MWC chief confident in future; Lobos picked last in preseason poll

Jul. 21—One of the absolute certainties of life involves the football team from the University of New Mexico getting zero love in the preseason polls.

For the 13th year in a row, the Lobos have been picked either last or next to it in the guessing game that is the Mountain West Conference preseason media poll. UNM received just 29 points in a poll of 28 media members covering the league, meaning it was a near-unanimous pick to finish at the bottom of the MWC's Mountain Division this fall.

Boise State was the pick to win the division, garnering half the first-place votes. Air Force was second, followed by Air Force, Utah State, Colorado State and Wyoming.

Fresno State is the clear favorite to win the West Division. With 20 of the 28 top votes, the Bulldogs easily outdistance San Diego State, which got the other eight. Rounding out the division is San Jose State in third, followed by Nevada, UNLV and Hawaii.

UNM is coming off a 3-9 season and a last-place finish in the MWC. The Lobos haven't won more than three games in a season since 2016 and have had a losing record in 12 of the last 14 years.

The MWC will announce its preseason all-conference players when its annual media days continue Thursday in Las Vegas, Nev.

Part of Wednesday's activities involved a 45-minute press conference with league commissioner Craig Thompson. He addressed everything from conference realignment to media rights, the name, image likeness experience and the biggest obstacle facing the Mountain West and other so-called Group of Five conferences.

Thompson served on a committee last year seeking options for the future of the College Football Playoff. They proposed a 12-team bracket that included six at-large bids that would presumably make it more likely to get a non-power conference into the fray.

"I really can't say much about that," he said. "Very, very personally frustrated that the recommendation made a year ago was not adopted, but we're back at the drawing board. The timeline is pretty simple: At the end of the January 2026 game there is no more College Football Playoff. We've got to do something."

Since the formation of the CFP, Thompson said the MWC has averaged $19 million annually to disburse among its membership. That seven-figure payout for all 12 schools in the league is a critical piece of the financial well-being for schools like UNM, schools whose annual athletic budgets lag far behind those in more prominent conferences.

Thompson said that is one of the biggest concerns moving forward for the MWC. The only thing more daunting is continuing with nonconference schedules that all MWC members to play teams from power leagues like the Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and so on. Those, Thompson said, bring competitive balance and keep MWC programs on the radar for seismic events like the CFP and NCAA Tournament.

"It's very important that the College Football Playoff remains alive and that we're a part of it," Thompson said.

Regarding the ever-changing landscape of conference alignments, Thompson said geography offers both a luxury and a curse for the MWC. Calling it an "airplane league," the Mountain West has been largely immune to realignment for the last decade. With the impending collapse of the Pac-12 after UCLA and USC announced they were leaving for the Big Ten, Thompson pointed out that change is just part of life at the highest level of college sports.

Since 2001, 49 of what is now 131 schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision have changed leagues. That figure will balloon to at least 67 when the dust settles from the latest movement involving a number of conferences like the Big 12, Conference USA and American Athletic Conference, to name a few.

Thompson said the MWC has three options: Do nothing, expand or discuss a possible merger with another league, something the Mountain West nearly did a decade ago when it was involved in serious discussions with C-USA to form a superconference.

The possibility of losing a school or two to another league is always on Thompson's mind. He said the MWC is prepared to deal with such events but, as he stated multiple times Wednesday, right now the Mountain West is a solid 12-school league without a pressing need to expand.

"I've been struck by the cliché lately that [says], 'Man's loyalty is as strong as his options,' " Thompson said. "I'm very comfortable with a 12-team league, I'm thrilled with our 12-team league."

It all comes down to money, Thompson said. Some power conferences have media rights agreements in the works that are potentially worth $100 million per school every year. The MWC's current deal with FOX and CBS brings in roughly $4.5 million for each school.

"Our value to CBS and FOX is, quite frankly, Thursday night, Friday night and that 8 o'clock Saturday window [for football]," Thompson said. "If you could imagine a world where we're the only conference in the west playing in those windows, that increases our value."

If expanding gives the MWC an opportunity to re-negotiate those media rights to generate more revenue, Thompson said expansion makes sense. If not, it's just more mouths to feed with the same amount of resources.

Until then it's life as usual for the UNM football team. With the constant evolution of college sports the last decade-plus, the Lobos have been remarkably stable at the bottom.