October 15, 2011, 15 years ago today: Ignoring the suddenly swirling talk of an invitation to the Big East, Boise State plays its first conference game in the Mountain West and demolishes Colorado State, 63-13. The Broncos rolled up a school-record 742 yards of total offense, as Kellen Moore completed his first 18 passes and Doug Martin rushed for a career-high 200 yards and three touchdowns. Moore and his younger brother Kirby, then a Boise State sophomore wide receiver and now Washington State’s head coach, connected three times for touchdowns during their two seasons playing together—the third and final one came in this game.
The day before the game, the Mountain West and Conference USA had announced a strategic plan to merge in football as rumors exploded that the Big East was about to invite Boise State and Air Force. The Big East, then a BCS conference, was scrambling to keep it that way amidst announcements that Pittsburgh and Syracuse were departing for the ACC and West Virginia for the Big 12. Earlier in the week, TCU of the Mountain West had reneged on its plan to move to the Big East, accepting an invitation to the Big 12 instead.
Well, in December of 2011, Boise State and San Diego State were the ones invited by the Big East as football-only members, and they accepted. The plan was to return the Broncos’ non-football sports to the WAC, but that crumbled when the WAC disintegrated in 2012, and Boise State settled on the Big West as a solution. By the fall of 2012, the Big East had suffered more defections, and it was clear that the league’s TV rights valuation was in free-fall, with chances of remaining a BCS conference slim.
Boise State and San Diego State quietly opened the door for a return to the Mountain West, and on New Year’s Eve, a little more than a year after announcing the move of its football program to the Big East, the Broncos finalized a deal to remain in the Mountain West. The Aztecs followed two weeks later. Boise State was able to separate its home games in Mountain West TV negotiations, as well as spur the league to institute a bonus system for national TV appearances. The sweetheart deal was a bone of contention among the MW’s other members for the rest of the Broncos’ stay in the conference.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)