I received a message today asking me for a link to my story about which Mountain West members have contributed the most money to the conference via NCAA Tournament credits, bowl earnings, etc. I have never written such a story. At least not that I remember. I write a lot of stories and am getting older and forget stuff. But such an article would be limited in scope as the only two major revenue generators schools can produce for their conference are NCAA men’s basketball tournament units (about $2 million each) and bowl berths (and those payouts to the conference are usually offset by the earning school getting a stipend from the league to cover game expenses).

As such, teams that have earned a lot of NCAA Tournament units would be atop the list and those that don’t would be at the bottom. And that’s probably not the best way to analyze which schools have brought the most value to their conference. So, I decided to cast a wider net in determining which MW schools have produced the most value for the league since the conference went to its current membership in 2013 by awarding points for conference titles, bowl berths, NCAA Tournament appearances and national championships. Here is the formula I created.

Scoring system

Mountain West title — 1 point

Bowl game appearance — 1 point

NCAA Tournament berth (women’s basketball, baseball, softball) — 1 point (bonus point for each weekend advanced)

NCAA Tournament games (men’s basketball) — 2 points (bonus point for each weekend advanced)

Major bowl game appearances (NY6, CFP) — 3 points

Team national championship — 5 points

Using that formula, here is the list of schools from “most value created” to least since the 2013-14 season, which is when the current 11 full members were all part of the league.

Total points per school

115 points — San Diego State (53 MW titles, 40 MBB, 1 WBB, 9 FB, 8 SB, 4 BASE)

69 — New Mexico (46 MW titles, 10 MBB, 2 FB, 1 BASE, 10 NC)

66 — Boise State (37 MW titles, 8 MBB, 5 WBB, 14 FB, 2 SB)

56 — Colorado State (38 MW titles, 10 MBB, 1 WBB, 6 FB, 1 SB)

39 — Utah State (18 MW titles, 12 MBB, 9 FB)

38 — Fresno State (20 MW titles, 2 MBB, 1 WBB, 8 FB, 4 SB, 3 BASE)

37 — UNLV (30 MW titles, 3 WBB, 3 FB, 1 BASE)

34 — Nevada (12 MW titles, 15 MBB, 6 FB, 1 BASE)

24 — Air Force (16 MW titles, 7 FB, 1 BASE)

20 — San José State (13 MW titles, 5 FB, 1 SB, 1 BASE)

16 — Wyoming (5 MW titles, 4 MBB, 1 WBB, 6 FB)

It’s no surprise SDSU tops the list, doing so with nearly twice the total of any other MW school. The Aztecs’ 53 conference championships since 2013-14 are the league’s most with SDSU also earning 40 points in men’s basketball thanks to 18 NCAA Tournament games, including three Sweet 16 berths and 2023 runner-up finish. Nevada has the second-most men’s basketball points with 15. SDSU also is tied for second in football (nine points), first in softball (eight) and first in baseball (four). That means SDSU has been tops in the MW in three of the big-five sports (men’s basketball, softball, baseball) and second in a fourth (football) with only women’s basketball not near the top in the league, although it did reach this year’s NCAA Tournament.

Of the top-six teams in our conference value point system, five are headed to the Pac-12 in 2026, so they’ve earned that opportunity with their performance. The only team in the top six not headed to the Pac-12 is New Mexico, with many of the Lobos’ points coming from its elite cross country program. The Lobos are the only MW team to win a national title since 2013 with women’s cross country doing so in 2015 and 2017. Nevada ranks eighth out of 11 MW schools in conference value since 2013 and is one of just four schools in the league to appear in at least five NCAA men’s basketball tournaments and play in five bowl games during that period, the others being SDSU, Colorado State and Utah State.

The Wolf Pack needs to get its football program up and running after going 7-30 the last three seasons, but Nevada seems primed to be one of the top athletic departments in the post-2026 MW.

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