It is game week folks! The 2012-1013 college football season kicks-off in a matter of days and it is time to gaze into the crystal ball and roll out my 2012 Mountain West football predictions. This season the conference can be viewed in three tiers. Tier one is the title contenders consisting of Boise State, Fresno State and Nevada. Tier two is the mushy middle with Air Force, Colorado State, Hawaii, San Diego Sate, and Wyoming. The third tier is the downtrodden programs of New Mexico and UNLV who should finish at the bottom yet again. How they will finish this year is anyone’s guess as I expect a very competitive league this year with most of the games being close. Here is how I see things at this point in time.

I am hesitant picking Boise State to win the title again with a new quarterback and having to replace the majority of their defense but it is hard to pick against their depth and quality of coaching that they get from Petersen. Without the steady hand of Kellen Moore, I would expect Boise to be a little more adventurous on offense this year as they have done in the past.

Bowl wise the Mountain West could have as many as six bowl eligible teams. The conference only has five bowl affiliations this year but there are expected to be several at-large spots open with conferences such as the Big East, Pac-12, and Conference USA more than likely not being able to fill all of their bowl slots. That would give Colorado State and Air Force a very good chance of landing an at-large bid and not missing out on the post season. These situations are fluid of course and a sixth Mountain West bowl eligible team could be left out in the cold but that shouldn’t impact the Cowboys who have traveled really well in our last few bowl games.