Mountain West Championship Game Will Be Decided By Computer Ratings
San Jose State, Boise State, UNLV are tied
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It come down to computer ratings
There is chaos among the Mountain West for what teams will play in the Mountain West title game. Boise State won on Friday to put them in a great position to make the Mountain West title game.
Then on Saturday, had UNLV won they would have been guaranteed to be in the title game against San Jose State or Boise State. Well, the Spartans are the best playing team of late in the conference, upset the Rebels in Las Vegas by a score of 37-31.
San Jose State has won six games in a row.
With the Rebels, Broncos, and Spartans all at two losses and the conference and with San Jose State and Boise State not playing each other, the Mountain West will use “selective computer ratings” to determine its championship game matchup.
“The computer rankings will identify the two highest-ranked tier teams to participate in the championship game,” the league said “Once those two teams are identified the head-to-head result will determine the host.”
The participants and host for the 2023 Mountain West Football Championship will be determined by computer rankings and announced the morning of Sunday, Nov. 26 pic.twitter.com/Br5TD5ohsY
— Mountain West (@MountainWest) November 26, 2023
The computer ratings are not publicly known, but it has been the old BCS computers. The Mountain West used those metrics in 2017 to determine who would host between Boise State and Fresno State. That year saw some controversy as the Bulldogs beat the Broncos the week before but had to play on the road in Boise.
Using the old BCS computers, the rankings are as follows via Brett McMurphy of The Action Network leading up to this weekends games.
No. 35 UNLV
No. 63 Boise State
No. 71 San Jose State
Mountain West title game scenario: it's based on average of computer rankings, used for BCS.
I'm told last week's rankings were UNLV 35th, Boise St 63rd, San Jose St 71st
What's unknown is if SJSU can leapfrog Boise State w/its win vs. UNLV. Rebels guaranteed to remain in top 2…
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) November 26, 2023
Scenario outcomes:
UNLV looks safe to be in the championship game, even with the loss to the Spartans. If San Jose State is No. 1 or No. 2, they would host for defeating the Rebels.
If it is Boise State vs. UNLV then it is computer ratings and those favor the Rebels and then likely host.
Boise State and San Jose State are hoping that the computer ratings like their final game and can be No. 2 to be in the title game.
Our best assumption is that it will be UNLV hosting Boise State for the title game.