On the same day Boise State broke ground on its new football complex, the program acknowledged it won’t plow any new regular-season ground in 2012, despite its best efforts to do otherwise.
Thanks to an NCAA rule, any team that travels to Hawaii during the regular season is permitted to add a 13th game to its schedule that season. The “Hawaii Exemption”, as it’s called, was implemented in order to allow teams the opportunity to schedule another game -- usually at home -- in order to offset travel costs incurred as a result of the trip to the islands.
As the Broncos are scheduled to play Hawaii Nov. 10 -- the Warriors make its football-only move to the Mountain West this season -- they’re permitted to add a 13th game. The athletic department has tried to do just that, but, unfortunately, could not find any takers willing to travel to Bronco Stadium in early December, the Idaho Statesman reports.
“We tried everybody, trust me,” said BSU athletic director Mark Coyle, who then launched into a tutorial on how the program looks to fill out its schedule. And the difficulties it encounters along the way.
“You want to build a schedule that’s competitive and helps you achieve your goals,” Coyle said. “Your goal is to have an opportunity to compete in postseason play. With scheduling, we want to be smart, we want to be strategic. … What I’m learning here, it’s hard to convince people to come out and play here. I’d like to get some of those programs to come out here and play here. Boise State has done an incredible job of being flexible and going out and playing other people, but we want to have conversations and develop those series where we’re going to have people come here.”
Hear that, big boys? The offer still stands, provided you’re willing to do a home-and-home. You know, the kind of respect an upper echelon program like Boise State has more than earned.
Then again, until the Broncos play in a stadium that seats more than 37,000 fans, the school will always find one built-in -- and sort of well-reasoned -- excuse for teams to avoid a trip to Boise.