Big East Move

OUR VIEW

Might as well look at bright side on move to Big East

Besides, if you don’t like Boise State’s future football home, be patient — with all the changes in college athletics, there’s a chance the Broncos will relocate again in a few years

   Well, Boise State fans, it looks as though the Broncos will finally be in a conference with an automatic Bowl Championship Series bid in 2013. That’s the good news. And if you’re a glass-is-half-full kind of fan, you can take solace in knowing that you’ll rack up lots of frequent flier miles if you plan on attending their road games.

   Yes, BSU has accepted an invitation to join the Big East Conference which — at least as of now — is guaranteed at least one slot in a big-money BCS bowl game. Boise State, which lost one game by a single point to Texas Christian this season, was once again snubbed by the controversial Bowl Championship Series. There’s little doubt that’s what drove university officials to jump conferences for the second time in 18 months. The school joined the Mountain West Conference in June. It will become an official Big East member in football only in 2013, and the other sports will go back to the Western Athletic Conference.

   So now that it’s a done deal, we might as well look on the bright side. In addition to being in an automatic qualifier conference, here’s what’s good about the move:

   For starters, you’ll be able to see more of their games on TV. The ESPN series of networks covers many Big East games but no Mountain West games. Most of the latter are on smaller networks not available on most basic cable and satellite TV packages.

   The media markets for Big East teams are much larger than Mountain West markets, and that translates into more revenue for the schools. Television advertisers pay by the eyeball. Boise State will have more money coming in, which benefits not only athletics programs but academic ones.

   New opponents on the blue. Houston, Louisville, Cincinnati are just a few of the schools the Broncos will face, and new blood is always exciting.

   For those of you who are disappointed in the move because of the long distances you’d have to travel to watch road games, consider this: with all the rapidfire, seemingly endless changes in college athletics these days, this one might not last very long, either. Who knows? Maybe the Pac-12 Conference will come to its senses and invite BSU to compete in football. We can dream, can’t we?

   After all, TCU announced it was going to join the Big East too, but changed its mind and went to the Big 12 instead. The Horned Frogs never played a single game in the Big East — which, by the way, really needs to change its name now that it has teams from California, Idaho, Florida, Connecticut and New Jersey.

   Maybe it should drop the “East” and just be “The Big Conference.”

   Don’t like it? Wait a few months. It, too, would probably change by then.

   Our view is based on the majority opinions of the Idaho Press-Tribune editorial board. Members of the board are Publisher Matt Davison, Managing Editor Vickie Holbrook and community members Tim Vandeventer and Sandi Levi, all of Nampa; Opinion Editor Phil Bridges and community member John Blaisdell of Caldwell, and Alex Zamora of Wilder.

One thing I like about this opinion is that things could change in the next few years.  After the shakeup this year, anything is possible.

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