We are hitting the home stretch for the 2017-2018 Mountain West Conference regular season, which means it is time to look at where teams are positioned to be seeded for the conference tournament. With the win at Boise State, Nevada has all but clinched the regular season title and the #1 seed for the tournament. Also, SJSU has already clinched the #11 seed, as they are 0-14 with 4 games left. Beyond those two, a few teams are already locked into a certain range of seeds, as Boise State is pretty much locked into the 2 or 3 seed, while Colorado State and Air Force are pretty much locked into the 9 or 10 seed.

However, this year is filled with a muddled middle, where seeds 3-8 could end up a lot of different ways. Due to how bunched those 6 teams are, it is likely we see tiebreakers come into play, which makes things very interesting. It isn’t out of the question that we could have multiple head-2-head tiebreakers, or a 3-way or possibly 4-way tiebreaker needed this year. We will look at how tiebreakers could possibly break, and who holds advantages against each other. There will be plenty of games between teams in the 3-8 teams in the standings, and New Mexico in particular  will have 3 of their last 4 against teams in the muddled middle.

Here, we’ll look at where things currently stand, how tight things are in the middle, and what Lobo fans should be rooting for in the games tonight and tomorrow. And at the end of this post, we have a detailed look at everyone’s head to head records.

Conference Standings:

Team	Conference Record
Nevada	12-2
Boise State	11-4
Fresno State	9-5
New Mexico	8-6
UNLV	8-6
Wyoming	8-6
SDSU	7-7
Utah State	7-8
Air Force	4-9
Colorado State	4-11
SJSU	0-14

The Muddled Middle:

With six teams all within 2.5 games of each other, there is a very good chance that there will be at least one 3-way tie, which will make head-2-head records against those other teams that you are tied with very important. Here are the records for each team against the other teams in the muddled middle.

• Fresno State: 5-2 (5-0 against New Mexico, UNLV, Wyoming and SDSU)
• New Mexico: 4-2
• UNLV: 2-4
• Wyoming: 3-4 (1-4 against Fresno State, New Mexico, UNLV and SDSU)
• SDSU: 3-5 (0-3 against Fresno State and New Mexico)
• Utah State: 4-4

There is a lot to be decided with Fresno State and New Mexico each playing 3 games against each other, UNLV and Wyoming. Fresno State is clearly in the best position of the bunch, but their hold on the third seed is anything but secured.

Jono’s Rooting Interests for 2/20-21:

For those of you who, like me, like to have someone to root against in the Mountain West games that the Lobos are not involved in, here is how I’m leaning for the mid-week games:

• UNM over Wyoming: This is maybe even more obvious than usual, as the Lobos are facing one of the two teams that they’re currently tied with in the standings. They get the other team on Saturday, so a perfect week would be awesome.
• Nevada over SJSU: I’m still hoping for two-bid MWC, and a loss to SJSU would probably put a nail in Nevada’s at-large hopes. And besides, why root against a perfectly imperfect season?
• Colorado State over Boise State: Can the Lobos catch Boise? Technically. It will take a 4-0 finish out of the Lobos and a total faceplant by Boise, but it’s possible. Might as well root for that until it’s completely off the table.
• UNLV over Fresno State: If the Lobos win against Wyoming, they would control their destiny with a Fresno loss. Seriously, this finish could be completely chaotic.
• Air Force over SDSU: This would both create some margin for error for the Lobos and give the Aztecs another loss. Win-win.

Head To Head Records:

Order is based on standings. Remaining games indicated by the dates in parentheses. (Standings as of the morning of 2/20)

Nevada	H-2-H Record (Next Game)
Boise State	2-0
Fresno State	2-0
New Mexico	1-0
UNLV	0-1 (2/28)
Wyoming	1-1
SDSU	1-0 (3/3)
Utah State	2-0
Air Force	1-0
CSU	1-0 (2/25)
SJSU	1-0 (2/21

Boise State	H-2-H Record (Next Game)
Nevada	0-2
Fresno State	1-0
New Mexico	2-0
UNLV	2-0
Wyoming	0-1 (3/3)
SDSU	1-0 (2/27)
Utah State	1-1
Air Force	2-0
CSU	1-0 (2/21)
SJSU	1-0

Fresno State	H-2-H Record (Next Game)
Nevada	0-2
Boise State	0-1
UNLV	1-0 (2/21)
New Mexico	1-0 (3/3)
Wyoming	1-0 (2/24)
SDSU	2-0
Utah State	0-2
Air Force	1-0 (2/26)
CSU	2-0
SJSU	1-0

New Mexico	H-2-H Record (Next Game)
Nevada	0-1
Boise State	0-2
Fresno State	0-1 (3/3)
UNLV	1-0 (2/25)
Wyoming	1-0 (2/20)
SDSU	1-0
Utah State	1-1
Air Force	1-1
CSU	1-0 (2/28)
SJSU	2-0

UNLV	H-2-H Record (Next Game)
Nevada	1-0 (2/28)
Boise State	0-2
Fresno State	0-1 (2/21)
New Mexico	0-1 (2/25)
Wyoming	1-0
SDSU	1-1
Utah State	0-1 (3/3)
Air Force	2-0
CSU	1-0
SJSU	2-0

Wyoming	H-2-H Record (Next Game)
Nevada	1-1
Boise State	1-0 (3/3)
Fresno State	0-1 (2/24)
New Mexico	0-1 (2/20)
UNLV	0-1
SDSU	1-1
Utah State	2-0
Air Force	0-0 (Only meeting 2/28)
CSU	1-1
SJSU	2-0

SDSU	H-2-H Record (Next Game)
Nevada	0-1 (3/3)
Boise State	0-1 (2/27)
Fresno State	0-2
New Mexico	0-1
UNLV	1-1
Wyoming	1-1
Utah State	1-0
Air Force	1-0 (2/21)
CSU	2-0
SJSU	1-0 (2/24)

Utah State	H-2-H Record (Next Game)
Nevada	0-2
Boise State	1-1
Fresno State	2-0
New Mexico	1-1
UNLV	1-0 (3/3)
Wyoming	0-2
SDSU	0-1
Air Force	1-0 (2/24)
CSU	0-1
SJSU	1-0 (2/28)

Air Force	H-2-H Record (Next Game)
Nevada	0-1
Boise State	0-2
Fresno State	0-1 (2/26)
New Mexico	1-1
UNLV	0-2
Wyoming	0-0 (Only meeting 2/28)
SDSU	0-1 (2/21)
Utah State	0-1 (2/24)
CSU	2-0
SJSU	1-0 (3/3)

CSU	H-2-H Record (Next Game)
Nevada	0-1 (2/25)
Boise State	0-1 (2/21)
Fresno State	0-2
New Mexico	0-1 (2/28)
UNLV	0-1
Wyoming	1-1
SDSU	0-2
Utah State	1-0
Air Force	0-2
SJSU	2-0

SJSU	H-2-H Record (Next Game)
Nevada	0-1 (2/21)
Boise State	0-1
UNLV	0-2
Fresno State	0-1
Wyoming	0-2
Utah State	0-1 (2/28)
New Mexico	0-2
SDSU	0-1 (2/24)
Air Force	0-1 (3/3)
CSU	0-2