MWC Sports Blog

#11 TCU vs #9 Boise State. It was billed as the best non-BCS bowl game of 2008-2009 and even better than the Orange Bowl match-up of Cincinnati vs Virginia Tech, and the 2008 Poinsettia Bowl game lived up to the hype. The Horned Frogs trailed 13-0 early and 13-7 at the half before taking a 17-13 lead in the 4th Quarter and later holding on for a 17-16 victory. It was the TCU defense that was hyped up after allowing more than 14 points just once all season, to #1 Oklahoma, and it was that same defense that made big plays in the 4th Quarter to ensure the TCU victory.

With the win, the Mountain West Conference can claim bragging rights on the WAC as Colorado State already defeated Fresno State in the New Mexico Bowl. Now 2-0 against the WAC, the Mountain West continues with Air Force against Houston of Conference USA in the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl while Utah wraps up bowl season for the MWC when they face Alabama in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.

Just 4:04 remains in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl and the #11 TCU Horned Frogs lead the #9 Boise State Broncos by a score of 17-16. TCU has the ball with a 1st down and 10 on their own 38 yard line with a chance to hold onto the ball and run out the clock. The game has been everything it was billed to be with two BCS-caliber teams hooking up in a close one on ESPN.

The bowl season kicked off on Saturday and the Mountain West Conference began as they would have hope. Colorado State took on Fresno State of the WAC and was able to handle the Bulldogs 40-35. After this nice start and somewhat surprising win, BYU was in action in the Las Vegas Bowl for the 4th season in a row. This time around BYU faced off with Mike Stoops’ much-improved Arizona Wildcats squad. After two straight wins in this bowl game BYU (10-3) did not have the defense to stop Arizona as the Wildcats got the win 31-21. After the dust settled on day one of bowl season the Mountain West was 1-1 with three bowl games remaining in this banner 2008 year for the MWC. Those three games include TCU in the Poinsettia Bowl, Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl and Utah in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.

The Mountain West Conference had quite an impressive season knocking off BCS Automatic Qualifiers and sending three teams into the Top 15 in the nation. Now five MWC teams will participate in bowl games, from 6-6 Colorado State to BCS-bowl bound #6 Utah. Let’s take a look at each of the five bowl teams from the MWC and their bowl game match-ups.
- Colorado State - 6-6 - Colorado State will face Fresno State of the WAC in the New Mexico Bowl on December 20th - 2008 New Mexico Bowl preview
- Air Force - 8-4 - The Falcons of Air Force will face Houston in the Armed Forces Bowl on New Year’s Eve - 2008 Armed Forces Bowl preview
- BYU - 10-2 - The Cougars head to Vegas to play in the Las Vegas Bowl for the 4th staright season. After a loss to Cal in the 2005 Las Vegas Bowl, BYU has beaten Oregon and UCLA in the past two years and will face Arizona on December 20th. - 2008 Las Vegas Bowl preview
- TCU - 10-2 - As the #12 team in the nation, TCU has one of the best bowl match-ups on paper this season as they face #9 Boise State in the Poinsettia Bowl. This match-up gives the Mountain West Conference exactly what they want, they’re #2 team against the WAC’s #1 team with a chance to ruin the Broncos’ undefeated season. Boise State and TCU face off on December 23rd @ 8 pm on ESPN. - 2008 Poinsettia Bowl preview
- Utah - 12-0 - The Utes began their season with an “upset” of Michigan in The Big House and ended their season heading to a BCS Bowl game to face Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. At 12-0, Utah looks for their second win in a BCS bowl game in school history after crushing Pitt just a few short years ago. - 2008-2009 Sugar Bowl preview

The Mountain West Conference has been getting a lot of good attention so far in 2008 after a sweep of the Pac-10 a couple of weeks ago. With BYU and Utah ranked, the TCU Horned Frogs joined their MWC rivals breaking in at #24 heading into their matchup with #2 Oklahoma this Saturday. In other Mountain West football action Wyoming hosts Bowling Green, Colorado State is @ California, San Diego State hosts Idaho, New Mexico is @ New Mexico State, #17 Utah hosts Weber State and UNLV hosts Nevada while #11 BYU and Air Force have a week off to prepare for Week Six games.

> Fans can buy UNLV apparel, BYU hats & TCU merchandise through MWC-fans.com and Utah Utes clothing and more through College Sports Fans.

With the 2008 NCAA college football season just a few months away, college football previews are beginning to be published on the Web and in print. One of our favorite college football previews for 2008 is now live over at CollegeSports-fans.com, where they have added all 9 Mountain West Conference football team previews. We have listed the links below for you so feel free to read the previews and leave your feedback in our comments below.

2008 MWC Football Preview

After winning the MWC Tournament, the UNLV Rebels secured their place in the 2008 NCAA Tournament alongside at-large big BYU, and both teams learned their fate on Selection Sunday. UNLV will face another strong mid-major with a successful history in Kent State in the #8/9 game in the Midwest while BYU also earned a #8 seed as they face #9 Texas A&M in the West Regional. Meanwhile, New Mexico is a #5 seed and San Diego State received a #7 seed in the NIT Tournament while the new CBI Tournament did not select a single Mountain West Conference basketball team.

- UNLV 2008 NCAA Tournament preview

- Kent State 2008 NCAA Tournament preview

- BYU 2008 NCAA Tournament preview

- Texas A&M 2008 NCAA Tournament preview

Eddie Griffin of College Sports Fans recently wrote an article on mid-major college football & basketball teams building their programs and gaining national prominence. We witnessed the Utah Utes behind QB Alex Smith and then head coach Urban Meyer win a BCS bowl game just a few short years ago, and while Utah has maintained a winning program, they have not been anywhere close to their BCS performance again.

Labeling continuity, confidence and being in the right place at the right time as keys to building and sustaining a college program into an elite team, this article makes a great read for fans of any non-BCS conference football program.

Four bowl games have been played involving Mountain West Conference teams and four wins are in the books for the MWC. College Sports Fans successfully picked 3 of the 4 games in their 2007-2008 college bowl game peviews, so let’s take a look at each game to date.

December 28th at 8 pm ET marks the kickoff of the 2007 Texas Bowl between the Houston Cougars of Conference USA and the TCU Horned Frogs of the Mountain West Conference. Houston (8-4) went 6-2 in C-USA play while TCU (7-5) finished 4-4 against MWC opponents. The CUSA Fans Texas Bowl preview has been posted in partnership with College Sports Fans along with their other 2007-2008 College football bowl previews.