Interesting Stuff
Post Game Fiesta Media Blitz
January 2, 2007 
No doubt about it, the BSU football team and coach pete are winners.
But PUH-LEEZE! Get real people. It is just football. It is just a game and lots of people from travel agents to bartenders made lots of money off the player’s efforts. Coach Pete made lots of money.
HOWEVER. Let’s just go with the flow. Bask in the warm glow of an undefeated season and hope we can do the same next year. Go Broncos!
Get over the chip on the shoulder. We have a great team, a great university, a fine community that is suffering from growing pains and mismanagement. If we hear another cry of, “This game (team, coach, broadcast) put Boise and Idaho on the map,” we will probably blow chips.
Dr. Bob gushes over how this winning team will boost academics at BSU. Does he believe for a second that Michigan State’s agriculture research or medical school will SUFFER after the coach is fired and the team has a miserable year as they did this season? Football is football and in reality it has little to do with academic excellence.
It is a safe bet folks in Columbus Ohio or Ann Arbor, Michigan are not crowing, “We are in the national spotlight with TV coverage. It put us on the map!”
Grow up! We are good people and we do good things. We have a growing university, and media hype won’t make or break us. Getting on TV or being mentioned in the “national media” is not a big deal. When killers cut heads off their wives or a guy gets on “The Apprentice” we get in the national spotlight as well, but it doesn’t make a difference in the quality of our air or the traffic on Eagle Road.
No more inferiority complex. We’re from Boise and proud of it. PERIOD.
To insure more advertising-free Boise Guardian news, please consider financial support.
Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Jan 2, 2007, 10:13 am
Happy New Year, Guardian! So far, 2007 has started off NICELY for the Bronco Nation, huh?
It’s possible a big BCS victory could boost academics. Some of that money might filter down out of the Athletic Department. And there may be professional educators out there who might take a second look at BSU, because of the spotlight.
(But ultimately you’re right – it IS only a game.)
Put us on the map? Oh, GREAT! I know many other Guardian participants feel the same way as I do… I’d rather REMOVE the Boise metro area from a few maps. (There are probably 10,000 people out there across the Fruited Plain watching the post-game hype, and thinking to themselves, “Hey, Boise sounds like a nice place. Let’s move there.”)
Jan 2, 2007, 11:02 am
GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You guys and Coach Pete are studs!
Jan 2, 2007, 12:39 pm
Think you’re off base here. One drop in a bucket won’t overflow it, but drop after drop will. This is just another drop, albeit a BIG one. Face it, we’re a sports nation.
This kind of attention (ESPN, Fox Sports) gets much more traction than a freak loose head on the highway or some nobody on just another popular reality TV show. My phone lights up with calls from out of town friends when BSU does big things in sports.
It doesn’t with this other stuff. People take notice of Boise and Idaho when BSU & their blue turf is splashed on ESPN. We owe Coach Pete & his team a debt of gratitude. So you too drop the shoulder chip & embrace these guys for mapping the way.
Drip Drop, Buddy
Jan 2, 2007, 4:11 pm
Ian: Who is the 5th hottest search on MSN today?
Man, I love that guy!
Jan 2, 2007, 5:41 pm
I’m with G-man on this one. I’m a Broncos fan and I love what they did. It was the best football game I’ve ever seen. What’s not to be proud of.
But the whole “put Boise on the map” crap reminds me of the pandering types we have in high places that still think Boise is stupid and toothless. They are the ones who are duped, impressed, swayed, used and eventually abused by the likes of developers, the Boise Chamber of Commerce, and just about any big shot from out of town.
Get ready for more Bill Agees and Larry Johnston types because we just don’t leave the gate open, we grease it so it will never shut.
Jan 2, 2007, 7:48 pm
It’s a game, folks…. the real thing we all want is a university dedicated to producing students with the highest academic standing our school can produce.
More scholarships, more funding for low income students to help them with the basic necessities of life- food,housing, school expenses, transportation money. I would like to see every college,university in every town in America concentrate less on glorifiying a sport and it’s all too temporary ( and local) hero’s and start concentarting on helping all those students struggling with the demands being placed on them, especially financial, so that they can get a better education and become a contributing part to our great country…a country founded on a love of learning which produced a wisdom based on freedom and equality for all!
Jan 3, 2007, 11:15 am
Nice pipe dream Joe. That’s nice to wish for but you’re not a going to have a great university with out a great athletic program. It brings the dollars and recognition.
Don’t be so narrow minded. It’s far more than a “game.”
Know what would be nice too? Cats & dogs holding hands, singing in harmony.
Jan 3, 2007, 12:32 pm
Timing is important here Guardian. There is a lot to be said for the significance of the event. Don’t get me wrong I’m hardly a sportshead and I sympathize with much of your sentiment. But the case can be made that this is more than just a football game and it is more than just a win. It was an exciting sensational win and a unifying event for our community.
The exuberance expressed by all of us is almost palpable. The Broncos had their debut on the national scene and really gave an outstanding performance. The win unites us as a community and a state to a point in time which is a source of pride. For that one point in time we were not Ada/Canyon County residents, not urban/rural dwellers, not Democrat/Republican voters. We were Broncos. Whatever our differences (I’m a Vandal), we have this accomplishment by the team in common. I believe that this source of pride is a positive and can translate into other areas to the benefit of our community.
When we know people are watching we will want to put our best foot forward. We clean our homes and plant flowers when vistors come or spruce up our factories when travelling dignataries come seeking to strengthen economic ties. We do this to express our pride in our accomplishments. I think that the win may cause some people to get more involved in correcting the problems of which you write. But being the perrennial gadfly can give a negative cynical perception that doesn’t seem appropriate right now. Don’t rain on this parade.
And as far as the platitudes (put Boise on the map), surely you’ve watched interviews conducted by any sportscaster on TV. Fertile ground for pointing out mindless gibberish.
Jan 3, 2007, 6:42 pm
Tell it, Sisyphus!
It’s not that the Broncos won, it’s the way they won… heart, smarts and guts. They deserve the love, brother, ‘cuz it wasn’t just football.
Jan 4, 2007, 10:24 am
“It is a safe bet folks in Columbus Ohio or Ann Arbor, Michigan are not crowing, “We are in the national spotlight with TV coverage. It put us on the map!”
Actually, Columbus currently has, and always has had (in the 15+ years I’ve lived here), an inferiority complex. We seem to live in mortal terror that we will never shake the sobriquet “Cow Town.” In response, our city council is an easy target for scammers that come in and tell them that such-and-such (Ameriflora, King Tut exhibit, etc.) will put us on the map.
These things always turn out to be financial boondoggles, and the losses are always passed along to us Cowpokes.
Jan 10, 2007, 1:51 pm
Well I guess the game did more than just make BSU a feel good story…see this article from the Statesman.
“Online inquiries to the admissions office at Boise State University jumped 135 percent since the BSU Broncos football team won the Fiesta Bowl game Jan. 1.
BSU President Bob Kustra, who delivered his annual spring address to students and faculty this morning, said the graduate school also has seen an enormous increase in interest.
The graduate school normally gets three or four applications a day in the week after New Year’s. But, Kustra said, last week 30 to 40 applications came in every day — most of them from out-of-state applicants.”
I know, this just means more people moving into our state. At least it will give a lot of you something else to complain about.