2026 FBS Preview

Every FBS team gets a page: last season’s results, returning production, and the schedule with a win probability on every game. Plus the projected playoff bracket, conference orders of finish, and where our number disagrees with the market.

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Mountain West 2026 Season Preview

UNLV Sets the Bar

UNLV sits alone at the top of the projected order, the No. 58 team nationally and the only Mountain West side projected outside the 70s. Hawai'i (No. 76) and New Mexico (No. 81) crowd right behind, close enough in the ratings that either can crash the top spot, while Air Force (No. 93) and North Dakota State (No. 100) round out a genuine five-team knot before the league thins out toward Nevada, Wyoming and San José State. Our projected title game pairs UNLV against Hawai'i, but with three teams squeezed inside a narrow band below the favorite, this reads as a one-team-clear, wide-open race for the second slot.

Hawai'i Sets the Pace

Hawai'i's five selections top the board, and the group covers both sides of the ball, quarterback Micah Alejado and receiver Pofele Ashlock give the offense its engine while De'Jon Benton and Lesterlaisene Lagafuaina anchor the line on defense. Nevada counters with its own skill-position punch in receivers Jaceon Doss and Donnie Cheers, and Air Force stacks the front seven with Bruin Fleischmann at tight end plus linebackers Blake Fletcher and Isaac Hubert. New Mexico's four picks, led by Jaxton Eck and Tavian Combs, and UNLV's presence on both sides through Jai'Den Thomas and Jake Pope show this is not a one-team league, the honors spread across seven different programs rather than clustering at the top.

Hawai'i's Talent Concentration

Hawai'i controls the conference's top returning-production rooms at three different spots, with Micah Alejado, Pofele Ashlock and De'Jon Benton anchoring the quarterback, receiver and defensive line groups. That kind of spread, a quarterback and his top target both back together with a proven defensive lineman, points to a program built around continuity rather than one star. Elsewhere the league's best rooms are scattered by need rather than school, with Air Force claiming both the tight end spot behind Bruin Fleischmann and the linebacker room led by Blake Fletcher, North Dakota State getting its returning identity from running back Barika Kpeenu, and New Mexico's defensive backfield built around Tavian Combs.

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