The board of directors from the Mountain West Conference and leaders from its dozen affiliated athletic programs descended upon the desert last week for an annual summit in Phoenix to deliberate issues facing the league.

It’s no coincidence the timing corresponded near the start of college football bowl season.

“We had a very robust discussion about future direction in terms of our bowl lineup,” said Bret Gilliland, the conference’s deputy commissioner,

An analysis of the Mountain West’s postseason football status in 2017 reveals, at best, a mixed bag.

The league qualified six teams and each secured bowl bids. That’s no small feat considering its Group of 5 peers at the C-USA and MAC had members miss the cut despite each totaling six victories (UTSA, Western Michigan and Buffalo) because more teams qualified for bowls than spots were available.

“At the end of the day,” Gilliland said, “this is about opportunities for our student-athletes to have that postseason experience.”

“I’m proud of our conference,” said CSU athletic director Joe Parker.

However, the Mountain West won’t collectively move the needle on a national scale with its matchups. Boise State retains its place as conference royalty Saturday against Oregon in the Las Vegas Bowl as the lone Power 5 opponent on the Mountain West’s postseason schedule. Meanwhile, the American Athletic Conference will play four combined major college football opponents this bowl season.

That’s no reason to panic when it comes to the Mountain West’s standing among its lower-division peers, but it provides cause for a deeper look into how the conference plans to better position itself moving forward.

Phase one of the solution is simple: Win more games. A better resume means a higher pecking order in the selection process. But as the conference looks to 2018 and beyond, it faces several other factors in determining its postseason strategy.

“I think you’re always looking for opportunities to advance,” Gilliland said.

Geography problem

The Mountain West is in the fourth year of a six-year agreement with ESPN Events as an automatic qualifier for four of the league’s five guaranteed bowl contracts — the Hawaii Bowl, the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, the New Mexico Bowl and the Las Vegas Bowl — with each game played at the home stadium of a Mountain West school. In April, the conference partnered with CBS Sports Network to broadcast the Tucson-based Arizona Bowl, now only in its third year of operation.

Should a school like CSU hope to expand its brand to a new bowl location moving forward, it will pay the price in travel. Among the 41 bowl games this year, including the national championship, a combined 25 will be played outside the western United States: Florida (8), Louisiana (3), Georgia (3), Alabama (3), Tennessee (2), Maryland, Michigan, New York and North Carolina — in addition to games in the Bahamas and Hawaii.

With geography used as a major consideration for MW bowl affiliations, the low number of nearby options limits potential expansion. The most feasible new locations are in Texas (8), Arizona (3) and California (3) — and the MW is already aligned as a secondary option for the Cactus Bowl (Arizona), Foster Farms Bowl (San Francisco) and competes against the C-USA, the MAC and BYU for a slot in the newly created Frisco Bowl (Texas).

“If we had a bunch of bowl games that were played east of the Mississippi (River), I think we’d be under fire and criticism about how difficult it is for our fan base to get to those locales,” Parker said. “You just kind of have to go with what’s available.”

The proximity allows for fans of Mountain West bowl teams to more easily travel to the game site, just like those who made the relatively short drive or flight from the Front Range to Albuquerque this week for the New Mexico Bowl.

“We’re certainly hopeful that the Colorado State faithful make the same trip they’ve made in years past,” said Clint Overby, vice president of ESPN Events, “which has always been a very healthy crowd.”

Better opponents

Outside of Boise State’s matchup with Oregon, the Mountain West’s remaining opponents don’t prompt much national buzz: San Diego State vs. Army in the Armed Forces Bowl, Wyoming vs. Central Michigan in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, Utah State vs. New Mexico State in the Arizona Bowl, Fresno State vs. Houston in the Hawaii Bowl and CSU vs. Marshall in the New Mexico Bowl on Saturday.

“Not every game is going to be the national championship,” Overby said. “You start looking at what the celebratory aspect is of the game itself and who you’re trying to match against, and you want the game to scale to the matchup.”

But here’s the question Gilliland and other athletic leaders in the Mountain West are tackling in response: What other opportunities exist to bring Power 5 programs to its own doorstep?

ESPN Events declined to release the financial agreements associated with its bowl contracts, but a Power 5 team would likely require a monetary incentive to make the trip. Major college programs also prioritize proximity in bowl assignments, and the wealth of games played near the East Coast gives conferences like the AAC a distinct advantage. Its respective members square-off with Texas Tech, Iowa State, Auburn and Virginia this bowl season.

The New Mexico Bowl held a two-year tie-in with the Pac-12 in 2012 and 2013. In 2013, Oregon State played Boise State in the Hawaii Bowl.

“There are just more available options in the American to dive into,” Overby said. “But at the same time, I give the Mountain West a lot of credit in having a good diverse blend to their matchups, so it’s not just the same matchups year in and year out.”

Evolving platforms

ESPN Events and the Mountain West are in preliminary discussions as to how it will restructure its existing agreement when the term is complete after 2019, but there’s no doubting the media landscape will evolve greatly before the deadline.

Just this week, ESPN acquired Fox Sports’ 22 regional sports networks as part of a $52.4 billion deal between Fox and Disney, the majority owner of ESPN. Pair that growth with the increase of game distribution through streaming services and social media, and it’s anyone’s guess as to how it will impact bowl game agreements.

The inaugural Arizona Bowl in 2015 between CSU and Nevada was primarily distributed as an Internet broadcast before various local markets across the country picked up the game.

“How that ecosystem evolves will undoubtedly affect the bowl space,” Gilliland said. “ESPN Events owns and operates 13 bowls, but also has the media rights to the vast majority of the remainder. It will be interesting to see how they decide to position that.”

Gilliland also serves on the NCAA Division-I oversight committee that is developing a plan for the next cycle of bowl allotments. He said it will compile the four-year averages of total bowl eligible institutions per each conference, and use that number to help determine how many primary bowl agreements each conference will receive moving forward.

For the Mountain West to reach its objective for better positioning for the postseason its teams need to win more games. The more bowl eligible teams it fields now, the more it can guarantee moving forward, and the better reputation will attract better competition.