2009 Mountain West Football Betting Preview
In 2008 the Mountain West finished the season with 3 top 25 teams, two of which were in the top 7. ’08 will be a year to remember as it produced the emergence of a clear cut top non-BCS conference. Some of the highlights included the MWC’s 3-2 bowl record and going 5-0 against the Pac-10 in the regular season. But undoubtedly the biggest highlight of the season was Utah’s dominant victory over Alabama the SEC power house in the Sugar Bowl. In the meantime TCU’s defeat Boise State who was previously unbeaten in the Poinsettia Bowl. While the Mountain West lacks some of the depth that the automatic BCS berth conferences have, it has been noted that there are some good teams in the MWC and it will once again be the top non-BCS conference this season.
During the ’08 season there was much discussion about the quality of the MWC vs the Big East and whether the Mountain West was perhaps more deserving of an automatic berth. We find that to be extremely shortsighted on their part as the Big East did produce W’s in 3 straight BCS bowls from 2005-2007 and the Mountain West needed to show that the league is more than simply BYU, TCU and Utah. In the past 5 seasons, those three teams are the only Mountain West teams to be ranked while the Big East has had every team but Syracuse ranked during that time span. See what we mean about a lack of depth.
This may be the year for some of the less known Mountain West teams to make a statement. The top 3 teams all return 12 starters or less and will attempt to reload instead of rebuild after their successful ’08 seasons. But we need to see another team aside from the Big 3 at least compete for the league’s championship before we can even consider the Mountain West deserving of an automatic BCS bowl bid. It has been 7 seasons since any other team won the conference championship and the entire decade of the conference’s existence has only featured 4 different programs as champions. As only Colorado State (the 4th champion) has experience time on the national stage in the last 10 years, we think it might take some Boise State related expansion plans and improvement from the league’s lower half for us to truly believe that the MWC is a BCS-caliber league.
Welcome to the best and most complete 2009 AFC West Season Preview available online. Looking into our 2009 AFC West Season Preview it appears as though the AFC West may be a bit more competitive this year. The teams comprising the AFC West Division are the Denver Broncos, San Diego Chargers, Kansas City Chiefs, and Oakland Raiders. San Diego and Denver both finished the 2008 season with 8-8 records but the Chargers won the division based on having a better divisional record at 5-1. San Diego became the first team in NFL history to start a season at 4-8 and go on to make the playoffs. Denver was in control of the division but collapsed down the stretch losing its final 3 games. The Oakland Raiders had a poor season yet again finishing with a record of 5-11. Finishing last in this division was the Kansas City Chiefs who’s miserable 2008 season ended with them going 2-14. For the 2009 season the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Diego Chargers have the 2 easiest schedules in this division while the Oakland Raiders face the division’s toughest schedule.
