The Mountain West Conference (or MWC), the youngest of the college athletic conferences affiliated with the NCAA’s Division I FBS (I-A), officially began operations in July 1999. Geographically, the MWC covers a broad expanse of the western United States, with member institutions located in California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. Craig Thompson has served as Commissioner of the MWC since its founding in 1999.

Charter members included Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, UNLV, Utah, and Wyoming. Before forming the Mountain West Conference, seven of the eight charter members had been longtime members of the Western Athletic Conference; half were WAC charter members at its formation in 1962 - UNLV had only joined the WAC in 1996.

The WAC expanded from 10 to 16 universities in 1996, absorbing three teams from the defunct Southwest Conference (Rice, SMU, and TCU), adding two from the Big West (San Jose State and UNLV), and Tulsa from the Missouri Valley. After three football seasons, most of the pre-expansion members decided the that the new WAC was oversized, and departed to form the Mountain West Conference. The MWC added a ninth team in 2005: TCU, also a former WAC member, which joined after four seasons in Conference USA.

A lesser known "Mountain West Athletic Conference" existed from 1982-88, sponsoring championships for women’s sports at Big Sky Conference institutions. The Big Sky absorbed the MWAC in 1988, forming one league for both men's and women's competition.

Members

Institution	Nickname	Location	Affiliation	Enrollment	Year Joined
U.S. Air Force Academy	Falcons	Colorado Springs, Colorado	Public/Federal	4,000	1999
Brigham Young University	Cougars	Provo, Utah	Private/Christian (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)	34,100	1999
Colorado State University	Rams	Fort Collins, Colorado	Public/State (Colorado State University system)	26,418	1999
University of New Mexico	Lobos	Albuquerque, New Mexico	Public/State	24,092	1999
San Diego State University	Aztecs	San Diego, California	Public/State (California State University system)	34,500	1999
Texas Christian University	Horned Frogs	Fort Worth, Texas	Private/Christian (Disciples of Christ)	8,749	2005
University of Nevada at Las Vegas	Rebels	Las Vegas, Nevada	Public/State (Nevada System of Higher Education)	31,000	1999
University of Utah	Utes	Salt Lake City, Utah	Public/State (Utah System of Higher Education)	26,700	1999
University of Wyoming	Cowboys and Cowgirls	Laramie, Wyoming	Public/State	13,301	1999

A Hypothetical Expansion

The Boise, Idaho, radio station KBOI reported on Nov. 11, 2008, that the Western Athletic Conference member Boise State's president Robert Kustra had received a letter from the Mountain West Conference with an invitation to join this league. Despite the popularity of potential expansion among some fans and reporters, this report, also reported on the Boise newspaper's Web site www.IdahoStatesman.com , has been denied.

Sports

The MWC sponsors championships in baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's golf, women's soccer, swimming and diving, men's and women's tennis, women's volleyball, football, softball,indoor and outdoor track and cross country. Many of its member schools participate in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation for sports not sponsored by the Mountain West Conference. Two MWC schools have unique affiliations in men's soccer as San Diego State competes as a member of the Pacific-10 Conference, while BYU has completely abandoned the collegiate competitive structure in that sport, opting instead to field a semi-professional team in the USL Premier Development League.

Starting with the 2009-10 season, the Mountain West and Missouri Valley Conferences will hold an annual challenge series between all nine members of the MWC and nine of the ten MVC teams. The first game will be on November 13 between the Bradley Braves and the BYU Cougars in Provo and concluding on December 23 with the Wyoming Cowboys visiting the Northern Iowa Panthers in Cedar Falls, IA. The challenge is similar to the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, which pits men's basketball teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big Ten Conference.

