
TCU will be the ninth seed in next week’s Mountain West Conference Tournament, and the Horned Frogs will play eighth-seeded Wyoming in Wednesday’s play-in game. And that’s about all that is settled.
Every other team can move up or down in the standings based on Saturday’s results. BYU’s loss Wednesday means the Cougars could fall behind San Diego State for the top seed – both teams are 13-2. BYU, which owns the tiebreaker over the Aztecs, gets Wyoming at home Saturday, so a Cougars loss seems unlikely.
Current third seed UNLV would fall behind Colorado State if the Rams beat San Diego State on Saturday and UNLV loses at Utah. Each team would have 10 wins and Colorado State would earn the tiebreaker based on having the best win between the two teams, considering it would have to beat the 13-2 Aztecs on Saturday in that scenario.
No team, however, has a wider range of possibilities than Air Force, which could finish fifth, sixth or seventh.
The Falcons are still alive for the fifth seed, even with New Mexico’s win on Wednesday. If Air Force wins at New Mexico, which is the current fifth seed, and Utah beats UNLV, the Falcons, Lobos and Utes would all have seven conference wins. The tiebreaker in that situation would be combined record against the other two opponents. Air Force would be 3-1 (fifth seed), Utah would be 2-2 (sixth seed) and New Mexico would be 1-3 (seventh seed).
In an odd twist, Air Force would finish sixth if Utah loses, no matter what it does. Air Force would lose the head-to-head tiebreaker against New Mexico if it beats the Lobos. Each team would have seven wins but New Mexico’s sweep of BYU would give the Lobos the tiebreaker. If the Falcons and Utes lose, they would each have six wins and Air Force would win that tiebreaker based on a season sweep.
The Falcons would get the seventh seed if they lose and Utah wins.
The reason the fifth seed is appealing is because, at the moment, that seed would play Colorado State in a quarterfinal game instead of UNLV, which hosts the tournament. But the sixth seed might be more desirable if Colorado State sneaks into the third spot with a win and a UNLV loss on Saturday.
Mountain West standings:
BYU 13-2
San Diego State 13-2
UNLV 10-5
Colorado State 9-6
New Mexico 7-8
Air Force 6-9
Utah 6-9
Wyoming 3-12
TCU 1-15
Saturday’s Mountain West schedule (all times Mountain):
Wyoming at BYU, 1:30 p.m.
UNLV at Utah, 2 p.m.
Air Force at New Mexico, 4 p.m.
Colorado State at San Diego State, 6 p.m.
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