A Look Ahead

I know it is WAY TOO EARLY to be discussing this, but I have a few predictions about the Mountain West Conference for the 2009 football season.
1) The winner of the BYU-TCU game will win the conference and go to a BCS game. Assuming Utah doesn't get creamed against Alabama, TCU beats or nearly beats Boise State, and BYU pounds Arizona (I think that's the biggest assumption of the three), the conference should be able to hold on to some of the respect they earned this season. This puts an undefeated, or even a 1-loss, MWC champion ahead of pretty much any other non-BCS team (OK, I'll say it, Boise State is the only one that could be ahead of an MWC champion), and almost assuredly in the top 12 automatic qualifying range. With Patterson coaching TCU and Mendenhall at BYU, the winner of the TCU-BYU game will have 1 loss or less.
2) Utah will mourn the loss of Gary Anderson more than any other person. Without him coaching that D, I think they would have been lucky to go 10-2, and they could have been as bad as 7-5 (Michigan, Oregon State, New Mexico, TCU, and BYU all could have gone the other way without the defensive genius of Mr. Anderson-we'll never know, but my money would have been on 9-3). I think they will finish around 4th-5th next year. They have to travel to UNLV, TCU, CSU, and BYU in conference, and to Oregon and San Jose State out of conference. I see 4 losses there.
3) New Mexico will not get bowl eligible again. Their season hit the crapper when Porterie went down: he'll be back, but without Ferguson to carry the ball, Rocky Long to coach it up, and Deandre Wright at corner, it's going to be rough. I feel sorry for the new coach in Albuquerque. They have a brutal non-conference slate and have a couple of big road games in conference: at TCU and at Utah. I don't see how they get to 6.
4) SDSU and Wyoming will bring up the rear again, with New Mexico nearby. Maybe they should have given their respective coaches one more year. Are they going to be able to get anyone better? If they do happen to find someone better, when they finally have one good season, their new coaches will move on to better jobs elsewhere, and they'll be right back to square one.
5) The conference will produce a first round draft pick. I know, it's sad, USC's backfield will probably produce two first round picks...but it's big news for the Mountain West.