Utah State in the Mountain West Conference

How will Utah State do in the Mountain West Conference next year?  There are a lot of factors in play.

1.  How will Matt Wells be as a head coach?  This will be Well's first season as a head football coach.  But he is ready for that responsibility.  He graduated with a degree in Marketing cum laude.  He should be able to use those smarts to recruit qualified talent and bring people to the games.  He has been an assistant football coach since 1997, last serving as least-season's offensive coordinator.  He also has the smarts not to serve as his own offensive coordinator, but will focus on the entire team.  The only real question is if the Aggie defense will continue to respond to Wells the way that they did to Gary Anderson.  But the returning seniors can help carry on the tradition for at least one more season.

2.  How will the divisions align in the MWC?  There is a very natural divisional alignment in the new MWC.  There are 6 schools in the Mountain Time Zone, there are 5 schools in the Pacific Time Zone and there is Hawaii.  It seems obvious to put Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, New Mexico, Utah State and Wyoming in one division.  The other division will be Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, UNLV, San Diego State and San Jose State.

3.  How will the schedule come out?  The Aggies have 4 non-conference games lined up.  They have home games against Weber State and BYU.  Their road games are Utah and USC.  The Aggies should win at least 2 of these games, and could potentially will all 4.  We do not know how the MWC schedule will work out.  If they are in the same division as Colorado State, they should get the Rams at home.  Boise State has much been given a lot of power in the MWC, and USU is likely the biggest threat to the Broncos.  Chances are that game will be on the blue carpet, even though they last played in Boise.

But here is how it could work, and let me state this is just a guess.

MWC home games
Colorado State
Air Force or New Mexico
Cross-divisional game or Wyoming
Cross-divisional game

MWC Road Games
Boise State
Air Force or New Mexico
Cross-divisional game or Wyoming
Cross-divisional game

As far as the cross-divisional foes go,  USU played at UNLV and San Jose State last season.  I am not sure the MWC athletic directors will take that into consideration.  The Aggies have played every team that seem destined for the other division in the last 5 seasons.  Considering history, if I were USU, I would be most itching to play San Diego State at home.  Only 3 of their 11 meetings have been in Logan.  They last beat the Aztecs in 1967 and the last 3 games in this series have been in San Diego.  The last time SDSU came to play at Utah State was 1975.  More on history below.

If the MWC uses history as a guide, this will be USU's schedule

Home MWC games
Air Force
Colorado State
San Diego State
UNLV

MWC Road games

Boise State
New Mexico
Wyoming
Nevada

If the MWC is smart, the game between USU and Boise State will be played on the week after Thanksgiving as this has the potential to be two nationally-ranked programs playing for a divisional championship.

Here is a look at the history USU has with other teams in the Mountain West Conference.  At one time or another, USU has been in the same conference with all but 2 of their new conference rivals.  USU only has a winning record against 2 of their new conference rivals.  But USU has won their last meeting against 6 of the 11.  The only MWC team USU has never beaten is Air Force.

Air Force...0-1...Only meeting, 1969 in Colorado Springs...38-13 Air Force
Never before have USU and Air Force been in the same conference.

Boise State...4-13...Last meeting, 2010 in Boise...50-14 BSU...Last Aggie Win...1997 in Logan...24-20.
USU and BSU were conference rivals in the Big West Conference from 1996 to 2000 and were in the WAC together from 2005 to 2010.

Colorado State...31-36-2...Last meeting, 2012 in Fort Collins...31-19 USU
From 1909 to 1937 both USU and CSU were together in the old Rocky Mountain Conference.  From 1938 to 1961 both were members of the Mountain States Conference.

Fresno State...10-16-1...Last meeting, 2010 in Fresno...31-21 FSU...last Aggie Win...2006 in Logan 13-12 (With Riley Nelson at QB)
 From 1977 to 2000 both schools were members of the Big West Conference and from 2005 to 2010 both were members of the WAC.

Hawaii...6-6...Last meeting, 2010 in Honolulu...35-31 USU
From 2005 to 2010 both were members of the WAC.

Nevada...5-17...Last meeting, 2011 in Logan...21-17 USU
From 1992 to 2000 both schools were members of the Big West.  From 2005 to 2010 both were members of the WAC.

UNLV...13-7...Last meeting, 2012 in Las Vegas...35-13 USU
From 1982 to 1995, UNLV and USU were both members of the Big West Conference.

New Mexico...8-11...Last meeting, 2003 in Albuquerque...34-7 UNM...Last Aggie win...2002 in Logan 45-44 USU
USU and New Mexico were both members of the MSC from 1951 to 1961.

San Diego State...1-10...Last meeting, 2010 in San Diego...41-7 SDSU...only Aggie Win 1967 in San Diego...31-25
USU and San Diego State have never before been conference rivals.

San Jose State..14-21-1...last meeting, 2012 in San Jose...35-27 USU
San Jose State and USU were both in the Big West from 1977 to 1995.  Both were in the WAC from 2005 to 2012

Wyoming...35-24-4...last meeting, 2011 in Logan...63-19 USU
USU and Wyoming were in the RMC together from 1907 to 1937 and were in the MSC from 1938 to 1961.