Boise State cancels future series against Big Ten team, adds games vs. Pac-12 opponent
When four-star quarterback Katin Houser backed out of his verbal commitment to Boise State and decided instead to go to Michigan State, fans of the Broncos took solace in the fact that they would get a shot at payback when the teams played in 2022 and 2023.
The Broncos won’t get that chance at revenge, though.
Boise State announced Friday morning that its series with Michigan State has been canceled. The Spartans were supposed to play in Albertsons Stadium in 2022 and the Broncos were scheduled to travel to East Lansing in 2023.
Instead, the Broncos will travel to Washington for games in 2023 and 2029 that will earn the program more than $3 million. Boise State will get $1.5 million for the game in 2023 and $1.6 million in 2029, according to the game contracts. If either team decides to cancel a game, they will owe the saw amount.
To make room for the Huskies, the Broncos also shifted several other future nonconference games. Oregon State, originally scheduled to come to Boise in 2023, now will make the trip in 2024. Boise State also pushed its 2024 home game against Houston back two weeks to Sept. 21.
Boise State also added games against a pair of FCS teams to future schedules. Tennessee-Martin will come to Boise in 2022 and North Dakota will play here in 2023. The Broncos won’t have to pay North Dakota and will pay UT Martin $425,000 to play in Boise. The scheduling changes will net Boise State about $3.1 million, according to the university.
“When evaluating these adjustments in totality, they were moves we needed to make,” Boise State Athletic Director Jeramiah Dickey said Friday in a press release. “We have talked about needing to be creative in seeking revenue-generating opportunities, and this is one of those times. We also needed a game in 2024, and these changes allowed us to put a bow on the nonconference schedule for that season.”
Canceling a marquee series against a Power Five opponent and replacing it with road games that come with a paycheck and FCS opponents is a major shift in scheduling strategy, but Dickey said balancing the schedule is the best way for Boise State to position itself to take advantage of the expanded College Football Playoff field, which is expected to go into effect sometime after 2023.
“Our schedule is difficult and competitive moving forward,” Dickey said. “Coach Avalos and I are aligned in our scheduling philosophy, and today’s announcement represents several steps that will help get us in line with how we would like our schedule to look as we move forward: nonconference games against a Power Five opponent, BYU, a Group of Five opponent and an FCS opponent.”
Michigan State would have been the first Big Ten team to play a regular-season game in Boise. The series was part of a three-game deal agreed to in 2010 that included Boise State’s 2012 game at Michigan State. The Broncos lost that one, 17-13, and they’re 0-2 all-time against the Big Ten.
The original contract with Michigan State included a $2 million fee if either party canceled the series, but neither will be required to pay because of a clause that nullifies the contract if both schools consent to the cancellation.
With Michigan State not coming to Boise, the Broncos are left with just four home games against Power Five teams over the next 12 seasons. They will host rival BYU several times during that span, though, and while the Cougars play as an FBS independent, many around the country see them as a Power Five program, Dickey said.
“It’s important for us to keep those games on the schedule in terms of competitiveness and recruiting, and it’s a driver for the fan experience,” Dickey said of BYU and Power Five teams. “But we also have to do what’s best for Boise State.”
The last time Boise State and Washington met in the regular season was in 2015, when Boise State won 16-13 in front of 36,832 fans in Albertsons Stadium.
The Broncos are 2-3 all-time against Washington. The last time the teams played was actually the 2019 Las Vegas Bowl, which happened to be former Boise State coach Chris Petersen’s final game as the Huskies coach. Petersen left Boise State to take over at Washington in 2014, and he ended his tenure there with a 38-7 win in that bowl game.
Dickey said in March that it’s important to schedule games against regional Pac-12 teams in terms of fostering those rivalries and hopefully bolstering ticket sales. Boise State won’t get a boost in tickets sales from trading a marquee home game for a pair of road games, though, and the Broncos won’t save much by traveling to Washington twice instead of Michigan State once.
Boise State might win the hearts of some West Coast recruits by playing in Washington, but a nationally televised home game against Michigan State could have caught the attention of even more recruits.
The motivation behind the schedule change seems to be the guaranteed payday from Washington at a time when Boise State’s athletic department is scrambling to make up for budget shortfalls caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Former Boise State Athletic Director Curt Apsey said last August that the university stood to lose as much as $20 million if there was no football season. The Broncos did get on the field last fall, but they played only seven games after two were canceled because of COVID-19, and only about 1,100 fans were allowed to attend just two of the home games.
The totality of the financial ramifications from the virus won’t be clear until revenue numbers for the 2021 fiscal year come out, but making up for such a decline in ticket sales will be a challenge. Boise State generated $5.1 million in ticket sales during the 2019 season.
The Broncos still have a nonconference game scheduled against Oregon State in 2022. They’re scheduled to play at UTEP in 2022 and host UCF in 2023, and 2024 is the only year in the near future that they aren’t scheduled to face BYU.
Boise State also has Oregon (2024, 2025 and 2026), Houston (2024 and 2025), East Carolina (2026), Cincinnati (2028 and 2029), Rice (2027 and 2029), USF (2025 and 2027), Memphis (2030 and 2031) and Washington State (2032 and 2033) on future schedules.
The Broncos rescheduled nonconference games against Marshall (2027) and Georgia Southern (2028), which were canceled last year because of COVID-19. This year, they open the season Sept. 2 at UCF and host UTEP (Sept. 11) and Oklahoma State (Sept. 18) before traveling to BYU (Oct. 9).
Boise State’s future nonconference games
2021: at UCF (Sept. 2), UTEP (Sept. 11), Oklahoma State (Sept. 18), at BYU (Oct. 9)
2022: at Oregon State (Sept. 3), at UTEP (Sept. 24), Tennessee-Martin (Sept. 22), BYU (Nov. 5)
2023: UCF (Sept. 9), at Washington (Sept. 2), North Dakota (Sept. 16), at BYU (Oct. 21)
2024: at Georgia Southern (Aug. 31), Oregon State (Sept. 7), Houston (Sept. 21), at Oregon (Sept. 14)
2025: at USF (Aug. 30), Oregon (Sept. 13), at Houston (Sept. 20), BYU (Oct. 25)
2026: at Oregon (Sept. 5), East Carolina (Sept. 12), at BYU (Nov. 7)
2027: at Rice (Sept. 4), USF (Sept. 11), at Marshall (Sept. 18), BYU (Sept. 25)
2028: Cincinnati (Sept. 2), at East Carolina (Sept. 9), Georgia Southern (Sept. 16), at BYU (Sept. 23)
2029: at Cincinnati (Sept. 1), at Washington (Sept. 8), Rice (Sept. 15), BYU (Sept. 22)
2030: at Memphis (Aug. 31), at BYU (Sept. 21)
2031: Memphis (Sept. 13), BYU (Sept. 27)
2032: Washington State (Sept. 11), at BYU (Sept. 25)
2033: at Washington State (Sept. 10), BYU (Sept. 24)
2034: at BYU (Sept. 23)
Note: All dates are subject to change for television.
This story was originally published July 2, 2021 at 10:17 AM.
