LAS VEGAS — One year after conference realignment reshaped the Mountain West, commissioner Gloria Nevarez used Wednesday’s opening session of Football Media Days to deliver a different message than the one she was making a year ago. The conversation has shifted from uncertainty to opportunity.
Speaking before coaches, players and media at the Palms Resort, Nevarez outlined the conference’s direction entering the 2026 football season, highlighting record revenue distributions, a new direct-to-consumer streaming platform, expanded membership, a permanent headquarters in Las Vegas and continued efforts to position the Mountain West for long-term success in an evolving college athletics landscape.
“We couldn’t be more excited about the momentum and energy behind this new era of the Mountain West,” Nevarez said.
The conference enters 2026 with a different look than it had a year ago. Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State departed for the rebuilt Pac-12, prompting the Mountain West to rebuild its membership with a combination of full-time and affiliate additions.
Hawai‘i, UC Davis and UTEP joined as full-time members, while Northern Illinois, North Dakota State and Utah Tech entered as affiliate members. North Dakota State also received approval to compete for the conference football championship, bowl bids and College Football Playoff consideration despite joining as a football-only affiliate.
Nevarez said the additions were made with long-term stability in mind rather than simply replacing departing schools. UTEP brings the conference back into Texas, creating new recruiting opportunities and restoring several regional rivalries. Hawai‘i transitions from football-only membership into a full conference member after decades of working alongside the league. Northern Illinois expands the Mountain West’s footprint into the Chicago television market, while North Dakota State arrives after establishing itself as one of the most successful programs in FCS history.
Combined, the additions return the conference to 12 full members across all sports while creating a 10-team football league. Although expansion remains possible in the future, Nevarez said the conference is comfortable with its current football membership and is not actively pursuing another addition.
“We don’t want to add just to add,” Nevarez said. “We’re not actively looking right now, but we’re always open to thinking about if there’s another school that can fit that makes sense for us.”
Nevarez also expressed confidence that another round of realignment is not imminent. The conference’s grant of rights, combined with recently completed media agreements, gives the Mountain West greater certainty entering the next several years. While acknowledging that college athletics continues to evolve rapidly, she said the league believes its current structure provides stability.
“I do believe the Mountain West is as stable as we can be at the moment,” Nevarez said.
The conference also introduced its new brand identity Wednesday. The refreshed look centers around the slogan “Built Bold,” accompanied by updated graphics, redesigned championship trophies and a revised visual identity intended to reflect the conference’s future while maintaining its existing “MW” logo.
Nevarez said the branding project began more than a year ago with research involving athletic directors, coaches, student-athletes and external partners. Rather than creating an entirely new identity, the conference chose to modernize an established brand that members believed still carried value nationally.
She said words such as resilience, grit, toughness and confidence consistently appeared throughout the research process. Nevarez also emphasized that the conference’s job is not to overshadow its schools but to create a larger platform that helps them reach wider audiences.
“Our schools are our hero brands,” Nevarez said. “Our job is to elevate them.”
The branding announcement came alongside several business initiatives the conference expects to shape its future. Nevarez announced the Mountain West distributed a conference-record $118 million to member institutions during the 2025-26 fiscal year.
Approximately $35 million came from football postseason participation and the College Football Playoff, while another $7.7 million resulted from NCAA men’s basketball tournament distributions. The conference also reported continued growth in corporate partnerships and sponsorship revenue.
One of those emerging revenue streams involves jersey patch sponsorships. Following recent NCAA rule changes permitting institutions to sell advertising space on uniforms, four Mountain West schools have already announced agreements.
UNLV became the first school nationally to secure a jersey patch sponsor, followed by Air Force, North Dakota State and Wyoming. Nevarez said another conference member is expected to announce an agreement in the near future. The conference itself is separately marketing a jersey patch opportunity that would appear only during Mountain West championship events.
Nevarez also said conference officials continue developing a performance-based revenue distribution model. Rather than dividing every dollar equally among member schools, portions of future conference revenue could be distributed based on competitive success and institutional investment.
The proposal remains under discussion, but Nevarez said conference leadership hopes to finalize details over the coming year. She described the possible model as more of an “eat what you kill” structure, with bonuses and additional distributions tied to performance.
The Mountain West is also developing minimum membership standards across 10 to 12 categories that directly affect competitiveness. Those standards would create a baseline for institutional investment and require schools to continue moving forward in areas connected to market value, athletic performance and program development.
Nevarez acknowledged that higher spending does not automatically produce wins, but said consistent investment remains important to the health of the conference and its ability to compete nationally.
The Mountain West’s media strategy also changes significantly this fall. Beginning with the 2026 season, the conference’s new six-year media rights agreements with CBS Sports, FOX Sports, The CW and Kiswe officially take effect.
CBS remains the conference’s longest-standing television partner, while FOX continues its existing relationship. The CW joins as a new national broadcast partner, expanding the conference’s linear television inventory. Kiswe, meanwhile, powers the conference’s most ambitious digital initiative.
