Boise State Football’s Most Important Season Begins This Weekend
Boise State Football begins the 2022 season on the road against the Oregon State Beavers. Depending on your source, the Broncos are slightly favored or a slight underdog. The football team's future has never been as difficult as at the start of this season. Universities count on successful football teams to enhance enrollment and encourage significant monetary contributions.
What hasn't been reported by the openly pro blue and orange media is whoever is running the program knows it is on borrowed time. Unlike other programs, the Broncos do not have the resources to handle another disappointing 7-5 season. The significance of the head coach replacing almost all of last year's coaching staff cannot be emphasized enough. Throw in that he now has two former NFL coaches to 'advise him is a troubling signal that the Broncos must win now. If not, they have two in-house candidates who are not first-time coaches.
College football is changing at a historic pace. We could have an expansion of the college football playoff by the time I'm done writing this piece. Boise State Football cannot rely on its old formula of winning big games and ESPN promotion. Their conference moved to Fox, leaving the Broncos without ESPN broadcast partners. The team makes more money but has less exposure. Also, Fox has just committed the enormous rights fee for Big 10 football. Will Fox put Boise State Football on their main channel instead of Ohio State?
FS1, the Fox Sports cable channel, has a less than stellar market penetration compared to ESPN. It doesn't matter how good you are if no one can see your games. How many times did the Broncos own the world of college football by playing on ESPN Friday night and being the topic of Saturday's College Gameday? Let's hope Brady Quinn can mention them during the Big Noon Kickoff.
Boise State must find a new way if it hopes to be successful in the new world of college football. The Power Five is now the Power Two consisting of the SEC and the Big 10. Why would they be interested in allowing anyone outside of their conferences to participate in an expanded college football playoff? If Oregon is concerned about being relevant in college football's new world, what will be the future of college football's favorite underdog?
The team will have to come up with perhaps a Savannah Banana like marketing to sell out more than the BYU and Utah State games. Does anyone want to spend their hard earned dollars to see Boise State play UC Martin? Let's not forget the rise of Group of Five powers like UCF, Cincinnati, and the list continues to grow. Will Boise State Football rise up once again to shock the college football world? We'll find out starting this weekend.