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The recent success of the athletic program at Boise State has propelled the entire university into a new class among the most elite colleges in the nation.
Now that Boise State is nationally renown for its dominance inside and outside of the Western Athletic Conference, people may wonder what’s next for the ever maturing Bronco Nation. The overall goal of the Boise State Athletic Program is to build a solid foundation for the future, so it can compete at a national level in as many sports as possible.
The biggest question being thrown around Bronco Nation right now is where does Boise State go from here, and how do they get there?
Administrators have expressed interest in other conferences, mainly the Mountain West Conference due to its geographic location, and strength of teams compared to the WAC.
Changing conferences is not a decision that can be made overnight. What most fans of the Bronco program don’t realize is that joining a conference is a decision that only that conference can make. For Boise State to join the Mountain West Conference, it would have to be invited.
“What conferences do or don’t do is a decision that they make,” Boise State Athletic Director Gene Bleymaier said. “We have been pretty open that we would be interested in the possibility of looking at other conferences. We would certainly look at any opportunities that presented themselves to us.”
While the WAC was a good conference for the Broncos up to this point, it is clear that a new challenge is needed. Other teams in the WAC could argue against Boise State’s dominance in the conference up until now, but the numbers speak for themselves.
“The WAC has been a very good conference for us, we have had tremendous success in football, as well as many other sports,” Bleymaier said. “We certainly have dominated every sport in the conference.”
The problem Boise State faces is that it has matured so fast it’s too good … for its own good.
Teams from outside the WAC refrain from coming here because of the challenge Boise State poses at home. The Broncos have won 49 of their last 50 home games, including wins against Pacific-10 schools and an undefeated record against the MWC.
Success has become natural for the Broncos since joining the WAC, including a WAC title for women’s basketball, a PAC-10 Championship for men’s wrestling and seven years of dominance from the football program.
With these exemplary results, it begs the question: How much does Boise State spend on sports, and is it enough to support joining a more distinguished conference?
For the 2007-08 academic year, Boise State athletics spent $7.6 million on the football program.
This means 33 percent of the athletic spending was on football. It might appear this amount of money is far too much for one sport over another. The reality is of the $21.7 million earned in revenue, 66 percent is from the football program.
Of the remaining sports programs, 16 percent of Boise State athletic revenue is from women’s sports and 18 percent is from the remaining men’s sports. The revenue these sports bring in is distributed as needed to each program.
Revenue often exceeds expenses, creating $857,868 in profit for the university in 2007-08. The 21 percent of student financial aid used for Boise State athletic scholarships remains below what might be expected in a more diverse sports program.
“We look to provide all of our sports with the resources necessary to compete, and compete annually for a conference championship,” Bleymaier said. “We try to work that every year with our budgeting process to give all of our sports a chance to be successful. Every year as we build the budget we look at the needs of all of our programs. All of our sports are funded to the max as far as scholarships are allowed, and the number of competitions from an equipment standpoint and a coaching standpoint.”
The budget of this growing athletic program must now support a new sport. Softball recently came onto the scene at Boise State to even out the requirements needed for Title 9.
For Boise State to be able to have a baseball program in the future like many schools in the WAC, the athletic department must add more women’s sports.
“We [are] basically on a five year plan, to add a women’s sport every five years until we reach proportionality,” Bleymaier said. “In probably a year or two we will start a thorough evaluation of potential sports, what conferences we could compete in, who our opponents would be, what the travel requirements would be, what the expenses would look like and what the facility needs would be.”
Athletics at Boise State have not only brought the university national recognition, but the City of Boise national attention as well.
The community has jumped behind Boise State athletics, giving the school its full support.
“It’s most beneficial obviously,” Bleymaier said. “The more success that we can have athletically, the better it is for the community, the state of Idaho and certainly for Boise State University. It’s important, but that doesn’t happen unless we are successful on the field and on the courts.”
As of right now, the sky is the limit for Boise State athletics. The national notoriety that the school gains from the athletic program is unmatchable, and will grow as long as Boise State continues its success on and off the field.
TRENT LOOTENS AND RILEY ZAHM
Arbiter Journalists