Television network

See article MountainWest Sports Network

Conference Champions

Men's Championship Winners

		Men's Basketball	Baseball	Cross Country	Golf	Swimming & Diving	Tennis	Track & Field	Indoor Track
1999-2000	BYU CSU Utah	Regular Season UNLV/Utah Tournament UNLV	Regular Season New Mexico Tournament SDSU	BYU	UNLV	BYU	Regular Season SDSU Tournament New Mexico	BYU	BYU
2000-2001	CSU	Regular Season BYU/Utah/Wyoming Tournament BYU	Regular Season and Tournament BYU	BYU	BYU	BYU	Regular Season SDSU Tournament BYU	BYU	BYU
2001-2002	BYU	Regular Season Wyoming Tournament SDSU	Regular Season SDSU Tournament BYU	BYU	UNLV	BYU	Regular Season and Tournament SDSU	BYU	CSU
2002-2003	CSU	Regular Season BYU/Utah Tournament CSU	Regular Season and Tournament UNLV	BYU	New Mexico	BYU	Regular Season and Tournament SDSU	BYU	BYU
2003-2004	Utah	Regular Season Air Force Tournament Utah	Regular Season SDSU Tournament UNLV	Air Force	New Mexico	BYU	Regular Season and Tournament New Mexico	BYU	BYU
2004-2005	Utah	Regular Season Utah Tournament New Mexico	Regular Season and Tournament UNLV	BYU	New Mexico	UNLV	Regular Season and Tournament SDSU	BYU	BYU
2005-2006	TCU	Regular Season and Tournament SDSU	Regular Season and Tournament TCU	BYU	New Mexico	UNLV	Regular Season SDSU Tournament TCU	BYU	BYU
2006-2007	BYU	Regular Season BYU Tournament UNLV	Regular Season and Tournament TCU	BYU	BYU	UNLV BYU	Regular Season SDSU Tournament UNLV	BYU	BYU
2007-2008	BYU	Regular Season BYU Tournament UNLV	Regular Season and Tournament TCU	BYU	CSU	Regular Season BYU Tournament UNLV	Regular Season New Mexico/TCU/UtahTournament TCU	BYU	BYU
2008-2009	Utah	Regular Season BYU/Utah/New Mexico Tournament Utah	Regular Season TCU Tournament Utah	BYU	TCU	Regular Season and Tournament UNLV	Regular Season TCU Tournament New Mexico	BYU	BYU
2009-2010	TCU	Regular Season -- Tournament --	Regular Season -- Tournament --	New Mexico	--	Regular Season -- Tournament --	Regular Season -- Tournament --	--	--

Source:

Women's Championship Winners

	Women's Basketball	Softball	Soccer	Volleyball	Cross Country	Golf	Swimming & Diving	Tennis	Track & Field	Indoor Track
1999-2000	Regular Season and Tournament Utah	Regular Season and Tournament Utah	Regular Season SDSU Tournament BYU	Regular Season BYU Tournament CSU	BYU	New Mexico	BYU	Regular Season SDSU Tournament UNLV	BYU	BYU
2000-2001	Regular Season Utah Tournament CSU	Regular Season and Tournament BYU	Regular Season and Tournament BYU	Regular Season CSU Tournament BYU	BYU	New Mexico	BYU	Regular Season and Tournament BYU	BYU	BYU
2001-2002	Regular Season CSU Tournament BYU	Regular Season SDSU Tournament Utah	Regular Season and Tournament BYU	Regular Season CSU Tournament Utah	BYU	New Mexico	BYU	Regular Season SDSU Tournament UNLV	BYU	BYU
2002-2003	Regular Season Utah Tournament New Mexico	Regular Season SDSU Tournament CSU	Regular Season and Tournament BYU	Regular Season CSU Tournament Utah	BYU	New Mexico	BYU	Regular Season UNLV Tournament SDSU	BYU	BYU
2003-2004	Regular Season Utah Tournament New Mexico	Regular Season CSU Tournament Utah	Regular Season Utah Tournament BYU	Regular Season and Tournament CSU	BYU	UNLV	BYU	Regular Season New Mexico Tournament BYU	BYU	BYU
2004-2005	Regular Season and Tournament New Mexico	Regular Season and Tournament BYU	Regular Season UNLV Tournament Utah	Regular Season and Tournament CSU	BYU	UNLV	UNLV	Regular Season and Tournament BYU	BYU	BYU
2005-2006	Regular Season BYU Tournament Utah	Regular Season SDSU Tournament Utah	Regular Season Utah Tournament UNLV	Regular Season BYU Tournament Utah	BYU	UNLV	Utah	Regular Season and Tournament TCU	BYU	CSU
2006-2007	Regular Season BYU Tournament New Mexico	BYU	Regular Season Utah Tournament UNLV	Regular Season Utah Tournament CSU	BYU	TCU	Regular Season Utah Tournament BYU	Regular Season BYU and TCU Tournament BYU	BYU	BYU
2007-2008	Regular Season Utah Tournament New Mexico	SDSU	Regular Season UNLV Tournament BYU	Regular Season CSU Tournament UNLV	CSU	New Mexico	Regular Season and Tournament BYU	Regular Season TCU Tournament UNLV	CSU	TCU
2008-2009	Regular Season Utah/SDSU Tournament Utah	BYU	Regular Season and Tournament BYU	Regular Season Utah Tournament --	New Mexico	New Mexico	Regular Season and Tournament BYU	Regular Season UNLV Tournament TCU	BYU	BYU
2009-2010	Regular Season -- Tournament --	Regular Season -- Tournament --	Regular Season BYU Tournament SDSU	Regular Season -- Tournament --	New Mexico	Regular Season -- Tournament --	Regular Season -- Tournament --	Regular Season -- Tournament --	--	--

