Boise State is ready for the Big 12 — now or later
BOISE, Idaho — Jeramiah Dickey became the Boise State athletic director eight months ago without even seeing the place.
Part of that was Covid. Welcome to the ‘20s.
But part of that was branding. Dickey knew what he was getting with Boise State.
Everybody should know by now what they’re getting with Boise State.
“One thing I’m most impressed with is the power of our brand,” Dickey said. “We are truly a national brand.
“I very much knew Boise State and what it represented. We think very highly of our brand and who we are. But we’re more excited about where we’re going.”
We know where Boise State is not going, at least in the near future. The Big 12. In the wake of losing OU and Texas to the Southeastern Conference, the Big 12 announced it would expand with Central Florida, Brigham Young, Cincinnati and Houston.
Boise State, among the five best expansion candidates, was left out.
Thanks a lot, Big 12, says OSU.
The Cowboys play on Albertsons Stadium’s blue turf at 8 p.m. Saturday, and Boise State is a hornet’snest-of-a-football program without the added motivation of conference realignment rejection.
But Boise State shows no ill-will. At least not from Dickey, its new leader.
“Honestly, I don’t believe our position has changed,” Dickey said. “We’re an elite academic and athletic institution.”
Dickey knows the Big 12. He was born and raised in El Paso — his grandfather was team doctor for the legendary Don Haskins’ Texas-El Paso basketball teams — but attended the University of Texas and worked as Mack Rhoades’ right-hand man in the athletic departments at Houston and Baylor. So Dickey has been on the inside of a Big 12 school on the way in, a Big 12 school on the way out and a Big 12 school that was there at the start and plans to stay.
Dickey said this latest round of conference realignment, “if anything, fired me up. This time around, it didn’t come. We’ll do what we can to improve on our destiny.”
Boise State is an unorthodox Big 12 candidate. Different part of the country, though Boise is only 400 miles northwest of Provo, Utah, and new Big 12 member BYU. But the primary knock against Boise State is its academic history.
As recently as 1968, Boise State was a junior college. It doesn’t have a law school or a medical school. It takes a long time to build an academic reputation.
Boise State is ranked in the 300s of U.S. News & World Report’s annual listing of national universities. That’s an improvement. Previous, U.S. News considered Boise State a regional university.
The Big 12 newcomers are ranked 79th (BYU), 148th (UCF and Cincinnati tied) and Houston (179th).
The current Big 12 members are ranked 38th (Texas), 75th (Baylor), 83rd (Texas Christian), 122nd (Kansas and Iowa State), 127th (OU), 162nd (Kansas State), 187th (OSU), 213th (Texas Tech) and 249th (West Virginia).
“I get it,” Dickey said. “Being a young institution, that’s natural. But I go back to controlling what we can control.
“Our story needs to be told. We’re a research institution that’s barely scratched the surface.”
Boise State has more than 26,000 students. When the Broncos burst onto the big stage that memorable Fiesta Bowl upset of the Sooners 15 years ago, enrollment was 18,876.
“The sky’s the limit for Boise State,” said football coach Andy Avalos, a Bronco linebacker in the early 2000s. “We’ve got tremendous leadership that wants to take then next step, not only as a football program, but as a university that wants to bring people onto this campus.”
New athletic director. New football coach. New president, Marlene Tromp, appointed in 2019. Newlook campus, with few vintage buildings. A boomtown in Boise, one of the nation’s fastest-growing metropolitan areas, with a population now at 750,000. There is much to like about Boise State’s future. “I didn’t come here to sit back on our past success,” Dickey said. “We want to move that to the next level.”
Boise State is known for its blue turf and for that Fiesta Bowl upset. But the Broncos have won two more Fiestas since then, and in the last 10 NFL Drafts, 24 Boise State players have been selected. Over that same time, 19 OSU players have been picked.
“We’re not a one-trick pony,” Dickey said. Boise State. The school originally known as Boise Junior College has changed names, conferences and divisions. Doesn’t matter. The Broncos win. They won a national championship in junior-college football and in Division I-AA.
“There’s a history of winning, a history of success,” Dickey said. “This community has built up around it. it’s pretty remarkable. Not many have made the transition we have. Makes me proud to be here, and I’ve only been here eight months.”
Boise should be rocking Saturday night. Only five Power 5 Conference schools have played in Boise — Virginia and the Pac-12’s four Pacific Northwest schools. OSU is the sixth.
“As a department, we talk about blue collar and the power of the Blue,” Dickey said. “People identify with us to be the team that does more with less, with the resources we do have, to still find success.”
Boise State will have to wait a little longer for the resources that come with power-conference admission. But the Big 12 will come for Boise State.