nice USA Today story on Boise State and the extra $ they've earned for (MAC)
Cic...@aol.com
Renown is the payoff
Only once before has a team from outside college football's six power conferences cracked the BCS lineup. That was two years ago, when Utah played in the Fiesta. Under fire and legal threat from Tulane President Scott Cowen and others, the BCS opened up access by lowering the qualifying bar and then expanding from four games to five.
Last year Boise State would have needed a No. 6 finish in the BCS' mathematical rankings to nail down a berth. This season the Broncos had only to finish No. 12 or better. They left no room for doubt, coming in at No. 8.
Forty-nine other schools in five mid- to lower-echelon leagues — Conference USA, the Mountain West, Mid-American and Sun Belt, in addition to the WAC — cheered with them. They had been assured of sharing approximately $9.3 million in BCS revenue. Boise's entry in the Fiesta doubled that.
"The new system is doing exactly what we hoped it would," Cowen says, though he'd like still more.
"I think it's unlikely we'll ever get a full playoff of 16 teams," he says. "But even a modified playoff would leave a better feeling in my mind. And I think in most fans' minds out there that a Boise State might have a legitimate shot to work its way into the championship game as an undefeated team."
There's no such grass-is-greener talk at Boise State. Any place on college football's big stage is enough. The school is projecting to make $3 million to $3.5 million from its Fiesta Bowl appearance, most of which Bleymaier says will go toward an upgrade of facilities, but it's not the money that's the thing.
It's the legitimacy. Petersen says he and his staff are getting into the living rooms of highly touted high school prospects that once were closed to the Broncos. In the president's office, Kustra points to an interview this week with a candidate for a school vice presidential position. "I know that part of his fascination and interest in us," he says, "is what we've been able to do here in football."
Contributions to the university from alumni and others have boomed with the Broncos' on-field performance, from $6.9 million for the 2003 fiscal year to $18.9 million in 2005 (in the wake of the 11-0 run to the Liberty Bowl) and $15.6 million in '06. Combined undergraduate and graduate student enrollment has grown by 25% since 1996, to a current 18,876.
