The Mountain West Conference continues to maneuver and expand in the wake of the Pac-12 poaching teams from the league, and it appears to have locked in its eighth member.
According to Brett McMurphy, the Mountain West will officially add Hawaii as a full-time member in 2026, getting the league to the number of teams required to be an official FBS league.
This report comes just a couple of weeks after McMurphy’s report that the Mountain West was working to make the Rainbow Warriors full-time members.
The move makes a lot of sense logistically, as Hawaii has been a member of the Mountain West in football since the 2012 season but has been a member of the Big West in non-football sports.Â
Last month, the MWC lost five member schools to the Pac-12, as Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, and Utah State all decided to join Oregon State and Washington State.
The Mountain West then responded by adding UTEP as the seventh full member of the MWC, joining Air Force, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV and Wyoming. Now, with Hawaii aboard, the conference can start to look at adding football-only members.
Per McMurphy, the MWC is doing just that by taking a look at NIU & Toledo as football-only members.
Getting to magic number eight allows the league to remain a part of the College Football Playoff discussion and gives its league champion a chance of making the field, as long as it ranks high enough to do so. It’s a long shot with some of the other leagues out there, but a long shot is better than no shot at all.
