2013 Mountain West Conference football season


The 2013 Mountain West Conference football season was the 15th season of college football for the Mountain West Conference. In the 2013 NCAA Division I FBS football season, the MW had 12 football members: Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Hawaiʻi, Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State, San Jose State, UNLV, Utah State, and Wyoming.
This was the third consecutive year in which the Mountain West saw changes in membership. In 2011, two of the conference's charter members, BYU and Utah, left, while Boise State joined from the WAC. The following year, the MW lost TCU, members since 2005, to the Big 12, while gaining new all-sports members Fresno State and Nevada and football-only member Hawaii from the WAC. For 2013, the MW lost no schools, while adding two new full members from the WAC in San Jose State and Utah State. This brought the conference membership in football to 12, allowing the MW to split into divisions and launch a championship game.

Previous season

Preseason

Award watch lists

The following Mountain West players were named to preseason award watch lists.
Maxwell Award:
Chuck Bednarik Award:
John Mackey Award:
Fred Biletnikoff Award:
Bronko Nagurski Trophy:
Outland Trophy:
Jim Thorpe Award:
Lombardi Award:
Rimington Trophy:
Davey O'Brien Award:
Doak Walker Award:
Walter Camp Award:
Lott Trophy:
Lou Groza Award:

Media poll

All–Conference Team

Coaches

NOTE: Stats shown are before the beginning of the season
TeamHead CoachYears at SchoolOverall RecordRecord at SchoolMW Record
Air ForceTroy Calhoun749–4149–4129–27
Boise StateChris Petersen892–1292–1257–6
Colorado StateJim McElwain211–1411-148-8
Fresno StateTim DeRuyter220–520–514–2
HawaiiNorm Chow23-203-201-14
NevadaBrian Polian14-84-83-5
New MexicoBob Davie242-4342-432-14
San Diego StateRocky Long289–8389-8317–6
San José StateRon Caragher150-2850-285-3
UNLVBobby Hauck393–5493-5410–21
Utah StateMatt Wells18-48-47-1
WyomingDave Christensen427–3527–3516–23

*first year as conference member, ^achieved as head coach of New Mexico from 99–08

Rankings

Mountain West vs. BCS matchups

Bowl games

The Mountain West Conference will have agreements with the following bowls for 2012–13:
  • The MW champion will receive an automatic berth in one of the five BCS bowl games if they are the highest ranked non-automatic qualifying conference champion and either of the following:
  • * Ranked in the top 12 of the BCS Rankings.
  • * Ranked in the top 16 of the BCS Rankings and its ranking is higher than that of an automatic qualifying conference champion.
PickNameLocationOpposing ConferenceOpposing Pick
1Maaco Bowl Las VegasLas Vegas, NevadaPac-125
2Poinsettia BowlSan Diego, CaliforniaBYU, Army –
3Armed Forces BowlFort Worth, TexasC-USA, Navy 3, –
4New Mexico BowlAlbuquerque, New MexicoPac-127
5Hawai'i BowlHonolulu, HawaiiC-USA2

Regular season

All dates, times, and TV are tentative and subject to change.
The Mountain West has teams in 3 different time zones. Times reflect start time in respective time zone of each team. Conference games start times are that of the home team.

Home attendance