Mountain West changes its football championship game qualifications

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The Mountain West Conference will no longer play football in divisions starting in the 2023 season. The change in format means the best two teams after the regular season will play for the conference championship. 

The news comes after the NCAA announced loosened restrictions for football conference championship games allowing leagues to get rid of divisions and create new formats to schedule the game. 

Conference commissioner Craig Thompson said they had been “working on concepts since last summer” to plan “for the future of the Mountain West” in a press release on Friday.

“A single-division approach provides maximum flexibility to adapt the Conference schedule as the landscape continues to evolve, while also allowing member institutions to play each other more frequently,” Thompson said.

In the past, the best team from two divisions would play in the title game. Sometimes, this would hurt a team that had a better record in conference play than the winner of one division but came second in their division. Recent examples of this include Air Force in 2019 and Colorado State in 2014. Both teams had better records than the West division leader. 

The Pac-12 Conference is the only other group to also get rid of divisions so far. Their change will take effect this season. 

The Mountain West said the future scheduling model and tiebreaking procedures for the new format will be announced in the coming weeks.