Gambling content material 21+. The New York Post may obtain an affiliate fee if you signal up through our hyperlinks. Read our editorial requirements for more data.
Change is the norm in faculty soccer lately, but even by these requirements, what occurred to the Mountain West is above and beyond.
Five colleges departed the convention after the 2025 season, including headliner Boise State.
The Blue Turf is now half of the panorama in the Pac-12, but at least the MWC was in a position to make ends meet by attracting North Dakota State, alongside with UTEP and Northern Illinois.
With 5 groups out and three groups in, including one from the FCS ranks, the strategy to handicapping the race in the Mountain West is also fully totally different for this season.
It used to come down to Boise vs. the discipline, but it’s now large open.
Two groups, UNLV and New Mexico, are projected to be the class of the competitors, with some sportsbooks having the former as a marginal favourite, and others favoring the latter.
Either approach, the distinction between the two groups is negligible.
Of the two, UNLV figures to be the trendier decide after Dan Mullen led the Rebels to 10 wins in his first season under the headset in Sin City.
Mullen bolstered his ranks by bringing in former five-star recruit Jackson Arnold after underwhelming stops at Oklahoma and Auburn. Arnold’s athleticism and pizzazz have never been in query, but he’s been unable to flip his expertise into success at the faculty degree just yet.
Dan Mullen leads a robust UNLV group. Getty Images
Mullen and his teaching workers do have a behavior of turning uncooked signal-calling expertise into profitable gamers, which has a lot of of us choosing UNLV to symbolize the Group of 6 in the College Football Playoff.
Down in Albuquerque, the Lobos are coming off a outstanding turnaround in 2025. Pegged as the worst group in the convention before Week 1, Jackson Eck guided New Mexico to its first nine-win marketing campaign since 2016. It was New Mexico’s second profitable season since 2007.
Catch up on The Post’s faculty soccer betting predictions and previews for the 2026 season
Eck’s system is acquainted. He was a standout coach at the FCS degree, got a gig in the FBS and introduced his finest gamers from Idaho with him. Plenty of them return for his sophomore season in the Land of Enchantment.
But this isn’t a two-horse race. Three other groups, North Dakota State, Hawaii, and Air Force, are under +600 to win the convention at DraftKings, effectively forward of the chasing pack, making this a haves-vs-have-nots state of affairs.
So much would have to go proper for any of San Jose State (18/1), Wyoming (20/1), Nevada (30/1), Northern Illinois (60/1) and/or UTEP (80/1) to make noise.
Micah Alejado #12 of the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors runs the ball during the first half of the Sheraton Hawai’i Bowl against the California Golden Bears at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Dec. 24, 2025. Getty Images
Best wager: Hawaii to win Mountain West (+480, DraftKings)
Timmy Chang’s imaginative and prescient in Honolulu seems to be paying off, and he’s got the good pilot to land this aircraft.
Not unlike his head coach during his taking part in days on The Island, quarterback Micah Alejado gives the Rainbow Warriors some severe punching energy. The 5-foot-10 sophomore threw for 3,106 yards and 24 touchdowns as a redshirt freshman despite dealing with accidents for the majority of the marketing campaign.
Perhaps that a byproduct of his smallish stature, but who knows where the ceiling is for Alejado in a wholesome season?
Get the lowdown on the Best USA Sports Betting Sites and Apps
Hawaii’s schedule is always a bit wacky because the college is in the center of the Pacific Ocean, but it’ll get to host UNLV, New Mexico, and North Dakota State, which is a huge plus in a convention where the margins are skinny.
There’s some severe momentum behind the favorites in this convention, but the regular construct under Chang at Hawaii will repay quickly. I’m betting on it being this 12 months.
Why Trust New York Post Betting
Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports activities bettor with 10 years of expertise in the playing trade. He loves utilizing sport concept to assist punters win bracket swimming pools, discover lengthy pictures, and study how to beat the market in mainstream and area of interest sports activities.