Inside The 10th Anniversary Commercials

• Rams running back Cecil Sapp runs rampant vs. top-25 Louisville in the 2000 Liberty Bowl.
  
  
• Players hoisting the 2000 Liberty Bowl trophy following the Rams’ 22-17 win over the Cardinals in a matchup of Champion vs. Champion with Conference USA.

• San Diego State running back Jonas Lewis breaks off a 69-yard touchdown run in the Aztecs’ 41-13 road victory over the Big XII’s Kansas Jayhawks in 1999.
  
  
• Wild celebration following the San Diego State’s 27-24 victory over Wyoming in 2007, in which the Aztecs overcame a 21-point deficit.
  

• Defensive lineman Jamison Newby sacks Oklahoma quarterback Rhett Bomar, forcing a fumble, as the Horned Frogs shocked the nation with a season-opening 17-10 road win over the fifth-ranked Sooners in 2005. The win registers as one of the biggest in MWC history.
  

• UNLV linebacker Reggie Butler takes down Wisconsin quarterback Jim Sorgi for one of the Rebels’ nine sacks in their stunning 23-5 road win at the No. 14 Badgers in 2003.
  

• The Utes’ take the field at the 2004 Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Ariz., becoming the first team from a nonautomatic-qualifying conference to earn a BCS bowl bid.
  
  
• Utah players hoist the Fiesta Bowl trophy after their 35-7 victory over the Big East champion Pittsburgh Panthers.

• BYU quarterback John Beck eludes pressure and throws a strike to tight end Johnny Harline for an 11-yard touchdown pass as time expired for an incredible 33-31 win at rival Utah in 2006, marking one of the most memorable plays in MWC history.
  

• Air Force linebacker John Rybold returns a fumble 19 yards for the Falcons’ first touchdown in a 41-24 road win at Notre Dame in 2006, marking the Irish’s worst defeat to a service academy since 1963.
  

• Wyoming quarterback Corey Bramlet drills a 12-yard touchdown pass to John Wadkowski with 57 seconds left in the 2004 Las Vegas Bowl, giving the Cowboys a 24-21 win over UCLA.Coach Joe Glenn celebrating on the sidelines.
  

• Quarterback Donovan Porterie hits wideout Travis Brown for a 39-yard touchdown en route 23-0 shutout of WAC rival Nevada, giving the Lobos their first post-season victory since 1961.

back to top

• Air Force beats San Diego State 61-49 on March 1, 2004 to clinch the Mountain West Conference regular-season championship – its first-ever men’s basketball title -- and ultimately earns a bid to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 42 years, matching up against North Carolina.
  

• Trent Plaistad throws down a dunk in the Cougars’ 78-76 upset of No. 6-ranked Louisville (an eventual Elite Eight participant) on Nov. 23, 2007 in the Las Vegas Invitational. BYU went on to its fifth NCAA Tournament appearance since the MWC’s inception.
  

• Sixth-seeded Colorado State stuns UNLV 62-61 in the 2003 Mountain West Conference tournament championship game to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament – the Rams’ first in 13 years. They drew a first-round matchup vs. No. 3-seeded Duke in a game that wasn’t decided until the final minute.
  

• Danny Granger, one of the best players in Mountain West Conference history, leads the No. 2-seeded Lobos to an 85-71 win over BYU at the 2005 MWC Tournament in Denver. The Lobos won their next two games to win the MWC Championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament where they faced Villanova. Granger was a Third-Team All-American (Basketball Times) and Honorable Mention All-American (Associated Press) selection that season.
  

• The fifth-seeded Aztecs upset UNLV 78-75 in the 2002 MWC Tournament Championship game at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and ultimately face Illinois.
  

• The Horned Frogs stunned No. 14 Air Force February 24, 2007, marking their most significant win since joining the MWC in 2005. TCU was 11-15 at the time, upending the Falcons who were 23-6 at the time a team that ultimately reached the NIT Semifinals.
  

• The No. 7-seeded Rebels beat second-seeded Wisconsin 74-68 in the second round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament to advance to the Sweet 16 where they barely missed a trip to the Elite Eight with a 76-72 loss to Oregon. The win over No. 6-ranked Wisconsin gave UNLV its first 30-win season since the 1990-91 team advanced to Final Four.
  

