The first Mountain West football schedule for the Nevada football team features four highly anticipated home games and an exciting slate throughout as the conference released its 2012 schedule recently.

After a strong nonconference schedule that includes the season opener at Cal and a home game against BCS foe South Florida, Nevada will play host to Wyoming, San Diego State, Fresno State and Boise State at Mackay Stadium. The Wolf Pack will play road games against Hawai'i, UNLV, Air Force and New Mexico. In all, Nevada will have six games at Mackay Stadium as part of the Wolf Pack's 12-game schedule.

"It is an exciting schedule and I am looking forward to this transition to the new conference and becoming more familiar with the teams in this league," Nevada coach Chris Ault said. "I like the balance of home and away games as you go through the schedule with no long stretches one way or the other. I also like where the bye week falls in the schedule. Overall, it's a good schedule and we're ready to get going."

Kickoff times and television broadcast schedules - including the possibility of some non-Saturday games within the Mountain West slate - will be announced in the spring.

"When you look at the great home schedule in addition to the game at Cal, I believe we have a schedule that our fans will enjoy and appreciate," athletics director Cary Groth said.  "We look forward to our move into the Mountain West Conference and appreciate the work of the conference office staff."

After opening at Cal on Sept. 1, Nevada will play host to South Florida (Sept. 8) and Northwestern State (Sept. 15). Nevada's first Mountain West game will be against Hawai'i in Honolulu on Sept. 22. The Wolf Pack will travel to Texas State for its final non-conference game of the year.

Nevada's first home Mountain West game will be Oct. 6 against Wyoming at Mackay Stadium. The Pack will then travel to Las Vegas to face UNLV in the Battle for the Fremont Cannon on Oct. 13, this time as a conference game. The Wolf Pack will then play host to San Diego State on Oct. 20 and travel to Air Force on Oct. 27.

The Pack's only bye week comes the week of Nov. 3 and gives the Pack a week off before a three-game stretch to wrap up the season. First is a home game against Fresno State on Nov. 10 and Nevada will then travel to Albuquerque, N.M., on Nov. 17 to play New Mexico. The regular season concludes with a showdown against Boise State on Nov. 24

The Mountain West has five bowl tie-ins in place for 2012: Gildan New Mexico Bowl; San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl; MAACO Bowl Las Vegas; Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl; AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl.