Can Fresno State get to Mountain West championship game? Bulldogs’ schedule is a start

Fresno State has known the who, what and where of its 2024 football schedule for a couple of months — and the Mountain West on Thursday provided the Bulldogs with the when, or at least the order those games will be played with dates and kickoff times still to be determined through the conference’s television partners.

The Bulldogs, a team with legitimate title aspirations, would appear to have a chance to get off to a fast start, have two well-timed bye weeks and only one potential poor weather game to contend with late in the season.

They do not play three road games in four weeks as they did in 2022 and 2018 and several other times since joining the Mountain West. And, with the byes built into the schedule, the longest stretch of consecutive game weeks is five. The Bulldogs played seven in a row last season, nine in a row in 2022.

Fresno State opens at defending national champion Michigan on Aug. 31, but then gets FCS Sacramento State and New Mexico State at home on back-to-back weeks on Sept. 7 and Sept. 14.

The Bulldogs then open conference play at New Mexico on Sept. 21. The Lobos are coming off a 4-8 season and will be in Game 4 under coach Bronco Mendenhall, who is taking on a massive rebuild: New Mexico has not had a winning season since 2016 and has not won more than four games in a season since.

The Bulldogs play at UNLV on Sept. 28, but Fresno State is 3-1 in the second of back-to-back conference road games under coach Jeff Tedford, the loss coming in 2018 against Boise State, which was ranked No. 23.

Fresno State then has the first of two bye weeks and returns Oct. 12 against Washington State as part of the conference’s scheduling alliance with the Pac-12. Mountain West teams this season will play seven conference games and one against the Cougars or Oregon State, the two teams remaining in the Pac-12 after it was decimated by conference expansion with teams headed to the Big Ten (UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington), Big 12 (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah) and Atlantic Coast Conference (Cal and Stanford).

The games against Washington State and Oregon State will not count in the conference standings, and the Pac-12 schools are not eligible to win a Mountain West title.

The Bulldogs then play at Nevada, San Jose State and Hawaii at home before ending a run of five games in five weeks at Air Force on Nov. 9. Following a second bye week, they end the regular season with a home game against Colorado State on Nov. 23 and play at UCLA on Nov. 30.

The game at UCLA was moved from September to the end of the regular season to gain a future home game with the Bruins and also schedule a home-and-home series with Stanford.

The Mountain West championship game will be played Dec. 7, pitting the teams with the highest conference winning percentages.

Fresno State does get only three conference home games while playing four on the road, with seven counting in the league standings.

The three Mountain West teams that will play in the San Joaquin Valley are a combined 13-43 on the road over the past three seasons: Colorado State is 4-14, Hawaii 3-16 and San Jose State 6-13.

The four conference teams that get Fresno State on their home fields are a combined 37-36 during that same span: Air Force is 14-4, Nevada 7-11, New Mexico 6-12 and UNLV 10-9.

Fresno State 2024 football schedule

Aug. 31: at Michigan

Sept. 7: Sacramento State

Sept. 14: New Mexico State

Sept. 21: at New Mexico

Sept. 28: at UNLV

Oct. 5: bye week

Oct. 12: Washington State

Oct. 19: at Nevada

Oct. 26: San Jose State

Nov. 2: Hawaii

Nov. 9: at Air Force

Nov. 16: bye week

Nov. 23: Colorado State

Nov. 30: at UCLA