• Utes’ sophomore center Andrew Bogut is shown finishing off a pair of dunks vs. Air Force and BYU during the 2004-05 season. During that season, Bogut was named Player of the Year by the Associated Press, the National Association of Basketball Coaches, ESPN, Basketball Times, and Sports Illustrated. He also won the John Wooden and James Naismith Awards, given annually to the top player in college basketball. He ultimately became the first-ever No. 1 overall NBA Draft selection in Utah basketball history when the Milwaukee Bucks took him with the top pick in the 2005 NBA Draft.
  

• Wyoming forward Josh Davis emphatically blocks a shot vs. Gonzaga in the No. 11-seeded Cowboys’ 73-66 upset of sixth-seeded/sixth-ranked Gonzaga in the first round of the 2002 NCAA Tournament. Davis scored 11 points and collected 14 rebounds in the game. The Cowboys played third-seeded Arizona tight in the second-round game, only to miss out on a trip to the Sweet 16 in a 58-50 loss.

back to top

• Air Force beats BYU 54-49 on March 1, 2008 to record the Falcons’ first-ever win over BYU in women’s basketball.
  

• One week after All-American Erin Thorn led No. 11-seeded BYU with a 28-point performance to propel the Cougars to a 90-52 upset victory over No. 6-seed Florida in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, BYU stunned No. 3-seed Iowa State 75-69 on the Cyclones’ home floor to advance to the Sweet 16. The Cougars hung tough vs. perennial powerhouse Tennessee the following week, missing out on a chance at the Elite Eight with a 68-57 loss.
  

• No. 8-seeded Colorado State whips Maryland 83-69 in the first round of the 2001 NCAA Tournament a week after the Rams earned an automatic bid by winning the Mountain West Conference Tournament. With the win over Maryland, the Rams advanced to face perennial powerhouse UCONN in the second round.
  

• No. 11-seeded New Mexico beats up on No. 6-seeded Florida in the first round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament, collecting an 83-59 win and advancing to play No. 3-seeded Baylor in the second round.
  

• Head coach Beth Burns’ turnaround of the San Diego State women’s basketball program was never more evident than in this 2008 Mountain West Conference Tournament semifinal game, in which the sixth-seeded Aztecs upset second-seeded TCU 69-67. In the game, Quenese Davis scored off her own inbounds pass with 18 seconds remaining to steal the victory and earn a trip to the MWC Championship game.
  

• No. 11-seeded TCU defeats No. 6-seeded Texas A&M 69-65 in the first round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament in a game that marked the first matchups of the two teams since the breakup of the Southwest Conference in 1996. It also snapped the Horned Frogs’ 13-game losing streak to the Aggies. TCU advanced to play Rutgers in the second round.
  

• UNLV upsets No. 18 Colorado State 72-58 during the 2002 MWC tournament, moving the Lady Rebels into their first-ever MWC title game.
  

• No. 5 seed Utah beats No. 8 seed Boston College in the Sweet 16 of the 2006 NCAA Tournament, earning a matchup vs. eventual national champion Maryland in the Elite Eight. Utah had beaten No. 12-seeded Middle Tennessee and No. 4-seeded Arizona State in the first two rounds. The Utes’ march to the Elite Eight marks the deepest NCAA tournament run – men or women – in MWC basketball history.
  

• Wyoming whips Wisconsin 72-56 in the Women’s NIT Championship game, giving the Cowgirls their first WNIT title. The game was played in Wyoming’s Arena-Auditorium, attracting a crowd of 15,462, which was the largest crowd for a women’s basketball game in school history and the second-largest crowd in WNIT history.

back to top

• Air Force volleyball player Delavane Diaz, who was selected as a Rhodes Scholar and MWC student-athlete of the year in 2004.
  

• Wyoming forward Josh Davis makes an emphatic block against No. 6-seeded/No. 6-ranked Gonzaga in the Cowboys’ 73-66 first-round victory in the 2002 NCAA Tournament.
  

• New Mexico linebacker Brian Urlacher, one of the most heralded players in MWC history, who ultimately was named the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2000 and NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2005, becoming only the fifth player in NFL history to win both awards.
  

• Volleyball player Delavane Diaz, who was selected as a Rhodes Scholar (2003) and MWC student-athlete of the year (2004). Diaz is one of two MWC student athletes ever to have been named a Rhodes Scholar (Wyoming women’s golfer Jessica Mellinger was the first, in 1999.)
  
