Well it is official: Boise State is now one of the big boys. The days of the Broncos being America's underdog champion are over. Put all of the David versus Goliath imagery away when regarding the Boise football program as they are no longer packing just a sling.
The Broncos play at such a high level that any notion that they remain underdogs to virtually any other program is absurd. Boise will no longer be able to sneak up on anyone but are now expected to compete for a BCS berth on an annual basis and, when the stars are aligned properly, even get itself into the BCS title game. There is a legitimate chance for that to happen this year.
But the end of Boise as a feel-good story became official for another reason. They are now acting like the big boys when it comes to the treatment of programs they deem beneath them. With the school's departure from the WAC conference to enter the Mountain West for the 2011 season, the rivalry with in-state program and fellow WAC member Idaho is no longer guaranteed. The rivalry has become extremely one-sided in recent years with Idaho having lost the last 11 in the series--played the past nine years for The Governor's Cup--by at least 15 points with Boise winning the past six games by a whopping 38-ppg average. Boise coach Chris Petersen came out to say that the Broncos no longer see a reason to travel to Moscow to play their rivals as the Idaho fans have been a bit rough. He did not mention that the Vandals have improved on the field, winning eight games last year including the Humanitarian Bowl. Boise State school president Bob Kustra then took the issue onto the national stage by agreeing with Peterson about the lack of interest on part of the Broncos to travel to Moscow because the environment at Idaho was "nasty" and "inebriated." Suffice it to say that the liquor stores of Moscow should do brisk business on November 12th of this year when Boise comes to visit for what may be the final time.
The recent turmoil surrounding Boise State football is just part of doing business at a program that rose from little known nationally as recently as 2000 to national title contender in 2010. With such a meteoric rise, some other people were always going to have their feelings hurt. And the original story of little Boise taking on the bigger guys was never quite as accurate as portrayed. Sure they were not fielding units packed with four and five star recruits, but many of their better athletes were available to them because of poor grades not because they lacked BCS conference talent. Others were attracted to the promise of playing time or the system, while others were coached up by an always solid group of coaches. And now, of course, Boise is able to recruit better thanks to the success they have earned on the field. But the notion that there was some impossibly large chasm between the talent on the Boise roster and the talent on the rosters of the bigger programs they faced was always exaggerated. Plus Boise may not have been spending as much on football as Oklahoma, but they have poured a great deal of capital into facilities and salaries, etc. The rise of Boise football--which merits a whole book to properly dissect it--was the product of vision, money, football smarts and a lot of hard work. It was not a Statue-of-Liberty-play type of fluke. But now how they handle themselves on-and-off the field will be more important under greater media scrutiny.
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