It’s quite a year when two-thirds of your teams end it as bowl-eligible, like the Mountain West Conference did in 2021.

Yes, this is skewed because of bowl inflation so rampant that sometimes teams without winning records continue on after the regular season.

It’s still notable that eight of the conference’s 12 teams were slated to go bowling last year — including Hawaii, with its 6-7 record.

The COVID-19 resurgence around the holidays forced Boise State and UH to pull out of their bowls. It also didn’t help the Warriors that some of their best players had already entered the transfer portal.

But here is what was truly impressive: Five of the six Mountain West teams that did play in bowls won them.

None were of the lucrative New Year’s Day variety, but still: An .833 winning percentage in bowl games is eye-catching. It was also the best of any of the 10 conferences, and the independents as a group.

Only the SEC and Big Ten had more bowl wins, with six each. The SEC also lost eight bowl games, and the Big Ten four.

In a stat you’d expect from maybe one of those power conferences, all but four of the Mountain West teams received votes in either or both the AP or coaches poll at some point last year.

There were big regular-season wins — Fresno State knocking off UCLA, San Diego State over Utah, and Boise State over 10th-ranked BYU among the most notable.

When it was all said and done, conference champion Utah State finished ranked No. 24 in the nation, and San Diego State was right behind at 25.

Depending on the metrics you choose, the Mountain West could’ve made a claim as 2021’s best Group of Five conference, overall — even including the American Athletic Conference. The American became the first non-Power Five conference to crash the College Football Playoff party with Cincinnati’s appearance in the final four, albeit brief and not very good on the field with its 27-6 semifinal loss to Alabama.

All of this might seem to indicate the Mountain West is a conference on the rise — and with good timing, since it’s now official that the CFP will expand to 12 teams, possibly as soon as 2024.

This will be great, while it lasts.

The breakaway from the NCAA by the elite conferences and programs projected by many for so long seems closer than ever, and the CFP expansion could even expedite it.

But, at least for a few years, there’s a real move toward equity in college football. Twelve teams instead of four means at least one Group of Five champion gets in. That team gets a shot at the national championship, and brings home a lot of money to share with its conference mates.

It means a Group of Five coach can be sincere while recruiting when stating “national championship” as a goal. It also could slow that rush to the transfer portal that some fear could eventually result in the Group of Five becoming little more than a minor league training ground for the Power Five.

Unfortunately for the Mountain West, though, the happy holidays of the ’21 bowl season haven’t smoothly transferred to a good start to 2022.

None of Saturday’s high-profile upsets — losses by big brand names Texas A&M, Notre Dame and Nebraska — came at the hands of Mountain West teams. You can thank Sun Belt squads for all of those: Appalachian State, Marshall and Georgia Southern.

The Mountain West is usually good for an early-season upset or two. But there was zero in week zero, and not much the following two weeks either.

The conference’s overall nonconference record is 13-15 — and since UH is 0-3, some might say the Warriors are the problem. But the league ledger also includes some ugly and unexpected losses by other teams.

It was no surprise that Utah State would get thumped at Alabama, but the Aggies also were beaten soundly at home by FCS neighbor Weber State — and it wasn’t even close, 35-7.

On the same day, Nevada lost at home, too, also to an FCS opponent. Incarnate Word outscored the Pack 55-41.

For most of the Mountain West teams, it hasn’t mattered much if they’re punching down or up in classification or conference reputation. San Diego State and Fresno State were home favorites against Pac-12 teams, but lost to Arizona and Oregon State.

Air Force is the conference’s only remaining unbeaten, with convincing wins over Northern Iowa, 48-17, and Colorado, 41-10.

Five of the AP poll’s 62 voters put the Falcons in their top 25 this week. They’re 37th in total voting points — a spot behind Notre Dame, which is now 0-2.

Air Force certainly deserves more respect than that — and Notre Dame less — regardless if the Mountain West as a whole hit a peak last year and is now sliding downhill.

Can the conference fight off raids — of its top players and teams — and climb back to the summit in time for that 12-team playoff?