Mountain West men’s basketball preseason power rankings for 2026-27

ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO - MARCH 04: Jake Hall #23 of the New Mexico Lobos looks on during the second half of a game against the Colorado State Rams at The Pit on March 04, 2026 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Rams defeated the Lobos 82-74. | Getty Images The Mountain West is about to look very different. Five of the league’s most familiar names — Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State — have all departed for the new look Pac-12. In their place, the new 10-team basketball league brings Hawaii into full-time membership and adds UC Davis and UTEP. Grand Canyon, which joined the Mountain West for 2025-26, is entering its second season in the conference. Mountain West after dark should still be plenty entertaining, but it’s going to look a lot different this winter. 1. New Mexico Lobos 2026-27 Record: 26-11 2027-27 Conference Finish: T-3 If the Mountain West is looking for a new basketball standard-bearer, New Mexico has the clearest case. Historically, no program in the league has had a better combination of support and infrastructure than UNM. Recently, no program has had more success. As far as 2026-27 is concerned, the Lobos return Jake Hall, arguably the league’s most important returning player after a freshman season in which he averaged 16.4 points per game and shot 43.8 percent from three. He earned first-team All-Mountain West honors and was named the conference’s Freshman of the Year. New Mexico also has continuity on the bench. Erik Olen won 26 games in his first season in Albuquerque after building a 30-win team at UC San Diego. He guided the Lobos to the NIT semifinals, and now has his sights set on more. 2. Grand Canyon Antelopes 2026-27 Record: 20-12 2027-27 Conference Finish: T-3 Grand Canyon’s first Mountain West season established what most already believed, which is that the ‘Lopes were more than ready for the step up in class. Bryce Drew brings a program accustomed to winning, and Makaih Williams gives GCU a returning offensive centerpiece. Williams was the Antelopes’ second-leading scorer last season and one of their most consistent outside shooters. If GCU can improves its shooting numbers from a season ago and have Williams takes another step forward, they should absolutely finish near the top of the league standings once again. 3. Nevada Wolf Pack 2026-27 Record: 24-13 2027-27 Conference Finish: T-5 Nevada might have the league’s most intriguing combination of proven production and offseason upside. Elijah Price is back after averaging 12.8 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game while earning All-Mountain West and All-Defensive honors. Vaughn Weems also returns after averaging 10.1 points and 4.2 rebounds. Steve Alford also attacked the transfer market, giving Nevada additional pieces around its established core. Big men Cedric Lath (Houston) and Simon Majok (Memphis) give the Pack elite size in a league where such a thing is at a premium. Coming off of a 24-win season and now existing in a Mountain West where five of the conference’s former heavyweight programs are now gone, Nevada suddenly has a much clearer path to the top. 4. UNLV Rebels 2026-27 Record: 18-17 2027-27 Conference Finish: T-7 This kind of feels like a pivotal moment for Josh Pastner and this once very proud program. The Rebels have history, resources and the kind of roster-building potential that makes them difficult to dismiss. They also now exist in a conference that lacks the top-to-bottom competition that has defined it for the past couple of decades. Can UNLV rise to the occasion and establish themselves as a perennial top dog in the new Mountain West? Tyrin Jones (11.9 ppg), Issac Williamson (8.6 ppg) and a host of newcomers will look to set the tone for the new era of Rebel hoops. 5. Wyoming Cowboys 2026-27 Record: 18-15 2027-27 Conference Finish: 9th If you wanted to identify a “darkhorse” champion pick in this league, Wyoming is probably the most attractive option. The Cowboys have finished above .500 in conference play just three times over the last 23 years, but no Mountain West coach returns more production from last season than Sundance Wicks does. Nasir Meyer (12.9 ppg), Khaden Bennett (10.2 ppg), Gavin Gores (7.3 ppg) and Uriyah Rojas (6.2 ppg) are all back from a team that was middle of the pack last season, but was competitive more times than not with the league’s top dogs. The Cowboys are already the team everyone in the conference hates playing because of their physicality. If they can create a bit more of an offensive identity in year two under Wicks, they should finish in the top half of the league. 6. Hawaii Rainbow Warriors 2026-27 Record: 24-9 2027-27 Conference Finish: 2nd (in Big West) A football-only member for the last few years, Hawaii now joins the Mountain West in all sports for 2026-27. Also notable: Their triumph in last season’s Big West Tournament makes the Rainbow Warriors the only current Mountain West squad that played in the NCAA Tournament a year ago. Unfortunately for Eran Ganot, most of the difference-makers from that 2025-26 team have moved on. Isaiah Kerr (6.4 ppg) is the only returner, which means the ‘Bows will sink or float based on the production they get from their seven-player transfer portal class. Still, most of these other programs aren’t used to the island travel that comes with having Hawaii as a conference mate. That alone should allow Ganot and company to punch above their weight this season. 7. San Jose State Spartans 2026-27 Record: 9-24 2027-27 Conference Finish: 11th Tim Miles seemed to have the Spartans headed in the right direction when he led them to 21 wins and their first postseason tournament ages during his second campaign back in 2022-23. Since then, however, SJSU has suffered through three straight dismal seasons, including 9-win efforts in both 2023-24 and 2025-26. With the bottom half of the Mountain West no longer looking nearly as daunting as it has in the past, the pressure is on Miles to get back to showcasing forward progress. In order to make that happen, he’ll have to rely heavily on his transfer portal after losing his top six scorers from last season. Columbia transfer forward Zine Eddine Bedri (12.8 ppg, 7.4 rpg) should be a rock for this squad. 8. UC Davis Aggies 2026-27 Record: 19-14 2027-27 Conference Finish: T-6 (in Big West) The Aggies have been solid in the Big West for the past decade, but now take a pretty sizable step up in competition with the move to the Mountain West. Jim Les will rely heavily on continuity in 2026-27 thanks to the return of five primary contributors from last season’s 19-win squad. Les also brought in Clarence Massamba from Tennessee. The 6’5 guard from Paris played sparingly for the Vols last season, but is a former four-star recruit. 9. UTEP Miners 2026-27 Record: 11-20 2027-27 Conference Finish: 11th (in C-USA) UTEP has a level of history that the other newcomers can’t match, but the Miners’ move to the Mountain West comes at a bad time for the program. The Miners were one of the worst offensive teams in all of college basketball last season, and then saw all 12 players with remaining eligibility hit the transfer portal last spring. Sixth-year head coach Joe Golding brought in a decent portal class headlined by Evansville’s Leif Moeller (10.8 ppg 3.8 apg). The infrastructure is in place for UTEP to be a competitor in this new look league. It just probably isn’t going to happen for the Miners in year one. 10. Air Force Falcons 2026-27 Record: 3-29 2027-27 Conference Finish: 12th It seems more likely than not that the Falcons will win at least one conference game in 2026-27. That’s improvement for a squad that did not accomplish that feat a year ago. After a three game winning streak from Nov. 19-23, Air Force did not taste victory again in 2025-26. That’s right, the Falcons went the entirety of December, January, February and March without winning a single game. New head coach Joe Crispin comes in from Penn State looking to completely reshape the program. Crispin will turn the Falcons into an up-tempo, run-and-gun program, a monumental shift from the slow-it-down style Air Force has been known for. Maybe it will work eventually, but there’s simply too much ground for this program to make up to see the Falcons being overly competitive in year one.

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