Bryan Harsin wants a better conference — and good for him — but Boise State is in tough spot

Now we know how Bryan Harsin truly feels.

He finally said it out loud — kind of.

Boise State’s seventh-year football coach wants out of the Mountain West.

In emails obtained by the Idaho Statesman on Tuesday and first obtained by BoiseDev, Harsin wrote to President Marlene Tromp and then-Athletic Director Curt Apsey exactly how you would expect him to write.

He mentioned Statue Left. He noted the Mountain West is not the standard for college football. He said Boise State was the standard for the Mountain West.

And he absolutely is not wrong. The Broncos should be actively pursuing something better, as its maverick past has seemed to fade further and the Mountain West has stagnated.

No one should be surprised at Harsin’s feelings. He made them pretty clear exactly a year ago to the day Tuesday.

On that day, following his third Mountain West championship win, Harsin lamented not getting more support, be it behind the scenes, or from a PR standpoint, from the Mountain West. Boise State was an afterthought for a New Year’s Six bowl despite going 12-1 in 2019.

“People that support or are a part of our conference should be doing a better job of it,” Harsin said.

Then, there was the January lawsuit in which Boise State claimed the Mountain West was breaching its 2012 agreement that allowed the school to earn a larger share of the TV revenue as a condition of returning to the league after initially planning to leave for the Big East in football. Harsin referenced that in the same email to Tromp and Apsey.

All that led to Harsin’s Sept. 11 email. The crux of it was an attempt to get back on the football field immediately. He mentioned letting the California schools flail and finding someone else (like BYU) to play.

In other emails, he noted how his support staff has been reduced, to which Apsey pointed out a $13 million to $15 million revenue loss. Harsin mentioned other conferences playing football, but the Mountain West was hardly alone in not starting on time.

A strained relationship with Mountain West

Was it selfish? Absolutely. But the highest-paid public employee in the state paid to win football games has to be.

In what surely was music to Boise State fans’ ears, Harsin made sure to note that Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson “said nothing” during a call about when to start the season.

If Harsin’s opinion of Thompson wasn’t already frosty, now you will get frostbite. The conference announced 12 days later it would begin play in October, but if leaving was already being discussed, it’s highly unlikely that cured all ills.

So where does Boise State go from here — amid its search for a new athletic director?

Everyone can throw out their realignment scenarios all they want. We know few things get the fan base more jazzed (behind someone being called “the next Boise State,” of course).

If the American Athletic Conference is a possibility, that option has been there for a while. This is nothing new. If the conference was dying to get Boise State, it would have tried. Same goes for the Pac-12 or the Big 12. Of course that’s the big goal, but you can’t just join — you have to be invited.

Harsin briefly mentioned “other sports.” That’s not his concern, but it is a massive one. This is an athletic department, not just one team, as major as it is. The American, should it happen, would likely be a football-only move. Taking all sports across the country would stretch an already-tight budget.

The Big West or, god forbid, the WAC, would be huge steps down. Good luck trying to get big crowds or land big recruits or keep coaches happy if that were to happen. Apsey stated in an email that he spoke with a conference that sounded liked the West Coast Conference, adding it did not likely have any interest in expanding beyond its religious-affiliated schools, as fun as playing Gonzaga and BYU and Saint Mary’s sounds.

Independence would be a huge gamble, and one that still has not exactly been a boon for BYU. The new athletic director would need to have a heck of a knack for scheduling to make it worthwhile. Apsey did not show that. If he had some reticence to look beyond the Mountain West, or if his vision didn’t match Harsin’s, it may have played a part in the fact he now is the AD in past tense.

A problem for the next AD to solve

But maybe new blood can heal this poisoned relationship. Boise State will have a new leader next year, even though it’s clear Harsin will always be the most powerful in the department. That new face will step into a tense situation, and he or she must have an exit plan or an incredible reason to stay put. Thompson, 64, has always chosen to be quiet, and that may not be the best way to do things in 2020.

The cards are out on the table.

Boise State, which has not had a major football facility upgrade since 2013 or a New Year’s Six bowl since 2014, is trying to envision its next step. Harsin, on Dec. 8 of last year, said “if we decide we want to settle, settling is not a place I want to be.”

The Mountain West’s schools don’t want to be bullied by Boise State, yet it is painfully obvious the Broncos are the most consistently strong program in the conference.

Harsin is justified to feel the way he does about what is next for Boise State. He knows it will always be a different program than just about any other.

Just how different?

One whose coach feels it has reached the point where it could take a major risk by leaving the conference that bent over backwards to get it back not even a decade ago.

Dave Southorn is a former Boise State football beat writer for the Idaho Statesman who provides occasional commentary on the Broncos.