It was three years ago almost to the day that I flew back into Melbourne and heard that USC and UCLA were making plans to leave the Pac 12 for the Big Ten.
That news, plus the fact that I’d just spent a couple of weeks in Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado, inspired me to start this Substack account and rekindle my love affair with Mountain West football.
Now it’s 2025 and after two years of writing about the Mountain West conference, I’m at an impasse.
Five teams from that league will join the rejuvenated and reinvented Pac 12 in 2026, with Oregon State and Washington State the only original members.
The latest addition to the Pac 12 is Texas State which only fuels the social media fire as another ‘State’ school.
Gonzaga, which joined as a basketball-only member, is the only future Pac 12 school without a ‘State’ in its name.
This is a lame duck year if ever there was one.
But the show must go on and there are three Pac/MW teams in action in Week Zero.
UNLV is a huge favourite over Idaho State, Fresno State is an underdog at Kansas and Hawaii is a slight favourite at home against Stanford.
Week Zero Focus
Stanford at Hawaii
They’ve met four times before - Stanford has won all four - the first time in 1946 when Hawaii wasn’t even a state. During those four meetings, Stanford has had three nicknames: Indians, Cardinals and Cardinal.
Hawaii is in the fourth year of the Timmy Chang era. He’s 13-25 overall and with a fair number of starters returning - particularly on defense - hopes are high for a possible bowl bid. Quarterback Micah Alejado, who led the Warriors to an upset win over New Mexico in the 2024 finale, has been handed the keys to the offense.
Stanford has been through a tumultuous year or two, negotiating a crazy ACC schedule and dealing with the aftermath of the Troy Taylor firing.
Andrew Luck is now in charge of football operations and ex-NFL man Frank Reich is the interim head coach. Ben Gulbranson from Oregon State gets the nod as the starting quarterback.
As of publishing, Stanford was a 2.5 point underdog.
Other Games
UNLV should get new head man Dan Mullen off to a good start against FCS team Idaho State. The Rebels are coming off a sensational 11-3 season under Barry Odom, who departed for Purdue and although they’ve lost a ton of talent, Mullen has brought in plenty of P4 talent via the portal.
It’s a far tougher gig for Fresno State and new boss Matt Enz, who takes his Bulldogs to Lawrence for a meeting with Kansas of the Big 12. His QB is E.J. Warner, son of legendary NFL quarterback Kurt, who has had previous stops at Temple and Rice.