had just three losing seasons, and were the team of The '80s in D-II, playing in six championship games, winning four of them. Moving to the FCS in 2004, they established themselves as a power right away, then became utterly dominant at that level starting in the 2010s. From 2011-19, the Bison won eight FCS titles, the same number of games they lost in that time span. In that era, NDSU produced two Top 5-drafted QBs (Carson Wentz and Trey Lance), went 6-for-6 against FBS teams (including one over ranked Iowa in 2016), and had an FCS-record 39-game winning streak that wasn't snapped until spring 2021. That performance resulted in the program being ranked at one point as high as #27 in the country, higher than any non-FBS team has ever reached. On top of that, of their six FCS playoff losses, one was in the championship final, and all the others were to teams that made the final (three winning the natty, two losing).

Fans and observers speculated for years whether the school would be able to make the jump to the FBS and continue to compete at a high level. NDSU's long-speculated move to FBS finally went down in February 2026 with a football-only move to the MW effective that season (its other sports are staying in the regionally-based Summit League). The move does carry significant risks, mainly financial. Its tiny and remote home market^note How remote? The nearest FBS school is Minnesota, over 200 air miles away, and the nearest Group of Six school is fellow MW football newcomer Northern Illinois, more than 500 miles away. There are about 250,000 people in the Fargo, ND–Moorhead, MN media market, which is actually about the same size as the home markets of Michigan State, Notre Dame, and Oregon, but while they're secondary markets in big states, with Notre Dame also boasting a huge following among Catholics throughout the country, NDSU's market is the largest one in a sparsely-populated rural state. Not only that, the northern half of that market consists of the Grand Forks area, home of their principal rival North Dakota. That combination of geographic isolation and lack of revenue potential means no amount of on-field success would make a power conference interested in adding NDSU. presents a tremendous obstacle for making money as it is, and the added travel, scholarship, and facilities cost of the FBS could bankrupt the school (especially if the team's performance ever plateaued). Also, the fees for an FCS-to-FBS move can be daunting—NDSU is reportedly paying the MW over $12 million to join, and the NCAA charges a $5 million transition fee. Nonetheless, the Bison decided that it wasn't enough to dominate their local competition and let their win record serve as their main recruiting tool.

Another factor in this move, though unstated, is almost certainly scheduling issues. NDSU was so dominant at the FCS level that in the years before the MW move, it had problems scheduling non-conference games against both FBS and FCS teams. For FBS teams, especially those in the middle tier of their conferences, a game against the Bison was a high-risk, low-reward situation, especially considering that FBS teams can count one win over an FCS team toward bowl eligibility.^note This story points out that in its 21 FCS seasons, NDSU only played 14 games against FBS teams. As for FCS, NDSU often had to pay non-conference teams at that level to come to Fargo, and a loss to the Bison could mean the difference between a playoff berth and staying home.

Northern Illinois Huskies

Location: DeKalb, IL
School Established: 1895^note As "Northern Illinois State Normal School", became a Teachers College in 1921, State College in 1955, and University in 1957.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1899–1919, 1925–27, 1966–72, 1986–92, 1996), IIAC (1920–24, 1928–65), Big West (1993–95), MAC (1975–85, 1997–2025), MW (2026–)
Overall Win Record: 622–539–51 (.534)
Bowl Record: 5–11 (.313)
Colors: Cardinal and black
Fight Song: "Huskie Fight Song"
Stadium: Huskie Stadium (capacity 24,000)
Current Head Coach: Thomas Hammock
Notable Historic Coaches: Chick Evans, Howard Fletcher, Lee Corso
Notable Historic Players: George Bork, Stacey Robinson, Michael Turner, Jordan Lynch, Kenny Golladay
National Championships: 1 in D-II (1963)
Conference Championships: 12 (6 IIAC – 1938, 1944, 1951, 1963–65; 6 MAC – 1983, 2011–12, 2014, 2018, 2021)

