Mountain West commissioner fires back: ‘Champion, whoever wins ... will deserve a bye’
Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez stood up for put her conference Thursday afternoon, saying that the winner of Friday night’s championship game between Boise State and UNLV would deserve a first-round bye in the expanded College Football Playoff.
“The Mountain West champion, whoever wins, based on their body of work this season, will deserve a bye,” Nevarez said during a press event at Albertsons Stadium.
Using the CFP committee’s rankings, No. 10 Boise State (11-1, 7-0 Mountain West) hosts No. 20 UNLV (10-2, 6-1) in the league title game. Kickoff is 6 p.m.
Nevarez’s comments came after Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark said that “in no way” should a Group of 5 conference champion be ranked ahead of a Power 4 champ.
The five highest-ranked conference champions get automatic bids to the 12-team CFP, but only the top four will receive a bye. Right now, the Big 12 is on the outside looking in, with No. 15 Arizona State (10-2) facing No. 16 Iowa State (10-2) in its title game on Saturday. The winner would have to be vaulted several spots to pass Boise State and not be the lowest-ranked conference champ, depending on what happens in the ACC, which adds intrigue.
Nevarez not surprisingly advocated for her conference, but the thought of UNLV getting a bye is probably wishful thinking. The Rebels would have to jump over the Big 12 winner, which seems highly unlikely.
“If UNLV wins, they would have defeated a No. 10-ranked Boise State on the road. Boise State has an 11-game home win streak,” Nevarez said. “This is a much stronger performance than the winner of a Big 12 championship, which features 15- versus 16-ranked teams.”
The Broncos’ position, should they win, seems fairly solid, but not set in stone. And they even have a shot at moving up from their current No. 4 seed.
Two of the Power 4 conferences, the SEC and Big Ten, have enough teams in the top 10 that their champions (Texas/Georgia in the SEC, Oregon/Penn State in the Big Ten) are locked into byes. The No. 3 seed right now is the eighth-ranked team, SMU, but the ACC is where things get very interesting. If No. 17 Clemson, which has three losses, upends SMU to get that league’s automatic bid, the seedings could be adjusted further.
“If Boise State wins, the committee has already acknowledged that they are the four seed, and they would have defeated a No. 20 UNLV,” Nevarez said of Boise State. “And, depending on what happens out there and other championship games, they could be a three seed.”
Nevarez also addressed Yormark’s comments about how “strength of schedule should matter” and that Boise State had played only one Power 4 team: Oregon. The undefeated Ducks, who are No. 1, beat the Broncos 37-34 on a last-second field goal in the second week of the season.
“These two teams (BSU and UNLV) have not lost to a single opponent outside the top 25,” Nevarez said. “Only nine other teams in the FBS can boast the same, and all those teams are in the SEC and Big 10.”
The Rebels’ only losses were 29-24 to Boise State and 44-41 to now-No. 22 Syracuse (9-3).
She also noted that the Mountain West had defeated 11 Power 4 teams in nonconference play, while the Big 12 had won only five such games. But that takes a big liberty: crediting the MW teams for their wins over Pac-12 leftovers Oregon State and Washington State, which had a scheduling agreement with the league.
UNLV beat Kansas and Houston, both members of the Big 12, early in the season.
“On Selection Sunday,” Nevarez said, “we trust in the committee that they will select and seed the field based on the best body of work in the current season and not perceived entitlement.”
This story was originally published December 5, 2024 at 6:10 PM.
