Boise State football to return in October; local health order prohibits crowds
The Boise State football team will take the field this fall after all.
The Mountain West announced Thursday night that it will begin the previously postponed football season on Oct. 24. The conference hopes to play eight regular-season games leading to the conference championship game on Dec. 19.
The decision is “subject to approval from state, county and local officials,” according to the conference.
Boise State has been holding 12 hours per week of football activities while waiting for word on a fall season. The Broncos are clear to practice and play games, Central District Health spokesperson Brandon Atkins told the Idaho Statesman on Friday, but likely won’t have fans in the stadium.
“Today’s been an awesome day … a lot of juice,” Boise State coach Bryan Harsin said Friday afternoon in a media call.
The Broncos plan to begin their preseason training camp Saturday with four weeks to prepare for the opener.
“I’m so excited that our coaches and student-athletes are going to get to do this fall what they do best — compete and win,” Boise State President Marlene Tromp said in a written statement. “It’s time to let the Broncos out of the corral.”
All 12 Mountain West football programs tweeted messages Thursday night indicating their intention to return to action, but the San Jose State post included a wrinkle — asking the Santa Clara County government whether it’s OK. Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson said in a conference call Friday morning that all 12 teams are planning to play.
“It might be a little premature, but at this point everybody is making every attempt and effort to get those variances and clearances,” Thompson said.
The Mountain West decision follows similar announcements from the Pac-12, which will begin play two weeks later and play only seven games, and the Big Ten, which also will start the week of Oct. 24. The Mid-American Conference announced Friday it will start its season in November.
The other six FBS conferences already had plans to play. Most of those schools have started, with the SEC set to join the fray this weekend. However, more than 20 games have been canceled or postponed already this season as COVID-19 cases and quarantines of close contacts have depleted rosters.
Big Ten leads the way
The Big Ten’s Sept. 16 decision to play this fall was a turning point for the Mountain West, too, Harsin said.
“That really helped us in the Mountain West work toward making that decision,” Harsin said. “Following that, we had some momentum.”
A key reason the Mountain West, Big Ten and Pac-12 have decided to play now when they postponed the fall season before is because of improved testing technology and access. Thompson released a statement Sept. 16 that tied the conference’s renewed interest in a fall season to testing.
The Mountain West announced Friday morning that it is partnering with Quest Diagnostics to implement rapid-response antigen testing three times per week of all football players, coaches, trainers and others who work on the field. Positive tests of players will be cross-checked with the more accurate PCR test. Thompson said all testing costs would be paid for by the conference using reserve funds and the cost would likely be “well into the millions of dollars.”
“I think it’s something that it didn’t just happen in the last week, or based on anybody else’s decision. But more that we’ve been working on this for months now and trying to figure out a way,” Thompson said. “The biggest key in all this has been our relationship with Quest Diagnostics and getting the three rapid-testing antigen tests for each campus. Without that, we wouldn’t even be here today.”
This testing protocol surpasses NCAA standards but falls short of the enhanced, daily testing that brought the Big Ten and Pac-12 back.
“Our student-athletes have voiced their desire to compete, and it is the (board of directors’) shared opinion that football can be conducted with appropriate mitigation,” said San Jose State President Mary Papazian, chair of the Mountain West board, in a written statement. “We continue to learn more about the virus each day and will continue to monitor the pandemic moving forward. We will be ready to change course if necessary should new information come forth, or we feel an appropriate environment cannot be sustained on our campuses.”
Boise State lost its four nonconference games to the COVID-19 pandemic: Florida State, BYU and Georgia Southern in Boise and Marshall on the road. A typical college football season includes 12 regular-season games.
During Friday’s conference call, Thompson said it is possible Boise State and Air Force will each play seven conference games instead of eight, allowing for at least one nonconference contest. The Broncos may add BYU back to their 2020 schedule, Thompson said. Air Force will be permitted to keep Army (Nov. 7) and Navy (Oct. 3) on its schedule.
BYU doesn’t have a game scheduled for Nov. 7. Retaining the annual Boise State-BYU game would provide a marquee matchup to the Mountain West’s TV partners.
It’s unclear what the Mountain West schedule will look like, but an eight-game slate gives the conference the option of sticking to the original games. Boise State’s original schedule featured home games against UNLV, San Jose State, Colorado State and Utah State, and road games against Hawaii, New Mexico, Air Force and Wyoming. The Mountain West is “frantically, quickly and expeditiously” working to get a complete schedule released in the “very near future,” Thompson said. He added there are several models the conference is evaluating. If a game has to be canceled, there will be no makeup date.
For now, the Mountain West championship game is still structured around divisional play and will be contested at the site of the team with the highest winning percentage, but Thompson said that format could be changed to pit the teams with the top two winning percentages in the conference.
What do local health policies say?
Boise State still will face challenges if it wants to bring fans into Albertsons Stadium, a decision the Mountain West has left to each school in consultation with local officials. The most recent Central District Health order, which brought Ada County into a modified Stage 3 of the Idaho Rebounds plan, says “large venue gatherings (concert venues, sporting venues, parades, festivals, etc.) are hereby prohibited” in Ada.
The 49-person limit on gatherings and 10-person limit for social gatherings don’t apply to participants in sporting events, CDH spokesperson Christine Myron told the Idaho Statesman in August. CDH confirmed Friday that there are no rules preventing Boise State from practicing or staging games — and the school doesn’t need to submit its plans to the health district.
“Organized athletic games/matches themselves are not considered to be a gathering or a social gathering,” Myron wrote in August. “Any athletes, coaches or essential staff are not prohibited by the updated order. These are monitored activities with safety protocols in place.”
Bringing fans to Albertsons Stadium, though, is a different question. The limit of gatherings to fewer than 50 people applies.
“Because spectatorship is typically a social gathering, spectators need to be limited to 10 or fewer people if they are unable to keep 6 feet of distance between those watching,” Myron wrote. “If they are able to keep 6 feet of physical distance, then up to 50 people are allowed to attend as spectators.”
The rest of the state is in Stage 4, which allows large venues to operate “under limited physical distancing protocols.” The state added 506 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, including probable cases — the most in a day since Aug. 14.
“It is my understanding that (Boise State officials) are not planning to allow fans in the stadium for the events,” Atkins told the Statesman on Friday. “This would be congruent with current guidelines and the Ada County order.”
The Broncos enter the 2020 season with high expectations after a 12-2 record last season and are the defending Mountain West champs. They narrowly missed the preseason Top 25s and will aim to extend their 18-season streak of Top 25 appearances. Quarterback Hank Bachmeier and running back George Holani, who excelled as true freshmen last year, and junior wide receiver Khalil Shakir are the marquee players on offense.
The 2020 season won’t count against players’ eligibility, so all of the Broncos will be eligible to return in 2021 under NCAA rules.
Boise State expects to absorb an athletics deficit of $10 million to $30 million because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tromp told the university community earlier this month — with the higher number linked to the cancellation of the football season. It’s unclear how much of that loss the school can fill with a shortened season, particularly if ticket sales are severely limited. Boise State gets an estimated $5.7 million from the Mountain West TV deal, but that money could shrink with a shorter schedule.
“I’ve spoken several times to Fox and CBS just since last night’s announcement,” Thompson said. “Right now, we have enough inventory, but we’ll see how many of those games are actually played.”
Boise Mayor Lauren McLean expressed support for the return of Boise State football in a written statement provided to the Statesman.
“I’m excited at the idea of athletics returning to Boise State,” she said. “I can’t wait for the day when all student-athletes can return to the sport they love and compete in a safe environment.”
This story was originally published September 24, 2020 at 8:25 PM.