  
• Dana Pounds, a back-to-back NCAA national champion in the javelin in 2005-06.
  

• The 2007-08 women’s volleyball team, which advanced to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament, beating Ole Miss, No. 6 Washington, and Middle Tennessee before falling to eventual national champ Penn State.
  
  
• The Cougars’ football team blocking a last-second field goal vs. UCLA in the 2007 Las Vegas Bowl to preserve a 17-16 victory and a final record of 11-2.
  

• The CSU defense sacks University of Colorado quarterback Craig Ochs during the Rams’ 19-14 win over the sixth-ranked Buffaloes in 2002, just a week after upending ACC foe Virginia on the road.
  
  
• Former CSU president Dr. Albert Yates, who was instrumental in the formation of the Mountain West Conference. Also shown in the clip is former CSU head coach Sonny Lubick, who guided the Rams to three of the MWC’s first four football titles.
  

• Brian Urlacher is inducted into the University of New Mexico Wall of Fame, and honored by the school at halftime of an Oct. 5, 2006 game vs. Utah. Urlacher recorded the Lobos’ school record for most tackles in a season, before achieving the same feat with the Chicago Bears – the team that drafted him with the ninth pick overall in the 2000 NFL Draft.
  
  
• Danny Granger, one of the best players in Mountain West Conference history, leads the No. 2-seeded Lobos to an 85-71 win over BYU at the 2005 MWC Tournament in Denver. The Lobos won their next two games to win the MWC Championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament where they faced Villanova. Granger was a Third-Team All-American (Basketball Times) and Honorable Mention All-American (Associated Press) selection that season.
  

• The Aztecs boast a pair of legendary coaches within their athletic department, including baseball coach Tony Gwynn and men’s basketball coach Steve Fisher. Gwynn, one of the greatest hitters in the history of baseball, was inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007, just a few years after taking over as skipper of the Aztecs baseball program. An alumnus of San Diego State, Gwynn’s presence was felt almost immediately, as he earned MWC Coach of the Year honors in his second season (2004). Fisher, who has a national championship on his resume, has coached the Aztecs to more than 140 victories during his tenure.
  
  
• San Diego State softball had a banner year in 2007-08 with a magical run into the NCAA Regional that narrowly ended in an 11-inning thriller to No. 12-ranked Fresno State. The Aztecs were ranked 19th and finished with a record of 44-17 – the best finish in school history. Shown in the clip is freshman pitcher Brook Petty who went 6-1 and was part of a staff with an average ERA of 1.27, including All-American pitcher Christina Ross’ 1.00 mark (and 30-14 record).
  

• In its first competition as a member of the Mountain West Conference, the TCU Horned Frogs immediately made their presence felt as they went into Oklahoma Memorial Stadium and shocked the fifth-ranked Sooners 17-10 in the 2005 season opener. In the clip, defensive lineman Jamison Newby sacks Oklahoma quarterback Rhett Bomar forcing a fumble that was recovered by David Hawthorne at the Sooner 17-yard line with 13:04 to play.
  
  
• TCU women’s basketball has earned bids to seven straight NCAA Tournaments. In the clip, senior forward Vanessa Clementino lays in a basket as the No. 11-seeded Horned Frogs defeat No. 6-seeded Texas A&M 69-65 in the first round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament in a game that marked the first matchups of the two teams since the breakup of the Southwest Conference in 1996. It also snapped the Horned Frogs’ 13-game losing streak to the Aggies.
  

• In 2004, UNLV men’s golfer Ryan Moore wins the individual NCAA National Championship, highlighting a year in which he captured multiple titles, including the U.S. Amateur, the Western Amateur, and the U.S. Amateur Public Links (which he also won in 2002).
  
  
• Under head coach Lon Kruger, the No. 7-seeded Rebels beat second-seeded Wisconsin 74-68 in the second round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament to advance to the Sweet 16 where they barely missed a trip to the Elite Eight with a 76-72 loss to Oregon. The win over No. 6-ranked Wisconsin gave UNLV its first 30-win season since the 1990-91 team advanced to Final Four.
  

