New Mexico left out of Mountain West Championship; Boise State and UNLV to meet for third straight year

New Mexico will not play for a Mountain West title.

After four teams — UNM, Boise State, San Diego State and UNLV — tied for first place in the Mountain West standings, the league announced Sunday that the Broncos and Rebels will meet for the third straight year in the Mountain West Championship on Friday.

UNM (9-3, 6-2) beat SDSU 23-17 on Friday in double-overtime, clinching a share of first place in head coach Jason Eck’s first season with the program. The Lobos finished the season on a six-game winning streak to become bowl-eligible for the first time since 2016.

Athletic director Fernando Lovo said in an official statement Sunday that he respects the league’s tiebreaking procedures, but said it was disappointing that UNM was not selected for its first-ever Mountain West Championship appearance.

“This team earned that chance with its play,” the statement read. “These young men showed up every week, put in the work, and proved they belonged in the conversation. Their incredible turnaround on the field was matched by the renewed passion of our community, reflected in the top year-over-year attendance increase in the nation.

“Even with today’s disappointment, we are extremely proud of this group. Coach Eck, his staff and our student-athletes delivered a season that has changed the trajectory of our program and reminded people across our state and around the country what Lobo football is capable of … There is no doubt (Eck) should be in consideration for national coach of the year honors.”

UNLV and Boise State were selected via “a composite average of selected predictive and results-based computer metrics,” per the Mountain West’s tiebreaking procedures. The league used metrics to determine the title game’s participants because UNLV and SDSU did not play this season.

“The goal is to identify the two teams with the strongest full-season profiles when head-to-head can’t break a multi-team tie and a team is not ranked in the (College Football Playoff rankings),” Mountain West spokesman Javan Hedlund told the Journal on Sunday. “With an unbalanced schedule and incomplete round-robin play, multi-team ties cannot be resolved through matchups alone. Our current structure uses modern metrics that capture both team strength and season accomplishment.”

UNM’s composite average of 54.75 finished last behind UNLV (45.5), Boise State (47.75) and SDSU (51). Despite a lower average, Boise State is hosting UNLV based on its win over the Rebels in October.

The averages were compiled through each teams’ placement in four different metrics: ESPN’s Strength of Record (SOR), Bill Connelly’s SP+, Faktor Sports’ KPI and SportsSource. SOR and KPI are both results-based metrics while SportSource and SP+ are predictive; SportSource is a proprietary metric and can only be accessed via subscription.

While the Mountain West has used computer metrics since 2013, the aforementioned set has only been part of the league’s tiebreaking procedures since 2024. The league previously used “legacy BCS systems,” Hedlund said, like the Colley Matrix, Anderson & Hester, Massey ratings and Wolfe ratings, only to move away because they were “duplicative and predictive-heavy.”

When asked why these new metrics were chosen to replace them, Hedlund told the Journal that “they are the most consistent, nationally credible option for our structure and aligns with best practices across FBS conferences and the CFP,” adding that the change was approved by the conference’s athletic directors in 2024.

“The four metrics used are an equal complement of predictive and result-based metrics … Every power conference uses analytics in its tiebreakers (ACC, Big Ten, SEC, Big 12) in some form, and all rely directly on SportSource Analytics,” Hedlund said. “The American Conference uses the exact same tiebreaking process. (Conference USA) uses a similar approach as well.”

Prior to the announcement, Eck said the Lobos would “hold our heads high” regardless of what happened with the tiebreaker. He told the team Friday they would receive rings after tying for first place, but “probably” wouldn’t dedicate them to a conference championship if they did not win the tiebreaker.

“But we’ll put something on that ring and give them something they can be proud to wear around,” Eck added in a news conference Friday. “And I told the team, ‘we’re gonna find a way to get to 10 wins,’ whether we got two more opportunities or just have one to do that.

“And I think it’ll be a good lesson going forward that we didn’t play our best football early in the conference slate on the road … We controlled what we can control here down the stretch.”