This entire season we've had a contest amongst our members of Panel of Pokes. We picked the winner of every Mountain West game for 14 weeks plus the bowl games. After those 14 weeks the battle for the top spot still came down to just one seperating our leaders heading into this final round.

Here were the final standings heading into the bowl games.

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Now that the regular season is complete we decided to extend our contest one more edition. As you can see Matt Blaylock holds a one point lead over me for the title. So the champion will be determined after the Mountain West bowl games are complete. Again we added Nevada in here since they are a future Mountain West member.

Check out our bowl picks are the jump.

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It was a fairly even contest for our panel last week. We still have our tie for first place between the two Matt's. Congrats to Chad on the perfect ballot and now he is just one point away from moving into a tie for third place with Ian and Brad.

Skyler picked Wyoming to upset Boise and unfortunately it cost him two big points.

Take a look at our picks for this week after the jump!

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Air Force: The Falcons put together a strong effort to finally gain bowl eligibility.  Tim Jefferson completed just nine passes but totaled 221 yards and three touchdowns that all went to Zack Kauth.  The big question now is what bowl will they will end up at.  Since Air Force travels so well it would be hard for a Mountain West affiliated bowl to pass up the Falcons.

Boise State:  The Broncos had a scare from Wyoming for most of the first half.  Eventually they put the pedal to the medal and earned their 10th win of the year.  Now if only they can get past New Mexico.   That game should not even be played.  Does anyone really want to watch that bloodbath?

Colorado State:  Good thing Chris Nwoke plays hard, otherwise the Rams would really have nothing going for them this year.  The strong runner finished with 269 yards and two touchdowns.  Unfortunately the Rams defense wasn't really interested in stopping Air Force at all.  Will this Border War be the final game for Coach Fairchild?

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Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Thanks for being part of the Cowboy Altitude community. Check out this video from the Wyoming players and coaches.

As you can see from the results below there wasn't a huge variety of scores last week.  Props to Skyler for getting a perfect set of matches and being the only one to correctly pick Louisiana Tech beating Nevada.  We once again have a tie for first place between the two Matt's.

The picks for this week are available after the jump!

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Air Force:  The Falcons got back on the winning track after dismantling UNLV.  Now they need to knock off Colorado State in order secure bowl eligibility.  That would give the Mountain West five bowl eligible teams and only four bowls.  With Navy and Army not securing six wins this year that could open up a spot for Air Force elsewhere like the Military Bowl.

Boise State:  The Broncos were able to shake off their loss last week and take down the Aztecs in San Diego.  A record crowd for a regular season game showed up to watch kellen Moore and company do their thing.  With a BCS game and Hesiman chances looking smaller this season has not gone according to plan.  They are back on the blue turf this week to take on the Cowboys.

Colorado State:  Can anything save Steve Fairchild now?  Perhaps his best bet is a stockpile of dirty pictures of the school president that can be used for blackmail. If those don't exist then he'd better start looking for something new.

 So is Steve Fairchild going to focus on his music career after his coaching career comes to an end?  Good luck with that.

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Well none of our crew predicted TCU defeating Boise last week.  That was one of several very exciting games last weekend in the Mountain West.  The big difference maker was those who chose Wyoming over Air Force enjoyed the extra points with that pick.  Matt Blaylock went out on a limb with New Mexico getting it's first win and with that he moves into sole possesion of first place.  Let's just say that Chad and Brad had a rough week and leave it at that. 

With only a couple of weeks remaining is this now a two person race? Ian and Skyler still have an outside chance of catching up.

Check out our picks for this week after the jump!

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This was certainly a very costly weekend for the Mountain West.  TCU went off and beat Boise State which basically ended the shot of a MWC team making a BCS game this year.  That will mean a huge loss for bowl revenue this year for the conference.  It could also clear the way for Boise State to exit the Big East sooner since they would have a smaller exit fee.  

Air Force:  Without Tim Jefferson the offense for the Falcons is not nearly as strong.  The loss of Jefferson and high winds basically forced Air Force to completely abandon the pass.  Now sitting at 5-5 this team has to be one of the bigger disappointments in the conference this year.  Still a bowl game is a possibility if they can win out.

Boise State:  So the Broncos wear all orange uniforms on their blue turf and lose a conference home game for the first time in a century.  The key to their strength has finally been uncovered here.  The large number of injuries that effected the secondary and offense had no bearing on this game.  How hard is it for a team that wins so often to not find a decent kicker? 

Colorado State:  Coach Fairchild is now fully grasping at straws here to save his job.  After Pete Thomas got injured Fairchild burned the redshirt of freshmen QB Garret Grayson.  He delivered with a QB rating of 20.1, 6 of 15 passing for 26 yards and one interception.  The 232 yards rushing by Chris Nwoke helped keep this game close for the Rams.  After losing five in a row, is there any way they can save this sinking ship?

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