On the heels of Utah’s shocking win in last year’s Sugar Bowl and the conference’s battle for an automatic BCS bid, Tee Martin compares today’s Mountain West Conference to the SEC when he played.
I think the Mountain West deserves an automatic BCS bowl bid. I think in terms of balance, in terms of talent, and competitiveness, the Mountain West is one of the more balanced conferences in college football. We’ve been one of the top conferences in the NCAA in the past five years. We’re beating top 25 teams like when BYU beat Oklahoma, and we usually have three or four teams ranked in the top 25.
There is definitely an argument out there for our conference. Right now, it’s really BYU and Utah that are representing our conference, but the other schools in our conference are really getting better. New Mexico, Wyoming, and different places are all doing lots of things to compete.
All we can do is win, go to bowl games and win, and play against top opponents around the country and win like we have.
We have the Big 12 coming up on our future schedules at New Mexico, and we’re expecting to win those games. Big games like BYU over Oklahoma or Utah over Alabama last year in the bowls makes a case for us in those games and as a conference.
I think the Mountain West is now where the SEC was when I was in college about 10 years ago or so. There were certain games where we looked on the schedule and we knew we were going to win that game. Top to bottom there were about 3 teams that were consistent, just like we are now. Just like the SEC, we have some major coaching changes and recruits are coming in nationally now and recognizing the kind of football we’re playing.
And the universities that we have on top are powerful. If you look at the Mountain West, this conference is shaping up to be just like the SEC is today, one of the best conferences in college football. The game is getting faster, and guys are getting exposure. We will go to bowl games. We will be on television. And people will know who the Mountain West is.
Kids are starting to want to come to the Mountain West from all over the country, and that signals a pretty big change.
