In mid-April, we offered our first Mountain West men’s basketball power rankings of the 2025-26 season. At that point, we knew who was entering the transfer portal but additions were still sparse at that time. Now we have a fully understanding of each team’s roster situation following the portal closing and the underclassmen NBA draft deadline passing. With more roster certainty, here are our updated MW power rankings, which will stand until the preseason poll in October.

1. San Diego State

Last season: 21-10, 14-6 (tied for fourth place; lost in NCAA Tournament’s First Four)

2025-26 outlook: SDSU moves from second in last month’s rankings to first with the return of All-MW wing Miles Byrd (12.3 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 2.7 apg), a second-round selection if he stayed in the NBA draft. I found this tweet (“The Mountain West goes through Viejas Arena — again!”) by CBS’ Jon Rothstein funny because the Aztecs finished fourth in the MW last season and fifth the year before. The MW hasn’t gone through Viejas Arena the last couple of seasons but should in 2025-26. This roster is stacked with Byrd, MW defensive player of the year Magoon Gwath (8.5 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 2.6 bpg); BJ Davis (9.0 ppg); Pharaoh Compton (5.4 ppg, 2.4 rpg); Taj DeGourville (5.1 ppg); Miles Heide (4.1 ppg); and 2024 preseason All-MW player Reece Waters (missed last year with injury) back. Add three above-average transfers in Louisiana Tech’s Sean Newman Jr. (9.9 ppg, 7.9 apg); Charlotte’s Jeremiah Oden; and SJSU’s Latrell Davis (11.1 ppg) and this is the MW’s team to beat. Shooting is an issue, though.

2. Utah State

Last season: 26-8, 15-5 (third place; lost in NCAA Tournament’s first round)

2025-26 outlook: Utah State could have lost its coach (Jerrod Calhoun) and star player (Mason Falslev) in the offseason but retained both (the salary/NIL money must be increasing in the Cache Valley). Falslev (15 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 3.7 apg, 2.3 spg) is one of two returning All-MW players along with Byrd. Also returning are Karson Templin (7.4 ppg, 5.0 rpg), Tucker Anderson (5.8 ppg, 2.0 rpg) and Drake Allen (7.0 ppg, 3.8 apg), who are all starting-level MW players. Utah State has been a net positive in the transfer portal with the additions of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s Garry Clark (14.9 ppg, 7.7 rpg); Vanderbilt’s M.J. Collins Jr. (7.4 ppg), Drake’s Kolby King (5.6 ppg), Air Force’s Luke Kearney (8.9 ppg) and Utah’s Zach Keller. This team is deep.

3. Boise State

Last season: 26-11, 14-6 (tied for fourth place; lost in College Basketball Crown’s semifinals)

2025-26 outlook: Boise State looks like the same team as years past, which given its history is a positive development. This is another 20-win team, although depth is a concern, as it usually is with the Broncos. Tyson Degenhart moves on but Boise State returns Andrew Meadow (12.6 ppg, 4.2 rpg), Javan Buchanan (9.6 ppg, 3.8 rpg), Pearson Carmichael (6.9 ppg, 2.5 rpg), RJ Keene (2.1 ppg, 4.5 rpg) and Julian Bowie (3.9 ppg) with Meadow and Buchanan needing to fulfill their All-MW potential to compete for the title. Boise State added Georgetown’s Drew Fielder (7.1 ppg, 5.4 rpg) and UCLA’s Dylan Andrews (6.9 ppg, 3.4 apg) out of the portal, so that’s a nice seven-man rotation that should keep the Broncos in the NCAA Tournament mix.

4. UNLV

Last season: 18-15, 11-9 (sixth place)

2025-26 outlook: UNLV moves up a spot from our last rankings with one of the best mid-major transfer classes. This is a complete rebuild as the Rebels return only 33 of their 2,285 points from last season under first-year coach Josh Pastner, who lost six to seven starting-level players, including star Dedan Thomas, Jr. (LSU). Pastner needs to nail the transfer class. Some of the top additions include Illinois’ Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn (5.9 ppg), Louisiana Tech’s Al Green (10.2 ppg), Texas-Rio Grande Valley’s Howard Fleming Jr. (12.3 ppg), UC Irvine’s Myles Che (12.1 ppg), High Point’s Kimani Hamilton (13.1 ppg), Iowa’s Ladji Dembélé (4.5 ppg), Alabama’s Naas Cunningham and Arizona’s Emmanuel Stephen. This ceiling is high if they gel.

5. Colorado State

Last season: 26-10, 16-4 (second place; lost in NCAA Tournament’s second round)

2025-26 outlook: CSU elevated assistant Ali Farokhmanesh to the top job after losing Niko Medved to Minnesota with the Rams losing Nique Clifford to the NBA and Kyan Evans (North Carolina), Jaylen Crocker-Johnson (Minnesota) and Keshawn Williams (Iona) to transfer. Bigs Rashaan Mbemba (7.0 ppg), Kyle Jorgensen (4.0 ppg) and Nikola Djapa (2.4 ppg) return, but that’s about it. CSU added a strong transfer class that includes Marist’s Josh Pascarelli (15.9 ppg), Virginia Tech’s Brandon Rechsteiner (7.0 ppg), VMI’s Augustinas Kiudulas (15.2 ppg) and Florida Gulf Coast’s Jevin Muniz (10.6 ppg) plus former four-star recruits Carey Booth (Illinois) and Jase Butler (Washington). The talent is here to do some legitimate damage.

