Ranking college teams early in the season is just a crapshoot. When teams are winning because of guys that have never played college ball or just played one season off the bench you have to be crazy to think rankings mean anything.
Nevada was easily the consensus choice to win the WAC this year, they almost won it last year but had to play on the home floor of the top team in the league and came up a little short in the final. They got all the key pieces back. The WAC is a solid second tier conference, teams like Fresno, Tulsa, and Hawaii all do quite well out of conference so it shouldn't surprise anyone this team can stay with even the best teams on the road.