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SALT LAKE CITY — After a Wyoming loss to UNLV last week gave Boise State a glimmer of hope in the Mountain West Conference standings, Wyoming beat San Diego State Saturday to hold onto the Mountain Division lead.
If Wyoming beats New Mexico this week, the Cowboys will play in the conference championship against San Diego State. Boise State is the favorite to make it into a New Year's Six bowl, but its fate is no longer in its hands.
The week started when Boise State housed UNLV. The Broncos jumped ahead early and cruised to an easy win 42-25, knocking the Rebels out of bowl eligibility.
The Broncos then watched the game that mattered to them. Wyoming hosted San Diego State in an instant Mountain West classic. The two teams went back and forth with Wyoming jumping up by a touchdown with one minute left. San Diego State drove down and scored a touchdown on a deep pass that was originally called incomplete then reviewed for several minutes. After being awarded the touchdown, San Diego State went for two to bring home the win without going to overtime, but the pass fell incomplete, handing Wyoming the win 34-33.
@sdutkirKDKenney@pmartinez1216@GoAztecs why not take momentum into overtime? — JA Preller (@PadresfutureGM) November 20, 2016
Utah State went to Nevada as fairly heavy favorites. After a disappointing season, the Aggies looked to end conference play with a win. Instead, Utah State blew a second-half lead for the second week in a row, disappointing fans with a 38-37 loss.
Hawaii has had a mostly positive season, although a recent three-game losing streak took the Warriors out of bowl contention. Hawaii looked to break the losing streak when it headed to Fresno State, which was winless in the Mountain West. Fresno State didn’t die easily either, and the game resulted in a slim Hawaii 14-13 win with the game-winner coming with one minute left in the game.
New Mexico was rolling on a five-game winning streak when it played Colorado State this weekend. Unfortunately for the streaking Lobos, Colorado State’s final game is San Diego State, and the Rams desperately needed this win to become bowl eligible. The Rams showed up when they needed to most and extinguished the red-hot Lobos at home in a 49-31 game where New Mexico never really had control.
After a three-game losing streak, Air Force has gotten back on track with a three-game winning streak. San Jose State hasn’t exactly had a great season, but the Spartans managed to keep themselves out of the basement of the Mountain West. San Jose State came to play against Air Force, never going away and leading late in the game before Air Force managed to score with 30 seconds to record the 41-38 win.
