The MWC and WAC schedules were light years ahead of this one. The 1996 schedule was better than this one. Texas A&M, Washington, Utah, New Mexico (Brian Urlacher and Dennis Franchione), and 12-1 Wyoming. 1996 had two good tests at the top and a big win against a highly ranked team that only later proved to be over-rated (Texas A&M). There isn't a team on this schedule to even compare to Washington or Wyoming, both of whom ended the season ranked in the top 20 and beating Texas won't make the same national splash that beating A&M did. In reality, Texas, UCF, and Boise are probably the equivalent of A&M, Utah, and New Mexico from that year. After that both schedules have a bunch of teams ranked 80's or worse.

The 1996 team would have waltzed through this schedule and proven nothing. This team could do the same. It's the unfortunate reality of the situation. It's just bad luck to catch Virginia and Cal at such low points in the same season.