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This Day In Sports…May 14, 2011, 15 years ago today:
Boise State’s final conference competition after 10 years as a member of the WAC, as the Broncos finish second on the men’s side and seventh among the women at the conference track and field championships in Honolulu. It also marked the final time Boise State and Idaho would ever face each other in a conference event. The Broncos were off to the Mountain West, while the Vandals would hang on in the crumbling WAC for two more seasons before ultimately moving their football program to the Sun Belt.
The Broncos’ greatest successes during the WAC era came in football, of course. The final report card showed 75 wins, five losses and six undefeated seasons in league play, and a perfect 40-0 league record on the blue turf. The biggest statement came in the first season, when Boise State shocked No. 8 Fresno State 35-30 on ESPN. The Broncos earned the first of five straight WAC championships in 2002 while making the FBS Top 25 for the first time. Their first undefeated season came in 2006, followed by their takedown of Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl, and they were unbeaten again in 2009 with another Fiesta Bowl win, this time over TCU.
There were football milestones galore during the WAC era beyond the two Fiesta Bowls—a school-record 24-game winning streak included. Boise State picked up its first win over what we now call Power 4 schools (Iowa State in the 2002 Humanitarian Bowl). And there were the first three years of the Kellen Moore era, with ranked victories over Oregon at Autzen Stadium in 2008 and on the blue turf in 2009—and over Virginia Tech on Labor Day night in 2010 from FedEx Field in Landover, MD.
The successes in men’s basketball were more sparse. Boise State had two memorable seasons in its decade in the WAC, a 2004 trip to the NIT and a 2008 conference title and NCAA Tournament berth. The 2004 NIT run included victories over UNLV and Wisconsin-Milwaukee in a game famously moved to the Idaho Center due to a concert in the BSU Pavilion. The Broncos’ only WAC championship came in 2008, capped by a triple-overtime 107-102 win over New Mexico State in the conference tournament.
Coincidentally, Boise State’s final competition in the Mountain West begins today with the MW outdoor track and field championships in Clovis, CA. It happens 48 days before the Broncos officially join the Pac-12. That day, July 1, will also mark Boise State’s 30th anniversary as a Division I-A (FBS) school. Bronco Nation still has to pinch itself with everything that’s happened since.
(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.)
