With its four most prominent football programs leaving for a reconstituted Pac-12 Conference, the Mountain West has reached an existential crisis. In fact, it’s unknown whether its holdovers will stay or bolt.

Should the Mountain West want to remain intact, it will need to target replacements for Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State and Fresno State. But which additions make the most sense? Do any current FBS programs fit geographically? Can the Mountain West persuade prominent FCS programs to also take a leap upward?

As speculation swirls about other departures, here’s a look at the top candidates for the Mountain West should it stay together as a conference.

North Dakota State has won nine FCS championships since 2011 and boasts a 129-17 record over the past 10 seasons. The Bison regularly traveled to FBS power conference teams over the past decade-plus and won games, including against defending Big 12 champion Kansas State and Big Ten runner-up Iowa. North Dakota State’s yearly attendance averages have been between 15,000 and 20,000 per game, and Fargo has hosted ESPN’s “College GameDay” twice. Inviting the Bison instantly would provide the Mountain West with credibility, stability and a College…

Filling out the women’s NCAA Tournament bracket is fun, sure. But with betting lines included, the stakes are raised and it’s a whole other ballgame — even if you’re sure of the winner, you can still pick against the spread. Last year, I had a hard time finding lines for the women’s tournament. This year, the information was much more available. I took all info into account — stats, schedules, personnel matchups, strengths and weaknesses — as I began the arduous task of analyzing each pick and selecting game winners. (And I reminded myself, more than once, not to overthink it.)

If you’re unfamiliar with betting numbers, the general idea is you subtract whatever the number is from the score, and that should make it even. So “South Florida -1.5” means the Hurricanes should win by two against Marquette. The .5 allows you to pick a side, so there are no ties. In short, the team with the “-” number next to it is giving the other team that much of a lead in this figurative world. If “PK” is listed, it means the teams are rated even strength and it’s a straight win or loss pick.

My picks for the first round are based against the spread, not straight-up winners. Check back, as I’ll have subsequent picks for every round of the tournament.

Friday

No. 9…

There is a moment after every player moves to the coaching chair when they begin to realize the error of their ways. Something that they used to give a coach grief about now draws their ire when the tables are turned.

For Rachel Banham, it was pick-and-roll reads. The Minnesota Lynx guard is pretty confident in her ability to make the right play out of ball screens (she’s averaged 0.905 points per possession as a pick-and-roll handler over the past three seasons, what Synergy would classify as “very good”), but it’s something Banham and Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve have gone back and forth about during her three seasons on the team. Now a member of the University of Minnesota coaching staff, Banham can see her WNBA coach’s point while watching the young Gophers guards.

“Now watching the guards and seeing the way they do it, I’m like, oh, that’s so annoying. I get it,” Banham says. “But before, I was like, whatever, I’m doing it right. But now when I see it, I’m like, oh my gosh, yeah, that is like that. I see it now.”

If you know Banham, you can hear the sing-song way she says “I’m doing it riiiight” in your head. That works as a player, not so much as a coach, and she’s getting a crash course in the difference during her WNBA offseason. Banham is…