At the end of the 2018 football season, Hawaii coach Nick Rolovich spoke about the Rainbow Warriors entering “Phase II,” which was more of state of mind than concrete plan.

Until tonight.

In the most meaningful game in UH’s eight years of Mountain West membership, the Warriors play host to San Diego State at Aloha Stadium. The winner claims the West Division’s berth in the league’s Dec. 7 championship game.

“We’ve had some pretty big games,” Rolovich said. “But probably, with what’s at stake, it could be (the biggest). … This is an elite San Diego State team.”

The Warriors are 4-3 against Mountain West opponents; the Aztecs are 5-2. According to UH officials, the league has verified that tonight’s winner would be declared the West Division’s representative in the title game.

“This is one of our goals coming into the season,” UH quarterback Cole McDonald said. “To have the opportunity is awesome.”

In 2013, the league split into two divisions, with each side’s winner meeting in a championship game. Either Fresno State or San Diego State represented the West in those six years. At the league’s media day in July, SDSU linebacker Kyhava Tezino said one of the reasons he returned for his senior season was to help the Aztecs win a league title.

“I didn’t want to leave without winning a championship for my team,” Tezino said.

SDSU quarterback Ryan Agnew grew up under the Friday-night lights of playing football in Texas. Three older brothers went the defensive route where Agnew had hoped to play. But his brothers saw that powerful arm — Agnew was lasering 45-yarders as a seventh-grader — and knew the youngest sibling was destined to play quarterback. For the fifth-year senior, this is one of the most significant nights of his football life.

“Just like Hawaii, this is the biggest game to date for us,” Agnew said. “We’ve had success in the past, and I’ve been very fortunate to be on championship teams in the past. But that’s in the past. Nobody cares what it is. Just like Hawaii, they’ve had great football teams in the past, with Colt Brennan leading that charge. But they’re going to say this is the biggest game to date because it’s the next game. The game has so many implications. It’s the same way for us. We want to win this game more than any other game I’ve ever played in. I’m a senior. I want to play in a championship football game.”

The Aztecs enter with a unique defense (3-3-5 alignment) that is dominant in several per-game categories — scoring (13.7), yards (277.0), rushing (65.8). The Warriors counter with a four-wide offense averaging 491.9 yards and 35.8 points per game. The Warriors average 4.5 offensive TDs per game.

“This is what championship games are about,” McDonald said. “Two good teams with a lot to prove.”

Agnew said: “I’m playing a great football team in Hawaii, in Hawaii. What’s a better atmosphere to play in with the stakes so high? I’m sure everyone in Hawaii is thinking the same thing. You wouldn’t want to be in a different situation. This is what you come and play football for, games like this, where everything is on the line.”