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Thursday Special: February 12, 2026.
There’s a press conference this morning at Gov. Brad Little’s office—to be jointly attended by officials from Boise State University and the University of Idaho. And the subject is not too difficult to figure out: the Broncos and Vandals are going to play football again for the first time since 2010. Whether it’s one game for the moment or multiple games remains to be seen. Boise State has a non-conference opening on the 2027 slate, but since the Pac-12 is still evolving in size and scheduling needs, that’s highly unlikely. Still hard to believe we’re going on 16 years since the two rivals met. So much has changed, but it’s still Boise State and Idaho. Bring it on.
HISTORY REFRESHER
The Broncos and Vandals played every year from 1971 to 2010—40 consecutive seasons. When Boise State joined the Mountain West, the series ended, with the Broncos leading 22-17 (with one tie). There have been wild ebbs and flows in the rivalry. Boise State dominated the 1970s, Idaho dominated the 1980s, and the 1990s were a mix as the Broncos were on the cusp of their Golden Era at the end of the decade. It ended as solidly in Boise State’s corner as could be.
THE SEVENTIES
It all began in 1971, a year after Boise State joined the Big Sky. Idaho didn’t have room on its 1970 schedule for the Broncos but had to lock the game in for 1971. The season opener was the scene, and the setting was Bronco Stadium, which had a capacity of 14,500 but was able to fit over 16,000 in with trucked-in north end zone bleachers. It was, however, a home game for the Vandals. Neale Stadium on the Moscow campus had burned down in late 1969, and New Idaho Stadium (which would become the Kibbie Dome in 1975 when the roof was added) wasn’t ready yet. But upstart Boise State had an ambush waiting, routing the Vandals 42-14. The rivalry was instant.
Idaho won the second showdown, Boise State’s first actual home game in the series, 22-21 in 1972. Tony Knap’s Broncos took the next two decisively before the two teams played their only tie in the rivalry. The 31-31 deadlock in 1975 came during the Kibbie Dome Dedication Game in Moscow. The Vandals opened the season in Bronco Stadium in 1976 with a 16-9 victory, and new Boise State coach Jim Criner wouldn’t forget it, winning the next five in the series. But Criner didn’t win his final game against Idaho.
STREAK NO. 1
You can’t talk about the Bronco-Vandal rivalry without a look at the 12-game winning streaks—both of them. Idaho’s came first, when coach Dennis Erickson brought in his first Vandals squad and upended Boise State 24-17 in 1982. Was it an aberration? No. Year after year, the Idaho victories piled up. It wasn’t easy, as six straight games in the series were decided by a touchdown or less. But a great run of coaches, with Keith Gilbertson and John L. Smith following Erickson, kept it going right through Pokey Allen’s first year as Broncos coach in 1993. The streak ended in 1994 in one of Bronco Stadium’s most intense games, a winner-take-all matchup for the Big Sky title, with Boise State finally winning 27-24.
THE REST OF THE NINETIES
Idaho righted its ship in 1995 with a 20-point win in Moscow. And the 1996 game was a 64-19 rout, as the cancer-stricken Allen coached his final game. Houston Nutt left his mark on the series in his one and only season at Boise State by leading the Broncos to a 30-23 overtime win at the Kibbie Dome in 1997, their first victory up north since 1981. The 1998 game on the blue turf was unforgettable. For the second straight season, the teams went to OT, but this time Idaho won 36-35 on a surprise two-point conversion. First-year Broncos coach Dirk Koetter would not forget that one.
STREAK NO. 2
The Broncos’ 12-game winning streak began in 1999 and is, well, still active. On the eve of the first win in Pullman, Koetter famously told his team, “Y’know fellas, this doesn’t have to be close.” And it wasn’t, with the 45-14 win giving Boise State its first Big West title. None of the remaining 11 games in the series was close, either—the Broncos’ narrowest margin of victory was 24-10 in 2003. The rivalry went on hiatus after the 2010 game that saw Kellen Moore and Boise State roll to a 52-14 win in the Kibbie Dome. Average score of Streak No. 2: 51-18.
A NOD TO THE OTHER NEWS
The Pac-12 released its first schedule as a rebuilt conference Wednesday night, and—to avoid ticket-selling chaos—the “flex week” home teams were indeed set for the final week of the regular season. Boise State is not one of them, but that makes sense considering the league schedule has the Broncos with four home games and three road games. The final matchup of the regular season, which won’t count in Pac-12 standings, will be at one of the four designated flex home teams: Colorado State, Fresno State, Utah State or Washington State.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by CORSO ITALIAN STEAK…it’s about food, cocktails and vibe.
February 12, 1968: The legendary Jean-Claude Killy of France wins his second gold medal of the Winter Olympics in Grenoble with a victory in the giant slalom. His first came in the downhill three days earlier, and he would get a third five days later in the slalom. Killy was coming off overall championships in the first two World Cups. After his sweep of the Olympic alpine events, Killy said, “The party went on for two-and-a-half days, and the whole time I never saw the sun once.”
(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.)
