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Hope I posted this on the right board. I know Boise State fans don't have the best reputation around these parts, but just wanted to say a hearty congratulations on the well-earned victory tonight. I have huge respect for your team, your fans, and especially for Les Miles, who I think is such a tremendous and underappreciated coach. I feel this Tigers team ranks among the best teams in College Football history.

PS, ignore Scott Wolf. He's not representative of us... he's a Californian. I would say by far most Boise State fans recognize LSU as much more proven for that #1 ranking than us, and ESPN has done us a great disservice by making him appear representative of us. But enough about that, just wanted to say congrats, respect, and thanks for the great game tonight. :cheers:

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.

Actually travel wouldn't be all that bad for football only. Assuming an 8-game schedule, we would have 4 regional OOC opponents (already have a 12-year series with BYU), and 4 games at home, so we're only traveling back east for 4 games, and even then if Air Force, Houston and/or SMU were invited, that could make travel even less of an issue.

It sounds like the WAC is interested in taking our other sports. Fun fact nobody will care about but I'll say anyway, our wrestling program is in the Pac-12.

But yes, BCS access and access to better bowls is a huge, huge plus, as is better competition. Every Boise State fan is tired of blasting away the conference teams we're locked into playing. Hopefully if we join the Big East + a better OOC schedule, we'll have a very solid schedule in the future, which would really energize our fanbase like never before.

To be perfectly honest, coming from a Boise State fan, I don't think Boise State could beat LSU. Most of us recognize that LSU and Alabama are a major step ahead of us. Hell, i think LSU and Alabama are a major step ahead of everyone else. If everyone in CFB keeps playing like they have this season, the true national championship will be on Nov. 5th, not in January.

That being said, even though I don't think our team, as we are, would win, I'd love to see us on the same field someday.

Just my two cents.

Alabama Slim, that's a good question to ask. So many people forget that's it not just about TV markets, the overriding factor is market penetration. Sure, a school might happen to be located in New York City, but does that mean a lot of New Yorkers are going to be consistently watching and caring about their College Football team? Some conferences have had to learn this the hard way.