Updated September 21, 2026
A couple of seasons ago, one of the great Cinderella stories in the history of college basketball emerged from the Mountain West Conference. The San Diego State Aztecs reached the national championship game in the 2022-23 season and will look to put forth another big year, in what should be a competitive Mountain West once again. Here, we look at the Mountain West basketball futures odds and make our college basketball picks for this league.
Team | Odds |
|---|---|
Utah State | +230 |
San Diego State | +320 |
Grand Canyon | +475 |
Boise State | +550 |
New Mexico | +700 |
Nevada | +1800 |
Colorado State | +2500 |
UNLV | +6000 |
Wyoming | +7000 |
Fresno State | +20000 |
San Jose State | +60000 |
Air Force | +80000 |
Odds current as of March 9, 2026
This year's Mountain West tournament might be the most wide-open tournament of the conference tournaments set to be played in men's college basketball. There isn't a team inside of +200 to win the Mountain West tourney before play begins. And while there are clearly some teams that don't have much of a shot to win this event, there is a pretty long list of teams that could.
The favorite to win the Mountain West championship is Utah State. The Aggies spent some time in the top 25 in the country this season and won 25 games during the regular season. But they came back down to earth late in the year and will try to put everything back together again with the conference championship on the line.
Also in the mix to win this tournament are teams like San Diego State, New Mexico, and the tournament debutant Grand Canyon Lopes. GCU had dominated the WAC before joining the Mountain West at the start of this season, making the NCAA Tournament as WAC champions in four of the last five seasons. Now they have a chance to prove themselves in a bigger conference tournament with an automatic bid still up for grabs.
Of course the impending changes to the MWC will have a huge impact on this league in future seasons. San Diego State, Boise State, Fresno State, Utah State, and Colorado State are bailing to join the new-look Pac-12. And while UC Davis and UTEP are set to join the league, that can hardly be seen as an upgrade.
The Mountain West Conference consists of 12 teams for now. San Diego State has been the class of the conference for the last decade, reaching the conference championship game in 10 of the last 12 seasons. The Aztecs have made the finals 16 times and have won seven of them.
Among current members of the conference, Air Force and San Jose State are the only teams to never reach the conference championship game, along with the newly-joined GCU. Boise State is coming off winning its first-ever MWC championship in its first-ever finals appearance in 2022, and they will hope to be in the mix to knock off the Aztecs, Aggies, and the rest of the league again this year.
WINS | MWC TEAM | LAST YR WON |
|---|---|---|
7 | San Diego State | 2023 |
5 | New Mexico | 2024 |
3 | UNLV | 2008 |
2 | Utah | 2009 |
2 | Utah State | 2020 |
2 | Colorado State | 2025 |
1 | Boise St | 2022 |
1 | Nevada | 2017 |
1 | Fresno State | 2016 |
1 | Wyoming | 2015 |
1 | BYU | 2001 |