• Alex Smith fires a touchdown pass to John Madsen in the Utes’ historic 35-7 thrashing of Big East champion Pittsburgh in the 2004 Fiesta Bowl. Utah became the first team from a nonautomatic-qualifying conference to earn a bid to a BCS Bowl game. The win capped a 12-0 season and garnered No. 4 final ranking. Smith, a Heisman Trophy finalist that season, was also became the Utes’ first-ever National Player Of The Year in football (by the Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News) and was also a first-team All-American. The San Francisco 49ers selected Smith with the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft. Ironically, just two months later, the Milwaukee Bucks selected Utah sophomore center Andrew Bogut with the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft, making Utah the only school ever to have a student athlete taken with the first pick in the NFL and NBA Drafts in the same year.
  

• The No. 11-seed Wyoming men’s basketball secures a 73-66 victory over sixth-seeded/sixth-ranked Gonzaga in the first round of the 2002 NCAA Tournament in Albuquerque, NM.
  
  
• Dominique Sisk hoists the championship trophy after Wyoming’s 72-56 win over Wisconsin in the Women’s NIT Championship game, giving the Cowgirls their first WNIT title. The game was played in Wyoming’s Arena-Auditorium, attracting a crowd of 15,462, which was the largest crowd for a women’s basketball game in school history and the second-largest crowd in WNIT history. Wyoming finished the season with a 27-9 overall record.

back to top

• The clip shows the ground-breaking ceremony for the Falcon Athletic Center and finished product, completed in 2003.
  

• Air Force has also renovated its Cadet Field House and is currently working on the Cadet Gymnasium.

• The clip shows the multipurpose indoor practice facility and Student Athlete Building.
  
  
• BYU also opened the Miller Park baseball and softball complex in 2001, has renovated facilities such as LaVell Edwards Stadium, and is currently renovating the soccer Stadium at South Field.
  

• The clip shows the planned indoor practice facility and planned Anderson Academic Center, with a planned completion date of Fall 2009.
  
  
• CSU has also made major renovations to Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium (including expansion, suites, new playing surface), built a new practice field, and renovated Moby Arena and the Joey Porter Locker Room.
  

• The clip shows the indoor practice facility, which opened in 2007 and can be used by all sports programs.
  
  
• New Mexico also built the Rudy Davalos Basketball Center (practice facility, coaches offices, video editing room, etc) in 2006. It has expanded University Stadium and renovated the softball, track/field, and soccer complexes. University Stadium and The Pit are scheduled for major renovations in the next couple of years.
  

• The clip shows the Aztec Aquaplex (completed in 2007) and Aztec Athletic Center (completed in 2001), as well as the renovated Tony Gwynn Baseball Stadium (completed in 2005).
  
  
• CSU has also renovated Hughes Stadium, Moby Arena, the Joey Porter Locker Room, and has built a new football practice field.
  

• The clip shows the Sam Baugh Indoor Practice Facility, which opened in 2007.
  
  
• TCU recently announced plans for a new academic center and renovations to Amon G. Carter football stadium. The athletic department has also erected new video scoreboards at seven home venues.
  

• The clip shows renovated Sam Boyd Stadium (completed in 1999), Cox Pavilion (which opened in 2001 and serves a the home for women’s basketball and volleyball), and the renovated Thomas & Mack Center.
  
  
• UNLV has also built Eller Media Stadium at Jim Rogers Field (softball complex) in 2002 and renovated the Fertitta Tennis Complex in 2008.
  

• The clip shows the Spence-Eccles Field House, which opened in 2004. It also shows Ute Soccer Field, which is part of the athletics corridor on the Utah campus, which has undergone a phased renovation since 2002. State-of-the-art Rice-Eccles Stadium, which received major renovations in preparation for the 2002 Winter Olympics, is also shown.
  
  
• Utah also opened an Athletics Academic Center in 2001, renovated football and basketball locker rooms. The Utah Olympic Oval (for track/field) and gymnastics training center opened with the formation of the MWC. Utah also has plans for a soccer and softball complex renovations.
  

• The clip shows the indoor practice facility, which opened in 2007, and the Rochelle Athletics Center, which opened in 2001.
  
  
• Wyoming has also renovated its track and field facility and made improvements at War Memorial Stadium, such as new playing surface, replacing the upper west stands, and installing new video board/sound system (also done at Arena-Auditorium), and has additional plans for major renovations (club seating, suites, and more).

back to top