Northern Illinois University's football program started out as a regional power under the tenure of Chick Evans (HC and AD from 1929-54, AD until 1968) and produced an innovative spread shotgun offense under Howard Fletcher (1956–68) that shattered passing records and won the school the 1963 D-II championship. The Huskies struggled with the move to the major college ranks after Fletcher's retirement and underperformed for decades. One particular lowlight was being the team that broke Northwestern's record 34-game losing streak, falling 31–6 to the Wildcats in 1982. A couple of bright spots were a MAC title in 1983 and Jerry Pettibone's HC tenure from 1985–90, when his high-octane wishbone attack guided the Huskies to a 9–2 record in '89, and a record-setting 73–18 upset over a ranked Fresno State squad a year later. But the decision to leave the MAC after the 1985 season hurt the program in the long run, and things had gotten so bad that they bottomed out with a winless 1997 campaign, the same year they returned to the MAC. NIU returned to power in the MAC, with their undefeated 2012 regular season under dynamic dual-threat QB Jordan Lynch making them the conference's only (and the last ever) BCS Buster. Their results in recent years have been the model of inconsistency, going from a winless COVID-impacted season in 2020 to winning the MAC the next year. In 2024, NIU shocked the world of college football by upsetting #5-ranked Notre Dame in South Bend for both its first ever win against a top-10 ranked school, and the MAC's first ever win against a top-5 team (Notre Dame would go on to be a finalist for the national title, while NIU didn't even compete for their conference). Shortly after the end of that season, NIU received and accepted a football-only invite from the Mountain West effective in 2026, deciding that the MW offered greater prestige and revenue than the MAC, even if DeKalb, Illinois is hundreds of miles away from either the West or the mountains. There's a historical precedent for the move, since NIU previously spent three seasons (1993–95) as a football-only affiliate member of the Big West Conference.^note The move, plus the later addition of NDSU football, also gave the MW a toehold in the Central Time Zone, which the conference hadn't had since TCU bolted for the Big 12 in 2012.

San Jose State Spartans

Location: San Jose, CA
School Established: 1857^note It's gone through a huge number of names. It was founded as Minns' Evening Normal School, then became California State Normal School and San Jose State Teachers College, then San Jose State College in 1935. In 1972, it was renamed California State University, San Jose, but the campus community hated that rebranding, so it reverted to San Jose State University in 1974, and has remained so since.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1892-1900, 1921, 1925-28, 1935-38, 1950-68), California Coast Conference (1922-24), Far Western Conference (1929-34), California Collegiate Athletic Association (1940-42, 46-49), PCAA/Big West (1969-95), WAC (1996-2012), MW (2013-)
Overall Win Record: 528–554–38 (.488)
Bowl Record: 7–7 (.500)
Colors: Blue and gold
Fight Song: "San Jose State Fight Song"
Stadium: CEFCU Stadium, historically known as Spartan Stadium (capacity 21,520)^note Built in 1933, it expanded from 18,000 to 31,000 seats in 1984, but as part of a major renovation project, the entire east side stand was removed in 2019, reducing capacity by almost 10,000 seats. A new athletic operations center on that side of the stadium opened in 2023, and the next phase will add seats back in, but the exact number hasn't been specified yet.
Current Head Coach: Ken Niumatololo
Notable Historic Coaches: Fielding H. Yost^note one game only as an interim coach in 1900, Jack Elway, John Ralston, Dick Tomey
Notable Historic Players: Willie Heston^note left for Michigan along with Yost, Billy Wilson, Bill Walsh, Dick Vermeil, Art Powell, Ron McBride, Steve DeBerg, Gill Byrd, Jeff Garcia, James Jones, Nick Nash
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 17 (2 Far Western - 1932; 1934, 6 CCAA - 1939-41; 1946; 1948-49, 8 PCAA/Big West - 1975-76; 1978; 1986-87; 1990-91, 3 WAC - 1992-93; 1999, 1 MW - 2020)

The oldest public university on the West Coast, and the founding campus of the California State University system, San José State University^note The university itself officially uses the acute Spanish accent mark in José but accepts other outlets dropping it. has long been the Quietly Performing Sister Show to Cal and Stanford in San Francisco Bay Area college sports (despite both institutions being younger than SJSU). After sponsoring football for a few years toward the end of the 1800s, they relaunched the program in 1921, becoming a steady if not spectacular winner over the next few decades. The 1941 Spartans had the misfortune of being in Hawaii on the morning of December 7, when the Pearl Harbor attack not only canceled their scheduled game against Hawaii on December 13, but left them stranded on the islands for the next few weeks; the Honolulu police enlisted them to help patrol the beaches. SJSU also gained a "cradle of coaches" reputation. Former Spartans who went onto to coaching greatness included Bill Walsh, Dick Vermeil, and Bob Ladouceur (the coach behind the 151-game winning streak of California's De La Salle High School from 1992–2003).