Mountain West Plus launches this fall as the league’s direct-to-consumer streaming service. Unlike previous conference digital platforms operated by outside companies, Mountain West Plus will be owned and managed directly by the conference.
Subscribers will receive access to live games, conference championships, archived broadcasts and original programming produced by both the conference and member institutions. Annual subscriptions begin at $79.99, while monthly subscriptions cost $10.99. The conference is also offering a 15 percent introductory discount during July, August and September.
Each subscriber must select a favorite school during registration. Sixty percent of that subscription revenue will then return directly to the selected institution, creating a financial incentive for schools to actively promote the platform and produce content aimed at their own fan bases.
Nevarez described the model as unique among FBS conferences because it allows schools to maintain direct relationships with supporters while keeping digital revenue inside the conference.
“The more schools engage their fans, the more they benefit,” she said.
The conference has also completed another long-term objective by relocating its headquarters from Colorado Springs to Las Vegas. The new office at Town Square houses conference administration, Mountain West Studios and a centralized replay operations center using DVSport technology.
Nevarez said the replay center will be operational before Week Zero, allowing officials across multiple sports to review plays from a single location rather than working independently at each venue. The Mountain West Studios operation will also move into the facility, giving the conference a permanent space for interviews, original programming and other digital content.
Las Vegas has become increasingly central to the conference’s operations. Football Media Days moved to the Palms Resort this year, while the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments remain at the Thomas & Mack Center under a recently announced six-year extension.
Nevarez said consolidating conference leadership, media production and championship events in Las Vegas creates operational efficiencies while placing the league in one of the country’s largest entertainment and tourism markets.
The commissioner also addressed the future of the College Football Playoff. Although discussions continue nationally regarding further expansion beyond the current format, Nevarez said the Mountain West remains focused on ensuring one of its members earns the highest-ranked position among the non-autonomy conferences.
She noted that every highest-ranked representative selected from that group has also won its conference championship, reinforcing the importance of winning the Mountain West. Conference officials also continue evaluating future championship game formats, bowl agreements and postseason partnerships as the national landscape develops.
For now, the Mountain West championship game will remain at the home site of the highest-ranked participant. Nevarez said the conference regularly discusses whether a neutral site could better position its teams for the playoff but remains committed to its current model entering the season.
She also said the Mountain West supports playoff expansion if it creates additional access, but opposes awarding multiple automatic bids based only on conference brand or name.
The conference’s current postseason structure remains largely intact for 2026. Nevarez said the Mountain West will have four positions within the ESPN Events bowl group, including a guaranteed place in the Hawai‘i Bowl.
The league also retains a place in the Arizona Bowl and a backup agreement with the Cactus Bowl. The Mountain West’s top bowl selection will appear in an ESPN Events game, with the conference and ESPN determining the matchup and location each year.
Nevarez said work continues on agreements beginning in 2027 because the future bowl structure may depend on whether the CFP expands again.
One notable change this season will be the absence of a preseason predicted order of finish. For the first time since the conference’s founding in 1999, the Mountain West chose not to release preseason team rankings.
Nevarez said coaches and athletic directors questioned whether projecting teams near the bottom of the standings created unnecessary negative perceptions before games were played. She cited Arizona State nationally and New Mexico within the Mountain West as teams that were projected near the bottom before exceeding expectations.
“The risk or detrimental brand impact of being named at the bottom half of the league or last is more detrimental than the buzz of having a preseason poll,” Nevarez said.
The conference will continue recognizing preseason individual award winners because those selections can help players receive consideration for national honors. Nevarez said the distinction is between highlighting an athlete and assigning an entire program a negative perception before the season begins.
The Mountain West also supports the bipartisan Protecting College Sports Act currently under consideration in the United States Senate. Nevarez said she participated in a call with Division I commissioners and Sens. Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell before media days.
She said the legislation would provide the NCAA limited liability protection to establish nationwide rules governing eligibility, transfers, name, image and likeness and revenue sharing while reducing ongoing litigation affecting college athletics. The Mountain West is encouraging its schools and political representatives to support the proposal.
Nevarez declined to discuss the conference’s ongoing litigation involving the exit fees and financial obligations of departing members. She did confirm, however, that conference officials expect the Mountain West to meet all obligations contained in its grant of rights.
She also stopped short of predicting which teams could emerge from the restructured football league. The Mountain West’s decision to eliminate its preseason poll was partly intended to avoid setting that perception before the season.
Nevarez said the conference believes the championship race will be competitive and that its optimism is based on the players retained, the newcomers added and the quality of the coaching staffs.
“You never know until they’re actually out there playing,” Nevarez said, “but that optimism is real and founded.”
As Wednesday’s session concluded, Nevarez repeatedly returned to the same message. The Mountain West no longer views itself as responding to realignment.
Conference leadership believes the league enters 2026 with settled membership, new revenue opportunities, expanded media exposure and a long-term strategy built around continued investment in its member institutions.
For the first time since last summer’s wave of conference movement, the conversation surrounding the Mountain West centered less on who had left and more on where the conference believes it is headed next.
