Once again, here are the 2025 Mountain West standings.
And here are the APR standings with conference rank in offensive touchdowns, touchdowns allowed, and APR in parentheses. This includes conference games only with the championship game excluded.
Finally, Mountain West teams are sorted by the difference between their actual number of wins and their expected number of wins according to APR.
I use a game and a half as a somewhat arbitrary standard to determine if a team significantly over or underachieved relative to their APR. Using that standard, New Mexico was the only Mountain West team that saw their actual record differ significantly from their APR. Under first-year head coach Jason Eck, the Lobos finished in a four-way tie atop the conference and nearly qualified for their first conference title game since 1997. The Lobos finished 4-1 in one-score conference games to buoy their record.
Mush, Mush
The Mountain West is undergoing some membership changes before the 2026 season commences. Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, and Utah State are off to reconstitute the Pac-12. A trio of teams, North Dakota State, Northern Illinois, and UTEP, will replace them giving the league ten football playing members at the moment. The oddest addition is Northern Illinois. The Huskies have been MAC members for nearly thirty years, but if we zoom out, they have a bit of a nomadic history. The Huskies were an Independent in the late 60's and early 70's before joining the MAC for an eleven-year run in 1975. They returned to the Independent circuit in 1986 and joined the Big West for a brief three-year span in 1993. The Big West in the early to mid-90s was an interesting amalgamation of teams that now occupy Conference USA, the Mountain West, the Pac-12, the Sun Belt, and defunctland. The Huskies, along with a host of other schools, left the Big West after the 1995 season. The Huskies once again returned to the Independent life before gaining some stability and joining the MAC in 1997.
The vibes in DeKalb are not great at the moment. Their head coach, who also happened to be an alum and former player, resigned in mid-February to take an assistant coaching position in the NFL. There were some good times under Hammock (a MAC title in 2021 and the victory against Notre Dame in 2024 to name two), but the program dipped under his guidance. Still, losing your head coach in February is not ideal. The Huskies are probably in rebuilding mode and may be one of the worst teams in the Mountain West in 2026. But that is the football season that is to come. Instead of doom and gloom, lets look back at better days for Northern Illinois.
As I previously mentioned, Northern Illinois joined the MAC (for a second time) in 1997. In their nearly three decades as a member, they were arguably the flagship program for the conference. And here is the data to prove it. The table below lists the conference winning percentage for each team MAC team since 1997.
Many people probably forget Marshall was a MAC member when they joined FBS in 1997. The Herd had an absurd run under Bob Pruett, winning five conference titles in their first six seasons in the league (after winning the I-AA title in 1996). For the long-tenured MAC schools, Northern Illinois ranks second behind Toledo in conference winning percentage. While the Huskies trail the Rockets (rather significantly) in conference winning percentage, they do have the most MAC Championship Game appearances since the event began in 1997.
Not only do the Huskies have the most MAC Championship Game appearances, they are also tied with Marshall for the most victories in the history of the event. 
Hard times are likely on the horizon for Northern Illinois as they adjust to a stronger conference. However, when viewed holistically, the Huskies are arguably the best and most accomplished MAC program in the past three decades.
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