Mountain West Games of the Week

Week 1: Utah @ Michigan, (ABC) 1:30pm MT: with a win, the Utes would be ranked for first time since 2004.
Alternate: TCU @ New Mexico: tough game to start the season with.

Week 2: Texas A&M @ New Mexico 3pm MT: big statement game for New Mexico, we'll know how good they are after this game (2-0 or 0-2?)
Alternates: BYU @ Washington (FSN): if they can't mash the Huskies, bye-bye to their quest.
SDSU @ ND, (NBC): the Aztecs have played well against teams from the midwest this decade, and the whole country can see the MWC bottom-feeder's stuff. Watch this to see how announcer's ought to prepare for and call a game, those Notre Dame guys do it right!

Week 3: UCLA @ BYU: this will be the rubber match of a 3-game series played over the last 12 months.
Alternates: Stanford @ TCU: another MWC-Pac 10 game, we've seen a bi-gillion of these over the past few years.

Week 4: New Mexico @ Tulsa: a victory for the Lobos here could stop all of the Tulsa talk and put all of the BCS-buster focus on the MWC.
Alternate: Iowa State @ UNLV: last year's Utah team was better than this year's Iowa State team, can the Tank rush for over 200 against a Big 12 foe?

Week 5: TCU @ Oklahoma: people are starting to talk about TCU and they'll probably be 4-0 heading in to this game, perhaps even ranked...

Week 6: Navy @ Air Force: will Calhoun and his Falcons get beat by two Mormon coaches in one season?
Alternate: Oregon State @ Utah: the Utes WILL win this game, possibly by more than they whalloped UCLA by last year.

Week 7: Utah @ Wyoming: this will be bloody, but not close.
Alternate: New Mexico @ BYU: read comment for Utah @ Wyoming game above.

Week 8: BYU @ TCU: Thursday night game, lots of BYU fans in Texas, could feel more like a home game for the Cougars, unless TCU beat Oklahoma in week 5...

Week 9: New Mexico @ Air Force: the Academy has payback on its mind after a spectacular game in Albuquerque last year.

Week 10: Utah @ New Mexico: this trip won't be kind to Utah. Don't look ahead to TCU!
Alternate: Air Force @ Army: I love the service academy games!

Week 11: TCU @ Utah: the battle for second place.
Alternate: Wyoming @ Tennessee: a chance for a late season MWC statement. All we'll learn is that Wyoming can't make a positive late-season statement.

Week 12: BYU @ Air Force: BYU will be making a push for 11-0 and the top 5. Will Max Hall prove to be the real air force?
Alternate: New Mexico @ CSU: if CSU does turn it around as I predicted, this could be a game.

Week 13: BYU @ Utah: this is the game of the year for this conference. Not since the late 90's will this game mean so much on the national stage for BOTH teams. I think '98 was the last time both teams were ranked heading in to the game.
Alternate: the replay of the BYU-Utah game.

Bowl games: If BYU makes a BCS bowl, that's the ONE to watch, otherwise, another year of bad bowl games as the conference champ takes on a 4th-place Pac 10 team in Vegas that inevitably suffered a major late-season collapse, the second place team (Utah) beats the 50th best team in the country to extend its bowl winning streak to 10 and they brashly brag about it forever (as they forget how many years it took them to make it to 10 bowl games), the third place team takes on a 6-6 with-a-losing-in-conference record WAC team, etc. We'll still enjoy the games anyway...