Two former Mountain West cornerstones are now conference rivals in a brand-new league, and the gap between them still looks enormous on paper.
Bush’s Picks
BOISCSU
BOISCSU
OverUnder
Best BetBoise State
Boise State brings back its starting quarterback, its identity and 3 straight conference titles, while Colorado State is still sorting out who plays quarterback at all. That's about as clean an outright-winner case as you'll find on this slate. The only path for an upset is CSU's new staff getting the offense humming faster than anyone should reasonably expect in year one.
Boise State
+Three straight Mountain West titles
+Returning starter Madsen threw 18 TDs in 2025
+Preseason favorite in new Pac-12
−Blown out 10-38 by Washington in LA Bowl
−Passing game retooling after WR departures
−Madsen missed 3 games with a leg injury last fall
Colorado State
+Fresh start under Washington-pedigree coach Jim Mora
+Ball-control scheme designed to stabilize a shaky roster
+Clean slate entering new conference, no results priced in
−Finished 2-10 and fired Norvell in October
−QB battle still unresolved heading into fall camp
−Facing a proven power with far more continuity
Boise State walks into Saturday, November 7 with the sport's most stable answer at quarterback: Maddux Madsen is back after a lower-leg injury cost him the final 3 games of last season, and he still returned to lead the Broncos through the Mountain West title game and the LA Bowl. Colorado State can't say the same. Hauss Hejny, Darius Curry and Ksaan Farrar are all fighting for the job under brand-new coach Jim Mora, and whoever wins that camp battle will have had only a few months to get the offense in sync before this one kicks off.
Mora brought in assistant Pryce Tracy to run the same ball-control, run-heavy attack that made Washington hard to rattle, and it's the right instinct for a program that just finished 2-10 and fired Jay Norvell in October after a 2-5 start. Fewer mistakes, longer drives, shorter games — that's a sound identity for a rebuild, but it's not one built to trade scores with a Boise State group that arrives as the preseason favorite to win the first Pac-12 title of this new era.
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BOIS Boise State
CSU Colorado State
That gap is really the whole story here. This is also uncharted territory for both programs — Boise State and Colorado State spent years as Mountain West mainstays before bolting for the reconstituted Pac-12 this July, joined by Fresno State, San Diego State, Utah State, Texas State and Gonzaga alongside holdovers Oregon State and Washington State. However this one plays out, it's an early look at what the rebuilt league actually looks like on the field.
Boise State Broncos
Oct 31?vs Texas State—
Oct 10?@ Fresno State—
Oct 3?vs Utah State—
Sep 25?@ Western Michigan—
Sep 19?vs South Dakota—
Sep 12?vs Memphis—
Sep 5?@ Oregon—
Colorado State Rams
Oct 31?@ Utah State—
Oct 15?@ Texas State—
Oct 3?vs Oregon State—
Sep 25?@ UTSA—
Sep 19?vs BYU—
Sep 12?vs Southern Utah—
Sep 5?vs Wyoming—
Recent form.
Boise State's calling card the last 3 seasons has been finishing — 3 straight conference titles will do that — and coach Spencer Danielson kept his top 3 quarterbacks in the building all offseason instead of hitting the transfer portal. Colorado State's calling card right now is uncertainty, which is understandable 4 months into a coaching change, but not exactly the foundation you want walking into a proven winner's business trip.
