Mountain West, Missouri Valley renew basketball challenge; Broncos will host Bradley

The Mountain West and Missouri Valley conferences have revived their Challenge Series, but Boise State’s men’s basketball team isn’t quite getting the marquee opponent it got in the last installment.

Boise State will host Bradley on Dec. 20, the Mountain West announced Tuesday. The Braves finished 9-24 overall last season, 3-15 in Missouri Valley games. The Broncos went 25-9 overall, 14-4 in Mountain West games, claiming the co-regular season championship.

The series existed from 2009-10 to 2012-13, and in the final edition, Boise State defeated then-No. 11 Creighton in Omaha, Neb., on Nov. 28, 2012. In that case, the scheduling worked the other way — Creighton was coming off a top-20 season with a 29-6 overall record and a 14-4 MVC mark and the Broncos had gone 13-17 overall, 3-11 in Mountain West play the prior season. The Bluejays are no longer MVC members.

It is the seventh known nonconference game for the Broncos’ 2015-16 schedule. They will play three games in the Wooden Legacy on Nov. 26, 27 and 29 in California (the field also includes Michigan State, Arizona, Providence, UC Irvine, Boston College, Santa Clara and Evansville).

The Broncos also will play at Montana and at Arizona. The Broncos will host Loyola Marymount, in addition to Bradley.

This story was originally published April 3, 2015 at 11:53 AM with the headline "Mountain West, Missouri Valley renew basketball challenge; Broncos will host Bradley."