Wyoming

There is no other Division I program in Wyoming. The Cowboys are the entire state's football — no rival flagship, no pro franchise, just the high-plains altitude and the Cowboy Joe pony circling the field after scores. Josh Allen came to Laramie with almost no recruiting interest and left as the seventh overall NFL draft pick. Craig Bohl built a decade of bowl trips from a roster of overlooked players who became exactly what the program promised: tougher than the recruiting ranking suggested. That identity is real, and it is what makes the 2025 backslide sting.

Jay Sawvel's second year went 4-8 in the Mountain West, no bowl game, the kind of season that makes a fanbase recalibrate. The timing is genuinely complicated: Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, and Utah State are all leaving the Mountain West for the rebuilt Pac-12 in 2026, which thins the competition at the top of a league Wyoming should be contending in. UTEP, Northern Illinois, Grand Canyon, and UC Davis join instead. If there was ever a year for Wyoming to seize a wide-open Mountain West, it is 2026 — and if Sawvel can't do it with a depleted conference, the patience question gets louder in Laramie. Sophomore quarterback Kaden Anderson runs the offense.

The 2026 question is not subtle: can Sawvel coach Wyoming back into a bowl game in a Mountain West that just lost its biggest names? The Cowboy Tough identity has always been about doing more with less. What the schedule will answer is whether 2025 was a building-year stumble or an early sign that the Bohl-era model doesn't transfer. Laramie, at 7,220 feet, will provide the hardest possible home environment. The Cowboys have to be good enough to use it.