G6 Previews: Part 2 - Pac-12, Mountain West & CUSA + UConn | College Football

About this episode

The episode continues the Group of Six conference previews, focusing on the Pac-12, Mountain West, and Conference USA, along with UConn's roster rebuilding efforts.

In this college football podcast episode, we continue our 2026 Group of Six conference previews by breaking down the resurrected Pac-12, the new-look Mountain West and a wide-open Conference USA. We start with Boise State’s move into the Pac-12 and discuss whether the Broncos are truly a College Football Playoff threat or simply the best team in their new neighborhood. From there, we examine the cases for Fresno State, San Diego State, Texas State and Washington State, along with the conference’s unusual plan to flex matchups during the final week of the regular season. The Mountain West has undergone an even more dramatic transformation, with North Dakota State making the jump to FBS and Northern Illinois and UTEP entering the league. Can NDSU immediately contend with UNLV and New Mexico? Does Hawaii have enough around Micah Alejado to make a run? And can Air Force, Wyoming or one of the conference’s rebuilding programs force its way into the race? We also venture into Conference USA, where Western Kentucky may be the preseason favorite, but Jacksonville State, Kennesaw State, Liberty and several recent FBS arrivals give us plenty of reasons to question the…

Topics covered

• Group of Six conference previews
• Pac-12 analysis
• Mountain West transformation
• Conference USA outlook
• College Football Playoff
• team evaluations
• roster rebuilding

Keywords

• college football
• Pac-12
• Mountain West
• Conference USA
• Boise State
• North Dakota State
• UConn
• Jason Candle
• team previews
• FBS

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Pac-12, Mountain West, CUSA, Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Texas State, Washington State, North Dakota State, Northern Illinois

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