Boise State football will play for Mountain West title away from home, on network TV
The Boise State football team’s fifth Mountain West championship game will be unlike any of the others.
The Broncos will have to travel to play in the game for the first time, the conference announced Sunday. They’ll play San Jose State at the Spartans’ makeshift home of Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas. Kickoff is 2:15 p.m. MT Saturday on Fox.
Boise State (5-1 overall, 5-0 Mountain West) and San Jose State (6-0, 6-0) finished with the only perfect conference records this season. San Jose State won the tiebreaker based on its superior computer rankings.
However, the Spartans can’t play at home because of a public health order prohibiting contact sports in Santa Clara County. They played their final regular-season home game Friday against Nevada in Las Vegas, which also has been an impromptu home for New Mexico.
Fans will not be allowed to attend the title game, a Mountain West spokesperson confirmed Sunday.
Boise State and San Jose State were scheduled to meet Nov. 28 in Boise but that game was canceled about 5 hours before kickoff because of COVID-19 issues in the Broncos’ program. That game also was scheduled to air on Fox, so this is a second chance for the programs. The downside: They’ll be playing head to head with Clemson-Notre Dame (ABC) — college football’s most-anticipated game of the year.
This will be Boise State’s fifth appearance in the eight-year history of the Mountain West championship game. The Broncos have been able to host their previous four title games, winning three.
Boise State’s MW championship game history
2014: Boise State 28, Fresno State 14
2017: Boise State 17, Fresno State 14
2018: Fresno State 19, Boise State 16 (OT)
2019: Boise State 31, Hawaii 10
Note: All four games played at Albertsons Stadium in Boise.
This story was originally published December 13, 2020 at 10:36 AM.
