At 117 degrees — the predicted high for Las Vegas this week — even the mercury might be perspiring.
There also might be uneasy conditions in the desert city for the Mountain West Conference’s football media days on Wednesday and Thursday.
A league that was founded from a clandestine meeting in a Denver airport 26 years ago is expected to address a challenging future during the annual gathering of media, coaches and players.
As college football’s landscape shifted, the 12 MWC teams — UH is a football-only member — made a loyalty pact last year. Since then, seven head coaches have departed. The latest was Utah State’s Blake Anderson, who was dismissed for what school officials claimed was a failure to comply with Title IX regulations in regards to reporting sexual misconduct and violence. Anderson, who has hired a lawyer, also was the Aggies’ offensive coordinator.
The shakeups have elevated Hawaii’s Timmy Chang, in his third season as head coach, Colorado State’s Jay Norvell and Fresno State’s Jeff Tedford as the head coaches with the second-longest uninterrupted tenures at their schools. Tedford coached the Bulldogs for three seasons before resigning because of health reasons in 2019. Two years later, he returned as Kalen DeBoer’s replacement. Air Force’s Troy Calhoun, in his 18th season, is the dean of MWC head coaches.
The league also has fewer marquee quarterbacks. Boise State’s Taylen Green transferred to Arkansas and UNLV’s Jayden Maiava is now at USC. Colorado State’s Clay Millen, who was a backup last season after completing a school-record 72.2% of his passes in 2022, transferred to Florida. San Jose State’s Chevan Cordeiro and Wyoming’s Andrew Peasley completed their NCAA careers.
The expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams does not greatly enhance the Mountain West’s chances. The five highest-ranked conference champions earn automatic berths. It would appear the champions of the four power conferences — the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12 and ACC — are guaranteed spots. That would leave the champions of the Mountain West, American Athletic, Sun Belt, Mid-American and Conference USA to battle for the fifth spot. The next seven highest-ranked teams will fill out the playoffs.
The football future of Oregon State and Washington State — the two holdovers when 10 teams bolted from the Pac-12 — also is on the clock. Both schools have reached a short-term agreement to fill their schedules with Mountain West opponents. This season, Oregon State will play seven MWC teams, Washington State will play eight. None will count toward the MWC standings. In turn, each MWC team has reduced its league schedule from eight to seven this season.
One scenario would be for the MWC to absorb OSU and WSU to expand to a 14-team football conference. Hawaii would face a more challenging scenario if OSU, WSU and select MWC teams eventually created a new league.
UH remains an attractive member because it subsidizes a visiting team’s travel, offers a popular destination for supporters, has a rich football history, and has ties to the Hawaii Bowl.
When the Warriors entered the league in 2012, Aloha Stadium’s 50,000 seating capacity was the MWC’s largest home venue. Since then, Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium (65,000) and San Diego’s Snapdragon Stadium (55,000) have surged to the top. When Aloha Stadium was self-condemned for spectator-attended events in December 2020, the Warriors were forced to retrofit the on-campus Ching Complex into a home venue. Even with the expansion to 15,300 seats two years ago, Ching is the smallest home venue in the league.
If Aloha Stadium’s replacement is built — the moving target is tentatively set for a 2028 opening — the projected 25,000 capacity still would be the smallest among MWC facilities. Utah State’s Maverik Stadium has a capacity of 25,513.
UH athletic director Craig Angelos and his marketing consultant will be attending this week’s MWC event. It will be an opportunity for Angelos to strengthen relationships and more importantly, take the temperature of Hawaii’s football future.
