Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference ( formally abbreviated MW since July 2011 ; informally MWC ) , popularly known as the Mountain West , is the youngest of the college athletic conferences affiliated with the NCAA ’ s Division I FBS ( formerly I - A ) . The MWC officially began operations in July 1999 . Geographically , the MW covers a broad expanse of the western United States , with member institutions located in California , Colorado , Idaho , Nevada , New Mexico , Texas , and Wyoming , and has announced expansion into Hawaii , and back into Utah in 2012 . The conference introduced a new logo for the 2011 season to reflect on the changes . Craig Thompson has served as Commissioner of the MW since its founding in 1999 . Charter members included Air Force , BYU , Colorado State , New Mexico , San Diego State , UNLV , Utah , and Wyoming . Before forming the Mountain West Conference , seven of the eight charter members had been longtime members of the Western Athletic Conference ; half were WAC charter members at its formation in 1962 - UNLV had only joined the WAC in 1996 . History . The WAC expanded from 10 to 16 universities in 1996 , absorbing three teams from the defunct Southwest Conference ( SWC ) ( Rice , SMU , and TCU ) , adding two from the Big West ( San Jose State and UNLV ) , and Tulsa from the Missouri Valley . After three football seasons , most of the pre - expansion members decided that the new WAC was oversized , and departed to form the Mountain West Conference . The MWC added a ninth team in 2005 : TCU , also a former WAC and SWC member , which joined after four seasons in Conference USA . On June 11 , 2010 , Boise State University agreed to join the conference as its tenth member . On June 17 , 2010 , Utah announced it would be leaving the Mountain West to join what would become the Pacific - 12 Conference . On August 18 , 2010 , amidst rumors that Brigham Young was considering leaving the Mountain West to go independent in football and rejoin the Western Athletic Conference in all other sports , the Mountain West Conference officially extended invitations to California State University , Fresno and the University of Nevada , Reno . Fresno State and Nevada accepted and would become the tenth and eleventh members of the league . BYU announced on August 31 , 2010 that it would leave the Mountain West Conference and go Independent in football and become a member of the West Coast Conference ( WCC ) in other sports starting in 2011 . On November 29 , 2010 , Texas Christian University announced all athletic teams would move to the Big East Conference effective in 2012 . ( Less than a year later , on October 10 , 2011 , TCU announced it would not join the Big East but would join the Big 12 in 2012 instead . ) On December 10 , 2010 , the University of Hawaii at Mānoa accepted a bid to become the 10th member of the conference for football only . These changes would leave the Mountain West Conference with 10 teams for the 2012 football season . The MWC champion has qualified for a BCS bowl four times since the BCS formula was tweaked to allow non - BCS conferences to play in BCS bowls if ranked in the top 12 ; however , all 4 teams that qualified are no longer with the conference . On October 14 , 2011 the Mountain West & Conference USA announced a plan for a football only alliance . On February 13 , 2012 , the Mountain West & Conference USA ( C - USA ) announced that both conferences would be dissolving after the 2012 - 2013 season to reform into one conference with at least 15 members for all sports , and a 16th team , University of Hawaii at Mānoa as a football - only member . However , when the two conferences discussed their plans with the NCAA , they were told that due to NCAA rules , they would forfeit substantial revenues . Specifically , the new conference would receive only one automatic bid to NCAA championships ; at least one of the former conferences would lose future revenue distributions from the NCAA men ' s basketball tournament ; and at least one former conference would not be able to collect exit fees from any members that departed to join the new conference . As a result , the Mountain West and C - USA apparently backed away from a full merger . In late March of that year , the commissioners of both conferences stated that all 16 schools had entered into binding agreements to form a new " association " , although the Mountain West and C - USA will now apparently remain separate legal entities . As many as eight more schools could be added to the alliance by the time membership is finalized in June 2012 . On May 2 , San Jose State and Utah State agreed to join the conference for the 2013 - 2014 academic year . Members . Current members . TCU will leave the conference in 2012 to become a member of the Big 12 Conference . Boise State will leave the conference in 2013 to become a member of the Big East Conference in football and the Western Athletic Conference in other sports . San Diego State will leave the conference in 2013 to become a member of the Big East Conference in football and the Big West Conference in other sports . Membership timeline . Sports . The MW sponsors championships in baseball , men ' s and women ' s basketball , men ' s and women ' s cross country , football , men ' s and women ' s golf , women ' s soccer , softball , women ' s swimming and diving , men ' s and women ' s tennis , men ' s and women ' s indoor and outdoor track , and women ' s volleyball . Many of its member schools participate in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation for sports not sponsored by the Mountain West Conference . Two MW members have affiliate memberships with the Pacific - 12 Conference - San Diego State for men ' s soccer and Boise State for wrestling . Since the 2009 - 10 season , the Mountain West and Missouri Valley Conference s have held an annual challenge series between all members of the MWC and an equal number of the 10 MVC teams in basketball . The first game was on November 13 , featuring the Bradley Braves and the BYU Cougars in Provo and it concluded on December 23 with the Wyoming Cowboys visiting the Northern Iowa Panthers in Cedar Falls , Iowa . The challenge is similar to the ACC - Big Ten Challenge , which pits men ' s basketball teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big Ten Conference . Conference championships . Men ' s championship winners . Source :