re: Boise to Big 12-3+1 makes the most sense.

Not only that but we have a commanding presence as the dominant sports team in the whole state of Idaho and parts of Nevada, Washington, Oregon, and Montana. That whole area combined is about 1.8 million people.

Forget the Nielsen rankings which rate TV markets, the Boise metro boundries determined by the FCC (used by the Nielsen rankings) is heavily fragmented due to the fast pace of growth and change in the region since the 1950s, and it poorly represents the true size of the Boise TV market, which, especially since we're a pretty affluent city, is a lot closer to the size of Louisville or Oklahoma City than it is Youngstown, OH as the rankings portray. Not only that, but the entire city has really rallied around the Broncos, so our fanbase is pretty significant. LINK /

Let me put it this way, there's a reason we're trying as fast as we humanly can to expand our stadium to near 60,000 seats.

I wish the Pac-12 would invite us football-only (and wrestling as it already competes in the Pac-12), but it's almost certainly not going to happen. The Big 12 is a lot more likely, even then still a minimal chance of happening. I'd be thrilled to see us join the Big East. So much better than the conference we're currently in.