The new blue field at Bronco Stadium will be manufactured by FieldTurf.
McAlvain Construction submitted the winning proposal for the field replacement, scheduled to begin in late June and be completed by early August, said Barry Miller, the project manager with the state's Division of Public Works. The contract is still being finalized.
McAlvain chose FieldTurf - the biggest name in the turf industry - to supply the surface. The project will cost $817,000.
McAlvain and FieldTurf also worked together on the field for the Caven-Williams Sports Complex. FieldTurf uses a sand-and-rubber infill system and has produced fields for Washington State, Washington, Oregon, Oregon State and the Seattle Seahawks in the Northwest.
The McAlvain proposal was $179,000 cheaper than any of the other three proposals, according to DPW. Other proposals came from Layton Construction (with Sprinturf), Layton (with RealGrass) and Henderson Construction (with AstroTurf).
Boise State installed an AstroPlay field in 2002, the Broncos' first rubber-infill field. The field didn't hold up well.
STUECKLE SKY CLUB IS NEARLY ENCLOSED
The Stueckle Sky Club, the addition to Bronco Stadium, will be fully enclosed in about a month. It remains on schedule and on budget, senior associate athletic director Curt Apsey said.
"The outside looks great," Apsey said, "but you should see the inside - it's amazing."
BSU 'GETTING CLOSE' ON CONTRACT WITH GRAHAM
The status of men's basketball coach Greg Graham's contract continues to linger. Graham and athletic director Gene Bleymaier said the sides are working on it and hope to have a resolution soon.
Graham, the WAC coach of the year in 2008 after guiding the Broncos to a share of the regular-season title and the tournament crown, is entering the final year of his five-year deal.
"I've been traveling and he's been traveling. We're making progress," Bleymaier said. "We haven't finalized anything yet. ... Everything's fine and when we have something to report we will."
A new contract would have to be approved by the State Board of Education.
FUTURE OF H-BOWL
The Humanitarian Bowl is searching for a replacement to the Atlantic Coast Conference after the league announced last week that 2008 will be its final year in the Boise-based game.
Bleymaier said securing a low-level team from a BCS conference might not be best for the game.
"Now that the bowl is established and our program has grown, I don't think it's as important as it was five or six years ago," Bleymaier said. "When you get a 6-6 team out here, to me, I'd rather play a team with a better record."
An ACC team has played in the bowl, which will host its 12th game in December, the last five years and six times since 2001.
The ACC has sent two 6-6 teams to Boise during that time. It has also sent two teams that were 8-3 and ranked in the top 20.
The bowl could opt for an agreement with a military academy, such as Navy and Army, or try to secure the champion of a non-BCS conference for a mid-major showdown.
"There is some discussion about trying to break the mold a little bit and re-look at some of these bowl games," said Bleymaier, who serves on the bowl's board of directors.
He declined to talk more specifically about how the bowl was discussing filling the spot vacated by the ACC.
This year's game on Dec. 30 at Bronco Stadium is scheduled to have an ACC team and a WAC participant.
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