The computers got it right. San Diego State will host Air Force on Saturday in the Sports Authority Mountain West Championship game.

The league made the announcement on Sunday morning after the Aztecs finished the regular season with a 9-3 overall record and an 8-0 mark in conference. SDSU capped an eight-game unbeaten streak with a 31-14 win over Nevada on Saturday. Air Force was beaten 47-35 by New Mexico to finish at 8-4 overall and 6-2 in league.

The game will be played at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and televised on ESPN2.

San Diego State and Air Force didn’t play each other this season, and though the Falcons lead the overall series 19-14, the Aztecs have won five straight over them. SDSU is 8-7 at home in the series.


There was some concern on SDSU’s part that it might finish behind the Falcons in the final composite of four computer polls – the determining factor in who was to host the championship game.

Aztecs coach Rocky Long said after Saturday’s win, “I believe we deserve to host ... I’m basing that on we’re 8-0 in conference and they’re 6-2. The computer can do whatever it wants with that. But if the computer goes the other way, the computer is wrong.”

In the end it wasn’t close. SDSU beat Air Force by 15 places in the composite, finishing at 47.3 to the Falcons’ 62.3. The Mountain West had to use only three of the four rankings to arrive at the composite, because the Anderson & Hester ranking had not been released as of Sunday morning.

Here’s how they ended up:


Colley Matrix: SDSU 47, AFA 57.

Wolfe Matrix: SDSU 57, AFA 67

Billingsley: SDSU 38, AFA 63.

This will be the third playing of the Mountain West Championship game and San Diego State’s first appearance. Fresno State captured the title in 2013 and Boise State won in 2014.


SDSU provided this ticket information:

Tickets went on sale at 10 a.m. today and start at $12 and are available here.

SDSU students may pick up their free ticket with a current San Diego State student ID starting Monday at 10 a.m. PT only at the Viejas Arena Box Office. SDSU students may also purchase up to two guest tickets in the student section.

A special four-pack will also be available through GoAztecs.com. The four-pack includes four tickets in the Plaza End Zone section, four hot dogs, four bags of chips and four small sodas for $80. You will have to use the promocode of winner to earn that special deal. Those will be available here.