Their peak came in The '80s, a decade that saw the Spartans earn seven winning seasons and three bowl bids, a string of success begun by HC Jack Elway (John Elway's father). They couldn't sustain that level of achievement in the next decade but still got an invite to the 16-school WAC expansion in 1996, even though (much like Rutgers joining the Big Ten in the future) everyone recognized that SJSU was only invited to give the league access to a Top 5 media market. In the years before joining the WAC, they struggled to hit the I-A attendance requirement (the largest attendance mark for an event at their home stadium is a ZZ Top concert) and their football games were broadcast on the school's student-run radio station. Despite grabbing notable coaches like John Ralston and Dick Tomey in the twilight of their careers, Spartan fans haven't had much to cheer about in the last few decades. Their best recent season came amid the bleak days of the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020, winning a conference title and finishing the regular season undefeated.

UNLV Rebels

Location: Las Vegas, NV (technically in the unincorporated suburb of Paradise)^note In 1950, casino owners successfully fought off an annexation attempt of the unincorporated land that included the Las Vegas Strip by the city of Las Vegas, and the county created two "towns" called Winchester (the northern half of the land) and Paradise (the southern half). Both the UNLV campus and Allegiant Stadium are in Paradise, but UNLV, along with everything else in Paradise, uses a Las Vegas mailing address.
School Established: 1957^note Originally "University of Nevada, Southern Division", then "Nevada Southern University", then "University of Nevada, Las Vegas" starting in 1969.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1968-81), PCAA/Big West (1982-95), WAC (1996-98), MW (1999-)
Overall Win Record: 280–386–4 (.421)
Bowl Record: 3–4 (.429)
Colors: Scarlet and gray
Fight Song: "Win with the Rebels"
Stadium: Allegiant Stadium (capacity 65,000)^note The home of the NFL's Las Vegas Raiders. For most of the program's existence, it played home games at 40,000-seat Sam Boyd Stadium (previously called Las Vegas Stadium and the Silver Bowl), located eight miles from campus in the Vegas suburb of Whitney, which was originally built and operated by Clark County, but then given to the university at no charge in 1985. When the Raiders moved to Vegas, UNLV worked out a joint-tenancy deal for Allegiant Stadium, which is much closer to campus (about three miles, on the other side of the Strip and I-15). One oddity of the agreement is that UNLV plays on artificial turf, while Raiders play on natural grass grown outside and hauled in on game day, because of late Raiders owner Al Davis' preference for a natural surface. The Raiders made UNLV promise that Sam Boyd wouldn't compete with Allegiant for the right to host events, and in turn, the Raiders paid the university $3 million every year to let the stadium sit empty, but since it still cost at least a million a year to maintain the stadium, it wasn't all that profitable for the university, and they sold it back to Clark County for $5 million in 2025. The county has no definite plans for the stadium site yet, partly because the original 1971 deal they made with the federal government for the land stipulates it for "public use". One possibility is to demolish it to expand a nearby park.
Current Head Coach: Dan Mullen
Notable Historic Coaches: Ron Meyer, John Robinson
Notable Historic Players: Randall Cunningham, Suge Knight, Ickey Woods
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 2 (Big West – 1984, 1994)