6. Nevada

Last season: 17-16, 8-12 (seventh place)

2025-26 outlook: Nevada doesn’t return any full-time starters from last year’s seventh-place team and lost its top-two returners to transfer in Nick Davidson (Clemson) and Justin McBride (James Madison). Tyler Rolison (7.4 ppg) is the only starting-caliber returner for a team that will have a different look (faster and more athletic). The Wolf Pack added Fresno State transfer Elijah Price (10.5 ppg, 8.3 rpg) plus three more productive Division I players in Evansville’s Tayshawn Comer (16.2 ppg), UTEP’s Corey Camper Jr. (10.5 ppg) and UC Riverside big Joel Armotrading (5.8 ppg). It also added wildcards Kaleb Lowery (NAIA) and Vaughn Weems (JuCo), who must be productive to fill out the rotation that should play with more tempo.

7. New Mexico

Last season: 27-8, 17-3 (first place; lost in NCAA Tournament’s second round)

2025-26 outlook: First-year coach Eric Olen, previously at UC San Diego, has the MW’s most daunting job as New Mexico returns zero points from last year’s regular-season title team after 13 players hit the transfer portal with the biggest losses being Donovan Dent (UCLA) and Tru Washington (Miami), not to mention coach Richard Pitino (Xavier). Olen brought Chris Howell and Milos Vicentic with him from UC San Diego while adding USC’s Kevin Patton Jr., Iowa State’s JT Rock, North Dakota State’s Tajavis Miller and Utah State’s Deyton Albury plus junior-college All-American Antonio Chol. There are pieces here, but it’s not often a team returns zero points and succeeds the following season (yes, Utah State did it two years ago).

8. Wyoming

Last season: 12-20, 5-15 (ninth place)

2025-26 outlook: Wyoming head coach Sundance Wicks got the Cowboys job in the middle of May last season, so he didn’t have a real chance of building a strong roster. He had more time this season but took a big blow in losing star Obi Agbim to Baylor. The Cowboys return Matija Belic (5.6 ppg) and Abou Magassa (3.2 ppg), so the transfers will be heavily relied upon. They include Florida Atlantic’s Leland Walker (9.2 ppg), Quinnipiac’s Khaden Bennett (10.3 ppg), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s Damarion Dennis (6.7 ppg) and Memphis Jared Harris as well as lower-level transfers Adam Harakow (Lake Superior State), Uriyah Rojas (Chaffey College) and Kiani Saxon (Missouri Western). This team should be better than last year.

9. San Jose State

Last season: 15-20, 7-13 (eighth place)

2025-26 outlook: SJSU’s top-four returning scorers hit the portal in Will McClendon (North Texas), Latrell Davis (San Diego State), Robert Vaihola (Minnesota) and Sadaidriene Hall. The means the Spartans’ top-eight scorers depart the program and leaves Jermaine Washington (4.4 ppg) as SJSU’s top returning scorer. The top transfer additions are Longwood’s Colby Garland (12.1 ppg), Western Michigan’s JaVaughn Hannah (12 ppg), Iona’s Yaphet Moundi (9.8 ppg), Mercer’s Marcus Overstreet (6.2 ppg) and Mississippi State’s Adrian Myers. Tim Miles will coach this group up, but there’s a lower ceiling for any team that can’t return at least some kind of nucleus from one year to the next.

10. Air Force

Last season: 4-28, 1-19 (11th place)

2025-26 outlook: Air Force is coming off the worst season in program history and lost Luke Kearney (Utah State) and Will Cooper (Nebraska) to transfer in addition to the graduation of Ethan Taylor. Kyle Marshall (6.9 ppg) entered the portal before returning to team and joins Wesley Celichowski (8.7 ppg) and Caleb Walker (6.5 ppg). That gives Air Force three of its top-five scorers from last year back on next year’s roster, but the academy can’t add transfers, so any improvement must come internally. And there’s a long way between where Air Force was last year and being competitive in the MW.

11. Fresno State

Last season: 6-26, 2-18 (10th place)

2025-26 outlook: Fresno State lost 12 players to the transfer portal with seven of those landing at Division I programs. Coach Vance Wahlberg has his second roster flip in as many years and is building from ground zero again. Clemson’s Jake Heidbreder, who was previously at Air Force, is a good addition. Kansas City’s Cameron Faas (9.7 ppg) also was added from the portal. But this roster is in rough shape.

Columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. Contact him at crmurray@sbgtv.com or follow him on Twitter @ByChrisMurray.