Much of what he said were some of my thoughts earlier in the week. But what he leaves out is that the majority of CFB elite knocks the Broncos for playing a cupcake schedule. Dropping the Idaho game is BSU’s way of leaving space to beef up their schedule. Now if they continue to schedule UC Davis or Toledo instead of the Vandals, that would be an issue.

but where are all the people that have rented cars and kept magnets off for fear of coming back to a burned out shell? They are absolutely horrible from what I have heard. If Idaho was halfway tollerable this wouldn’t be an issue, sos be damned, but the fan experience in dealing with the vandals is exactly what Kustra was talking about.

…to head up to Moscow dressed in orange and blue. If he makes it out alive he’ll be lucky. This is going to be a bad year up there. Extra nasty.

Having an instate rivalry is a part of a lot of big time school’s identity. Plus, I doubt that any one currently attending Boise State wants the rivalry to go away. Are you kidding me? Going into your in-state rival’s tiny little dome and spanking them on the field has to be the best thing in the world. Yeah, it’s a party town and they may be nasty but who cares, it makes it that much better to embarrass them on the field. I think that the comments by Custra (and I hate to say it, but coach Pete) were completely $ influenced and had nothing to do with the concern of the fans. Do you think that if VT fans were notoriously known for being huge idiots that Boise wouldn’t have scheduled the game? No, they would have, because they’re getting a huge fatty check.

Play them in Boise. that’s just simple. If they don’t want to do it, oh well.

It will be interesting what Staples says on KTIK.

UI is BSU’s natural rivalry. Did Kansas stop playing Kansas State for all those years where Kansas State sucked? Did Iowa stop playing Iowa State for all those years where Iowa State sucked? Did West Virginia do the right thing by not playing Marshall for all those years?

This is college football. You play your rival. For BSU, that means Idaho. People should stop whining about “drunken fans.” Seriously, this is slightly pathetic. BSU should beat down Idaho every year, end of story. If you don’t want to go to a BSU game, then don’t go. If you are concerned about strength of schedule, use Idaho in place of your MAC or 1-AA game. I’m actually disappointed in OBNUG’s general response here.

What Boise does is, in the end, up to Boise. It’s administration, it’s coach, it’s fans. While opinions and national perception may change, that should not matter in the decision Boise makes in what’s best for it’s program.

What does playing Idaho offer us financially?

Traveling to their 15k seat shed probably comes close to costing us money after expenses (assuming: $20 tickets - their operating expenses - our travel expenses = not much left over).

We could easily schedule a mid tier BCS team and sell out Bronco Stadium, pump a ton of money into our program, pump a ton of money into the local economy, and give a huge middle finger to UofI (who’s treated us like BAD WORDS for as long as I can remember).

I really, honestly fail to see a downside to leaving them behind.

(Before I begin, I should mention that I don’t give advice. I’m not going to suggest what you should or should not do. I’ll just share my point of view and let it be.)

First, the issues of reality and perception are separate. There are realities to the Boise-Idaho matchup (fan behavior, finances, rivalry status, strength of schedule, etc.). Any of those are valid reasons to either cancel or continue the series. The game is not a high revenue game, though it does keep that revenue within the state (which is a nice binnie). It does nothing for strength of schedule unless Idaho knocks it out one year. Fan behavior? I’ll leave that alone since I haven’t been there. It’s decidedly a rivalry.

But it’s not the realities that people outside your state are seeing; it’s the perceptions. And Staples did address the primary perception that’s going around, and it’s that Boise State sees Idaho as ‘beneath’ them, and that BSU has no trouble broadcasting that message. Reading the comments above, I can see much in the way of the realities, but that often gets drowned by the sheer emotion you have. It’s that emotion that’s getting picked up, not any underlying substantive argument.

And it conflicts with another perception: that Boise State represents the dream of every ‘little guy’ in the college football landscape. Over the last decade, Boise has proven that a team in a lesser conference can indeed pull themselves up to the level of the big, established programs. Heck, that’s the way that ESPN has been marketing you for years. That’s made college football a lot more exciting, and many people cheer for Boise simply because they’re trendy. But that vogue support disappears when Boise loses that ‘chic’ factor they’ve had.

To be honest, people outside the BSU-IU game aren’t going to care about criticisms of vulgar and coarse behavior. It’s nothing unique enough to warrant interest. (Now, if the national guard had to be called in every time you two met, then you’d have a different story on your hands. But a keyed car, a fight in the stands, and a lot of drunken slurs aren’t going to raise eyebrows.) Simply put, nobody is sympathetic toward it (whether or not they should be).

And it’s the first time that Boise has been cast into the ‘villain’ role in a national spotlight. Even if Idaho were entirely to blame for the problems between fans, it’s the Boise side of this argument that appears ill-mannered to the neutral observer. In a way, it’s a sign of respect: you’re the big dog, so the little dog gets the sympathy. And it becomes your P.R. mess.

As I said, I can see the ‘reality’ arguments. But the ‘perception’ is being driven by your emotions, not by the realities.

Boise and Kustra look like the villain because we are the big dog. Kustra’s comments make him look thin skinned because in a rivalry there is nastiness and inebriation because a strong rivalry will expose the worst of behavior; so just expect it and from both sides.
What I find interesting is Peterson’s comments have received no attention and he really said so much more than Kustra. When Peterson was asked about continuing the rivalry by traveling to Moscow he simply said “Why should we? most of their fans are in Boise anyway and our fans don’t like traveling up there.” That statement essentially tells Vandals that Boise does not need you and if you still want to get on the same field as us then you have to play by our rules. We are the big dog and we call the shots. There is no benefit to our team to travel to Moscow and play in front of 15,000 people. There is no recruiting base there, there are no extracurricular activites for Bronco fans to enjoy and they don’t enjoy that environment, the field is horrible, the Vandals add nothing to our strength of schedule, etc, etc. It was if someone asked him to start up an annual game with Idaho State. Peterson said so much without offending anyone— he is the greatest coach.