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Wednesday Weekly…December 17, 2025.
Because of his circuitous route back to Boise, I don’t know if Drew Fielder feels like a local yet to you, but he is one. And he’s feeling right at home on the Boise State men’s basketball team. Fielder has hit his stride as the Broncos go into their Mountain West opener Saturday night in Reno. When we first saw him in mid-October, Fielder was scoring 15 straight points in his first six minutes on the floor in the exhibition win over Idaho. Since the regular season began, he has had some blips, but since scoring a combined seven points against USC and North Carolina State in the Maui Invitational, Fielder has averaged 22 points in four games, putting up exactly that number in the key win over Saint Mary’s last Sunday. That was like an upper-echelon conference game. Can he replicate that effort at Nevada?
Fielder walked away with the Mountain West Player of the Week award on Monday. It honors Fielder’s work in both the Quad 1 win over Saint Mary’s and last Wednesday’s takedown of Duquesne (he was 18-of-30 combined in those games). Amazingly, Fielder is tied for the NCAA lead for most 20-point games this season with four while playing fewer than 25 minutes in each of those contests. From Rocky Mountain to Southern California Academy to Georgetown to Boise State, Fielder is relishing his homecoming.
BRONCOS-WOLF PACK COMPARABLES
Boise State and Nevada do have a common opponent in Duquesne. And the two teams played these guys three days apart, so it’s worth a look. The Broncos pulled away from the Dukes for an easy 86-64 victory last Wednesday in ExtraMile Arena. Duquesne then headed down to Reno and almost took down the Wolf Pack before falling 78-75. The Dukes had rallied to take their first lead of the game with 1½ minutes left before Nevada finally put it away at the free throw line. The Broncos take an interesting 8-3 record into Lawlor Events Center. The Pack are also 8-3—their best win has been a 14-point victory at Washington State.
THE QUARTERBACK CONUNDRUM
It’s a never-ending thing at Boise State, it seems. It should be interesting to hear what coach Spencer Danielson says today in his postseason press conference. Maddux Madsen has started the Broncos’ last two Mountain West championship game victories, but yes, he has struggled against Power 4 teams. The hope is that there’s a competition for the position next spring. That will only make Maddux better.
But what it may not include is a transfer portal QB. The portal costs NIL money that Boise State doesn’t have. There will be lots of quarterbacks in the portal, most of them looking for a payday. And that’s what they’ll get. But the Broncos don’t have an NIL war chest. Look at what happened at Oregon State. The Beavers ponied up a reported $1.5 million last off-season for Duke’s Maalik Murphy, draining much of their NIL budget. He was a bust. By Game 8, Murphy was benched, OSU went 2-10, and its coach was fired. And that’s not the only example.
MADSEN, LIKE BEFORE, CAN PREVAIL
Open up the QB spot for competition. After all, Madsen has won two battles already, over Taylen Green and Malachi Nelson. He can do it again. Maddux’ll be a year older and a year more seasoned next year. Max Cutforth is there, and true freshmen Jackson Taylor and Cash Herrera are in the fold. Maybe one of them can show he’s ready to play early. And maybe Kaleb Annett’s still around. By the way, Madsen’s second interception against Washington in the LA Bowl, when it looked like he tossed the ball up for grabs in the second quarter, has been much-criticized. Am I the only one who thinks he was trying to throw it out of bounds? It was a bad decision to try that under heavy pressure, but I don’t believe Madsen was putting up a prayer.
POSITIVE POTATOES
The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl is fortunate it isn’t stuck with a 5-7 team this year. It does feature two 6-6 teams, and next Monday’s game will be the difference between a winning season and losing season. But it has extra energy with future Pac-12 foes Utah State and Washington State battling on the Blue. Executive director Danielle Brazil and her crew struck gold in getting this matchup arranged—drivable for both fan bases. This is a record sixth appearance in the game by the Aggies, while this is a first for the Cougars. With the number of team opt-outs in this year’s postseason, the FIPB is among the secondary bowls that might be on the bubble if there’s a massive contraction of bowl games. Is the fact that it’s owned by ESPN a saving grace? It would be nice if the network scraped together some NIL money.
THE PAC-12 WAITING GAME
It could be as late as January 23 before we know about key elements of the Pac-12 football structure next year. That’s the deadline on a decision for the College Football Playoff format for 2026, and everything branches out from there. Will the Pac-12 play seven or eight conference games? Where will the Pac-12 championship game be held, on the home field of the highest seed or at a neutral site? I vote for home field, whether it’s Boise State or not—that’s the only way the event will have any juice. And, as the LA Bowl ceases to exist, where will the Pac-12 send its champion (and the Mountain West, for that matter)? Regardless, things are getting very real now that the Broncos have played their last football game as a member of the Mountain West. A lot will happen over the next six weeks.
STEELIES STILL TRENDING UP
After playing three games in three days in Wichita, the Idaho Steelheads have a more conventional week ahead. The Steelheads begin a three-game series tonight against the Rapid City Rush in Idaho Central Arena. Idaho took two of three from the Thunder on the road last weekend, with goaltender Ben Kraws recording both of the victories and making 81 saves between them. The Steelies, now 16-7-3, find themselves in first place in the ECHL Mountain Division with 35 points to Kansas City’s 32, although the Mavericks have played three fewer games.
SCHEDULE RELEASES
Boise’s two pro sports that span the summer have their game-by-game assignments set, as both unveiled their 2026 schedules this week. One, soccer, is new. Athletic Club Boise plays its first-ever match on March 7 on the road against the Sarasota Paradise, and its home opener is April 4 versus the Spokane Velocity at the former Les Bois Park, now the revamped and repurposed AC Boise Soccer Stadium. The USL has teams in every corner of the country—AC Boise is going to log some serious miles.
For the Boise Hawks, it’s their 38th season, and they open with a six-game series against the Ogden Raptors beginning May 19 at Memorial Stadium. There are two new teams in the Pioneer League this year, and both will visit Boise. The Modesto Roadsters follow Ogden in late May—they give the PBL a third team in California. The manager will be former big leaguer J.T. Snow, a six-time Gold Glove-winning first baseman. Modesto had been a staple of the long-season Class A California League, but that franchise is moving to San Bernardino. The other new entry is what they’re calling a League Travel Team. It will be exactly that—traveling all summer without a home base. It’ll be interesting to see how that works.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by POOL SCOUTS…perfect spas, scout’s honor!
December 17, 1994: Boise State’s magical season ends with a 28-14 loss to Youngstown State and coach Jim Tressel in the Division I-AA championship game at Huntington, WV (on the home field of Marshall, which the Broncos had defeated on the blue turf the week before). Boise State finished 13-2, winning their first Big Sky title 14 years and ending Idaho’s 12-game winning streak in the Bronco-Vandal rivalry. They got a record-setting season from running back K.C. Adams, who would end up playing just that one year. Three days later in a press conference, coach Pokey Allen would announce he had a rare form of cancer, beginning an agonizing two-year battle that would claim his life.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK. He also served as color commentator on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football for 14 seasons.)
