The MWC jumps into conference play this weekend with some really big games, and the non-conference games see MWC teams facing some big names from back east. Let’s look at the final conference of the week before we settle in for a big weekend of games:
San Diego State at Air Force, 2 PM: San Diego State doesn’t look to be a match for the high flying Falcons, especially on the road.
UNLV at Wyoming, 3 PM: UNLV is also carrying some momentum in here, having just beaten Hawaii. As I mentioned yesterday in the Pub column, these games outside the big 3 are crucial for teams like Air Force and UNLV as they vie for 4th or 5th place in the league. CSU, AFA, and UNLV look to be in a fierce race for 4th, or maybe better if Utah doesn’t get things turned around.
TCU at Clemson, 3:30 PM: Clemson should be much better than Virginia was in TCU’s last 1-A game. The question, then, is can they surprise TCU like FSU did to BYU last week? Teams from the midwest have a long history of struggling with the speed of some teams from the east, although I don’t know that Clemson packs quite the punch of FSU or some of the SEC powers. Regardless, this should be a good one to watch.
Colorado State at BYU, 6 PM: I’ve looked at this game a couple times, but I still don’t know if CSU has a chance. If the team that gave Colorado the business shows up, they really might. But if BYU comes out angry, they could put the Rams down quickly.
Louisville at Utah, 7:30 PM: Louisville poses the same threat that Clemson does for TCU, with a unique offense built around speed. They’ve had a couple down years, but pushed Kentucky to the brink last week and could be a problem for a sluggish Utah team.
New Mexico State at New Mexico, 10 PM: Both teams are struggling this year, but hopefully a rivalry game will bring out the best and set at least one of the teams on the right path. And yes, I’m probably going to copy and paste this line into the other conference preview too.
That’s it for our weekend previews. Watch the twitter feed tomorrow for as many in game updates as I can keep up with, and watch for the Fringe Hangover Sunday morning to make sense of what we’ve seen.