Another case of a football team that struggles at a school where basketball is king, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas makes for an interesting contrast with Boise State. Both teams began playing at the four-year level in 1968 and became D-II powers over the next few years. In fact, Tony Knap, the coach who led BSU into the NCAA, left for UNLV in 1976. The Rebels elected to move to the I-A level in 1978, having secured a conditional invitation from the WAC, who gave them until 1981 to improve their facilities and address the issues in coach Jerry Tarkanian's men's basketball program, which had been placed on probation by the NCAA, before they'd extend full membership. They made a solid I-A debut, going 29–15–2 from '78 to '81. Fully expecting to get the WAC invite, they played a full conference schedule in '80 and '81, doubled the size of their stadium from 15,000 to 30,000 seats, and made plans to build an 18,000-seat arena for basketball. But the end of the 1981 season saw two complications: Knap retired, and the WAC decided not to invite them, apparently hinging on their sticking with Tarkanian as their basketball coach (they finally got their WAC invite for the conference's massive 1996 expansion). Undaunted, they accepted an invitation from the PCAA instead and produced a genuine star in QB Randall Cunningham, who led them to a conference title and bowl win in 1984. Then the bottom fell out. The football program was accused of various improprieties, including using ineligible players, plus several players getting into trouble with the law, and the NCAA, already keeping close watch on the school because of Tarkanian, gave them a harsh probation, including ordering them to forfeit their 18 wins in the '83 and '84 seasons. Rebel football has never really recovered from these controversies; since 1986, UNLV has had just seven winning seasons,^note 1992, 1994, 2000, 2013, 2023–25while their instate rival Nevada thrived. Outside of Cunningham and Cincinnati Bengals one-season wonder Ickey Woods, their two most famous ex-players are better-known for non-football endeavors: SportsCenter anchor Kenny Mayne was a backup QB, and Death Row Records mogul Suge Knight played nose guard for two seasons. The move to the newly arrived Raiders' Allegiant Stadium in 2020 and the hiring of former Missouri coach Barry Odom as HC in 2023 led to a bit of a resurgence, with the Rebels making the MW championship game in 2023 and 2024, the latter season matching the most wins for the program (11) since Cunningham's tenure four decades prior. Odom left for Purdue, but former Florida HC Dan Mullen kept the run going, following it up with a second straight 10-win season (a first in program history) and third straight with 9+ (also a program first) in '25. It also marked their first streak of three winning seasons since 1973–80.

If you're wondering- yes, the "Rebel" moniker is a reference to the Confederate States of America, invented back when UNLV was Nevada Southern in contrast to their rivals in Reno; they even originally used a wolf in a Confederate army uniform as a mascot in a deliberate Take That! to Nevada's wolf mascot. Adding to the irony/controversy around this nickname, Nevada was given statehood during The American Civil War to help keep Lincoln in power and defeat said rebels. And another layer of irony is that UNLV won the first-ever matchup between Black head coaches at the I-A/FBS level, when, under coach Wayne Nunnely, they defeated Ohio, coached by Cleve Bryant, 26-18 in 1988.^note The "I-A/FBS" qualifier matters here, since in 1977, the year before the I-A/I-AA split, the SWAC (see the FCS conferences page) moved up to D-I as a conference, so technically their conference games were the first Black coaching matchups at the major college level. One more notable bit of UNLV football trivia is that they hosted the first regular season game to be broadcast on a cable TV network, with their 1982 season opener against BYU airing on TBS (TBS cut a deal with the NCAA for live telecasts, which ESPN was unable to do until the Supreme Court's 1984 antitrust ruling against the NCAA and its handling of TV rights).

UTEP Miners

Picks Up!

Location: El Paso, TX
School Established: 1913^note As "Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy", then University of Texas Department of M&M in 1918, Texas College of M&M in 1921 (usually branded as Texas Mines), Texas Western College in 1948, and UTEP in 1966.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1914–34, 1962–67),^note Did not play in 1918... Border (1935–61),^note ...or 1943–45. WAC (1968–2004), CUSA (2005–2025), MW (2026–)
Overall Win Record: 419–654–28 (.393)
Bowl Record: 5–10 (.333)
Colors: Dark blue, orange, and silver
Fight Song: "El Paso Fight"^note Based on the Marty Robbins classic "El Paso", with different lyrics and tempo, with the approval of Robbins' estate (the UTEP version was created a few years after his passing)
Stadium: Sun Bowl (capacity 45,971)
Current Head Coach: Scotty Walden
Notable Historic Coaches: Bum Phillips, Mike Price
Notable Historic Players: Don Maynard, Chuck Hughes, Ed Hochuli, Jordan Palmer, Aaron Jones
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 2 (1 Border – 1956; 1 WAC – 2000)