Source:

Football Rivalries

Conference

Schools		First Meeting	Game	Trophy	Winner (Last Meeting)	All-time Record
Utah	BYU	1896	The Holy War	Beehive Boot	BYU	Utah leads 53–34–4
Colorado State	Wyoming	1899	Border War	Bronze Boot	Colorado State	Colorado State leads 55-40-5
Air Force Academy	Colorado State	1980		Ram-Falcon Trophy	Air Force	Air Force leads 27-19-1

Since TCU joined the conference in 2005, BYU and TCU have begun to develop a heated rivalry. For at least the 2008 and 2009 football seasons, the TCU team placed a BYU helmet atop its tackling dummy.

Bowl games

The Mountain West Conference will have agreements with the following bowls for 2010-13:The MWC champion will receive an automatic berth in one of the five BCS bowl games if:

• ranked in the top 12 of the BCS Standings. (Utah qualified under this criterion in 2008)
• Or if ranked in the top 16 of the BCS Standings and its ranking is higher than that of a champion of a conference that has an annual automatic berth in one of the BCS bowls.

• Maaco Bowl Las Vegas: Las Vegas, Nevada (MWC #1 pick against Pac-10 #5 pick)
• Poinsettia Bowl: San Diego, California (MWC #2 pick against Pac-10 #6 pick)
• Independence Bowl: Shreveport, Louisiana (MWC #3 pick against ACC #7 pick)
• Armed Forces Bowl: Fort Worth, Texas (MWC #4/5 pick against C-USA pick)
• New Mexico Bowl: Albuquerque, New Mexico (MWC #4/5 pick against WAC #1/2/3 pick)

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Non-Conference

Schools		First Meeting	Game	Trophy	Reigning Champion (Last Meeting)	Next Meeting
Air Force / Army / Navy		1972		Commander-in-Chief's Trophy	Navy (2008)	2009
Utah	Utah State	1892	Battle of the Brothers	Beehive Boot	Utah (2009)	2012
Colorado State	Colorado	1893	Rocky Mountain Showdown	Centennial Cup	Colorado State (2009)	2010
New Mexico	New Mexico State	1894	Battle of Interstate 25	Rio Grande Rivalry	New Mexico State (2009)	2009
New Mexico	Arizona	1908		The Kit Carson Rifle	New Mexico (2008)
TCU	SMU	1915	Battle for the Iron Skillet	The Iron Skillet	TCU (2009)	2010
New Mexico	UTEP	1919	Rio Grande Championship		UTEP (2007)	2010
BYU	Hawaii	1930			BYU (2002)	2012
BYU	Utah State	1922	Battle for the old Wagon Wheel	The Wagon Wheel	BYU (2009)	2010
San Diego State	San Jose State	1935			San Jose State (2008)
Nevada-Las Vegas	Nevada-Reno	1969	Battle for Nevada	The Fremont Cannon	Nevada (2008)	2009

