Divisions may soon be a thing of the past in college football, the Mountain West Conference included.
On Wednesday, Action Network’s Brett McMurphy reported that the MW is in discussions to eliminate its Mountain and West divisions ahead of the 2023 college football season.
Sources told McMurphy that the conference is “giving strong consideration” to the idea, with one source telling McMurphy that the move is “likely.”
The NCAA Football Oversight Committee is currently looking at a proposal by the Pac-12 that would eliminate the requirement for conferences with 12 or more teams to have divisions in order to hold a conference championship game (conferences with less than 12 teams currently must have a round-robin schedule in order to hold a conference title game).
If the proposal is approved, leagues of any size could play without divisions, but still hold conference championship games.
Conferences wouldn’t need to eliminate divisions, but it would be an option where it currently is not.
Without divisions, a conference could guarantee that its two best teams play each other in the conference championship game, theoretically putting the winner in better position to make the College Football Playoff or a New Year’s Six bowl.
Last season, the Utah State Aggies won the MW for the first time in program history, beating San Diego State. The Aggies and Aztecs were two of four MW teams that finished the season with 10 or more wins.
Currently, the MW has two divisions, the Mountain (Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, New Mexico, Utah State and Wyoming) and the West (Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, San Diego State, San Jose State and UNLV).