The University of Texas at El Paso is a unique American university known for its majority Hispanic student population and its distinct Tibetan monastery-inspired architecture. UTEP has played an important role in the history of college sports, most notably for its 1966 basketball team that won a national championship after assembling the first all-Black starting lineup in NCAA history (as dramatized in Glory Road) and for winning 20 national championships in cross country and track and field in the 1970s and '80s. In football, however, UTEP is really only notable for its stadium, the Sun Bowl, which has a very unique location (embedded in mountains overlooking the U.S.-Mexico border) and hosts one of the oldest bowl games. While the Sun Bowl has hosted a number of very memorable games, few of them have involved its home team; the Miners are one of the worst performing teams in the FBS, with completely winless seasons in 1973 and 2017 and far fewer winning seasons than losing ones. The program's historical highlight came in 1985, when the Miners knocked off #7-ranked defending national champion BYU by a score of 23–16, often regarded as one of the biggest upsets in major college history; it was UTEP's only win that year. The Miners, which by 2025 had become the longest-tenured Conference USA member, had long sought to join the MW, and after that conference was depleted by the 2024 raid from the "Pac-2" (losing five of its 12 football members in 2026), it accepted an invitation to become the first of what ended up being five replacements (UTEP for all sports including football, North Dakota State and Northern Illinois for football only, and Grand Canyon and UC Davis as full but non-football members).

Wyoming Cowboys

Welcome to 7,220 feet. How's your oxygen?

Location: Laramie, WY
School Established: 1886
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1893–1904), CFA (1905–08), RMAC (1909–37), Skyline (1938–61), WAC (1962–98), MW (1999–)
Overall Win Record: 572–616–28 (.482)
Bowl Record: 9–9 (.500)
Colors: Brown and gold
Fight Song: "Ragtime Cowboy Joe"
Stadium: War Memorial Stadium (capacity 29,181)
Current Head Coach: Jay Sawvel
Notable Historic Coaches: Bowden Wyatt, Bob Devaney, Pat Dye, Dennis Erickson, Joe Tiller
Notable Historic Players: Marv Levy, Jim Kiick, Conrad Dobler, Jay Novacek, Marcus Harris, Josh Allen
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 14 (7 Skyline – 1949–50, 1956, 1958–61; 7 WAC – 1966–68, 1976, 1987–88, 1993)

The University of Wyoming's football team is the ultimate in local market domination: it's the only public four-year college in the state (and was the only four-year school period until the founding of Wyoming Catholic College in 2005). However, since the state just happens to be the smallest one in the union in population, the Cowboys have never been a major powerhouse. They were one of the worst teams in the nation in the early 20th century but became a regional power in The '50s (posting undefeated seasons in '50 and '56) and The '60s, peaking with a #5 finish and Sugar Bowl appearance in 1967. However, two years later, the program took a huge hit over the "Black 14" incident, in which 14 African-American players were kicked off the team after announcing their plan to wear black armbands in a game against BYU in protest of the LDS Church's (since disavowed) anti-black doctrines and practices. That episode caused Wyoming no end of recruiting problems for years, and they've fluctuated wildly ever since. Those glory years also highlighted another big issue for the school: they've never been able to hold onto any of the multiple good coaches who pass through town. Bowden Wyatt started their turnaround before leaping to jobs at Arkansas and Tennessee; Bob Devaney lasted five years, then went to neighboring Nebraska and launched the meteoric rise of the Cornhuskers. Pat Dye and Dennis Erickson likewise only lasted one year before moving on to high-profile jobs. To give you an idea of how bad the musical chairs game is in Laramie, Craig Bohl's 10-year stint (2014–23) was the longest in team history (which dates back to 1893).

Their 103–0 defeat of Northern Colorado in 1949 holds the record for the most points in a single game by a major college team since the end of World War II. Their home field at War Memorial Stadium has the highest elevation of any major college field, sitting at 7,220 feet above sea level.^note The highest stadium in any division is the Mountaineer Bowl at D-II Western Colorado University, at 7,750 feet. Rex Stadium, home to another Colorado D-II school, Adams State University, is at almost exactly the same altitude as Wyoming's stadium. As noted above, Air Force's cadets live at a slightly higher elevation than Wyoming's stadium, but the Falcons play several hundred feet below. The logo caption used here comes from signs posted in the visitors' locker rooms of various sports (including football) as ominous reminders of the elevation.