Postseason Records

Football Bowl Games
School	W	L	T	Winning Percentage	BCS	National Championships
Utah	11	3	0	.786	2-0	0
TCU	11	13	1	.438	0-0	2 (1935, 1938)
BYU	9	16	1	.365	0-0	1 (1984)
Air Force	8	9	1	.472	0-0	0
Wyoming	5	6	0	.455	0-0	0
Colorado State	4	8	0	.333	0-0	0
UNLV	3	0	0	1.000	0-0	0
San Diego State	3	4	0	.429	0-0	0
New Mexico	3	7	1	.318	0-0	0

Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament
School	Appearances	W	L	Wins Per Appearance	National Championships
Utah	28	35	29	1.346	1 (1944)
UNLV	16	33	15	2.133	1 (1990)
BYU	22	11	25	.440	0
Wyoming	14	9	19	.643	1 (1943)
New Mexico	11	6	12	.545	0
TCU	7	5	7	.714	0
Colorado State	8	3	9	.375	0
San Diego State	5	0	5	.000	0
Air Force	4	0	4	.000	0

Conference Facilities

School	Football Stadium	Capacity	Basketball Arenas	Capacity	Baseball Stadium	Capacity
Air Force	Falcon Stadium	46,692	Clune Arena	5,939	Falcon Baseball Field	1,000
BYU	LaVell Edwards Stadium	64,045	Marriott Center	22,700	Larry H. Miller Field	2,710
Colorado State	Hughes Stadium	34,000	Moby Arena	8,745	No baseball team
New Mexico	University Stadium	40,094	University Arena (The Pit)	18,018	Isotopes Park	12,215
San Diego State	Qualcomm Stadium	71,400	Viejas Arena	12,414	Tony Gwynn Stadium	3,000
TCU	Amon G. Carter Stadium	44,358	Daniel-Meyer Coliseum	7,200	Lupton Stadium	3,500
UNLV	Sam Boyd Stadium	36,800	Thomas & Mack Center (men) Cox Pavilion (women)	18,776 2,472	Earl Wilson Stadium	3,000
Utah	Rice-Eccles Stadium	45,017	Jon M. Huntsman Center	15,000	Spring Mobile Ballpark	15,500
Wyoming	War Memorial Stadium	30,514	Arena-Auditorium	15,028	No baseball team

Elevation

The Mountain West's slogan is "Above the rest," and most member institutions are at more than 4,000 feet above sea level. This impacts endurance in sports like football, soccer, and the distance races in track & field and swimming meets, and aerodynamics in baseball, softball, golf, and the discus and javelin throws. The Mountain West's institutions have the highest average elevation in NCAA Division I sports.

School	Elevation	Notes		Conference (Top 5 in elevation)	Average campus elevation
Wyoming	7,220 ft.	Highest altitude school in Division I		Mountain West	4,060 feet
Air Force Academy	7,050 ft.	Falcon Stadium is at 6,600 ft.		Big Sky	3,503 feet
Colorado State	5,200 ft.			WAC	2,160 feet
New Mexico	5,100 ft.			Big 12	1,390 feet
BYU	4,660 ft.			The Summit	1,240 feet
Utah	4,660 ft.
UNLV	2,024 ft.	Sam Boyd Stadium is at 1,600 ft.
TCU	635 ft.
SDSU	441 ft.	Qualcomm Stadium is at 100 ft.
Conference average	4,060 ft.

See also

• Mountain West Conference Men's Basketball Tournament
• Mountain West Conference Women's Basketball Tournament
• Mountain West Conference Baseball Tournament

References

1. Mountain West Conference Championships

External links

• Official Athletic Site of the Mountain West Conference
• Largest MWC Fan Forum
• The Big Podcast: A Quality Mountain West Conference Blog