Boise State shines in the national spotlight. Will it lead to more success? | Opinion
It’s good to live in Boise right now.
For starters, the Boise State football team Friday night won the Mountain West championship with a 21-7 victory over UNLV.
The game was televised nationally on Fox and had its Big Noon Kickoff game crew in the stadium, with the likes of Matt Leinart, Brady Quinn and Urban Meyer in town.
Post Malone made an appearance at the game and then hit the downtown bars afterwards. Even Gov. Brad Little got in the game, posting on Facebook a photo of himself with the tattoo-covered singer, rapper and songwriter — an odd couple if you’ve ever seen one.
During the broadcast, game announcers Jason Benetti and Brock Huard did nothing but gush about the city of Boise.
The numbers aren’t in yet, but based on past years, a couple of million people likely were tuning in to watch.
And in case you’re living under a rock, Boise State superstar running back Ashton Jeanty was just named a finalist for the Heisman Trophy on Monday. By the end of Friday night’s game, in which Jeanty ran for 209 yards and one spectacular 75-yard touchdown, some of the analysts put him at the top of the list.
Even though he has a chance to break college football’s single-season rushing record, Jeanty remains mostly humble and soft-spoken.
In explaining why he stayed at Boise State this year instead of transferring to another school for more Name, Image and Likeness money, Jeanty told former Boise State football coach Chris Petersen in an interview, “Money is great, money is cool. But a legacy, an impact, that lasts forever.”
What a fine representative he is for the program and for Boise.
Thanks to Jeanty, Boise State secured the No. 3 seed in the College Football Playoff and a bye in the first round, putting it in elite company of other storied programs.
Boise State has had its fair share of players make the NFL, and it seems a certainty that we’ll be watching Jeanty on Sundays. But past Boise State stars, such as Kellen Moore, Leighton Vander Esch, Khalil Shakir and Demarcus Lawrence, never got the chance to compete for a national championship at the college level like this.
Boise State’s current rise in fortune coincides with the new landscape of college football, with geographically stupid mega-conferences, unbalanced schedules and what amounts to free agency via transfers.
The playoffs were expanded to 12 teams, allowing a program like Boise State’s opportunities that weren’t there before. The Mountain West championship game had repercussions in how everything would shake out, which is why Friday’s game mattered nationally — an unheard-of thought just a year ago.
All of it, along with Jeanty’s brilliance, is why Boise State is back in the national spotlight.
That spotlight has exposed a lot of new people to the university and consequently to the city.
And we’ve come out looking pretty good.
Not that Boise needs any more positive publicity (we’re constantly atop various rankings for places to live, places to retire, do business, raise a family, etc.), but Boise State and the city are shining on the national stage.
Can Boise State capitalize on that exposure and build on that success? Like it or not, sports success makes a difference for a university, putting a school and its host city on the map. Just ask first-year head coach Spencer Danielson, whose first exposure to the Broncos came via their first Fiesta Bowl.
I won’t deny that part of my decision to attend Syracuse University some 30 years ago was based on the strength of the football and basketball teams. I had football season tickets for all four years, and I have fond memories of watching games on those crisp New York fall Saturdays, especially the year we had front-row seats at the 40-yard line, watching the likes of future NFL players Qadry Ismail, Rob Carpenter and Marvin Harrison.
After this magical season and championship weekend, and after yet more national exposure in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Eve, Boise State might find itself welcoming students who had not given the school a thought, and opportunities and growth the university didn’t expect.
Boise State’s success is Boise’s success, and we should welcome it.
This story was originally published December 10, 2024 at 4:00 AM.
