The two most reliable features of Boise State football broadcasts for years were the blue turf inside the Broncos’ home stadium and the ESPN logo that could almost always be found in a corner of the screen. Sixty-one Boise State home games have been carried by an ESPN network since 2004. Starting this fall, those four ubiquitous letters will be replaced by different networks’ logos.
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The Broncos’ television exposure arrangement was unique within the Mountain West, and it created what most of the conference felt was an uneven playing field. For better or worse, that perception will be going away, too, over the next few years.
The Mountain West’s new television rights deal was announced Thursday, and alongside primary rights partner CBS was a new player in FOX, which will take ESPN’s place in the split of Mountain West games going forward.
Although it will bring in more money for Boise State and the league’s other schools, the new deal also represents a major change for the Broncos, one that could further fray their relationship with the Mountain West.
Boise State was given a unique deal when it agreed to remain in the Mountain West after backing away from its intent to join the Big East. When the league’s ensuing television deal was finalized in March 2013, Boise State home games were negotiated separately from the rest of the inventory.
Commissioner Craig Thompson said Thursday this new six-year contract is the last that will include special treatment for Boise State games. That decision was made at last month’s board of directors meeting, he said.
“As we move forward, that is the anticipation, that everybody’s membership agreements would get more germane and equal, if you will,” Thompson said.
The previous agreement gave Boise State and others a bonus for appearing on certain channels, which naturally benefited the Broncos greatly. In 2017, the conference altered the structure, instead giving Boise State an additional $1.8 million annually (its average bonus total from 2013-16) on top of the distribution given to each school. Boise State has received $2.9 million per year the last three years under the former deal, while the other Mountain West schools received $1.1 million each.
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Leveling out the payouts down the road will surely appease most of the higher-ups around the Mountain West, but the move likely was not received terribly well at Boise State. Athletic director Curt Apsey said “I’d rather not comment” when asked about it on KTIK-FM in Boise on Thursday, saying Thompson would be best to ask. A request for clarity from the conference was not returned on Thursday night.
It hasn’t been the best month for the school’s relationship with the league. Head coach Bryan Harsin gave an impassioned response to a question about the Group of 5’s race for a New Year’s Six spot on Dec. 8, the day after winning the conference championship game. He felt the Mountain West had not done enough to promote itself or Boise State in its quest for a Cotton Bowl trip.
“There’s factors I don’t think we should be doing as coaches and players, but people that support or are a part of our conference should be doing and doing a better job of it,” Harsin said.
The six-year rights agreement, which begins July 1 and runs through the 2025-26 athletics season, is worth $270 million and will place at least three Mountain West games per year on CBS itself and at least seven on FOX’s main channel or on FS1. It means a sizable financial bump for all teams in the Mountain West, but it also marks a sea change in the way the Broncos’ brand is handled.
As a condition of Boise State’s New Year’s Eve 2012 agreement to remain in the conference, its home games were negotiated separately from the conference’s television rights deals. The seven-year deal announced in March 2013 detailed that ESPN would carry at least three Broncos home games per year on ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC. Since then, 31 of the Broncos’ regular-season home games have been on those networks, including all six in 2019. Home games at Albertsons Stadium will now appear on FOX’s networks.
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The new rights deal is also not as lucrative as the one signed by the American Athletic Conference, which will pay schools about $7 million each. That contract is twice as long as the Mountain West’s; Thompson argued Thursday that a shorter deal was important in a landscape that is ever-changing, and the Mountain West’s rights will now be back up for negotiation alongside the Power 5 leagues’ in the middle of the decade.
Although this all will provide fodder for those who think Boise State has outgrown its conference, but the new television deal will bring more money, and a new landing spot for games on the blue turf could bring new attention to the program.
ESPN exposure had been of vital importance in building Boise State, whether in recruiting, national brand recognition or promoting the university itself. Although Mountain West retains its partnerships with ESPN-affiliated bowl games, the Broncos are unlikely to appear on the Worldwide Leader this next season.
“ESPN, over the years, has just played a huge role in all this for us,” Boise State athletic director Curt Apsey told the Idaho Statesman in November 2017. “It’s certainly something that we can’t take for granted. It’s very difficult to measure.”
Apsey and Boise State were very much privy to the negotiations; he sat on the conference’s TV subcommittee with the athletic directors from Colorado State, Nevada, San Diego State and Wyoming. Apsey said Thursday on KTIK-FM in Boise that there were discussions with ESPN over the last few months, but “the deal just wasn’t acceptable for the conference.”
The CBS/FOX deal will likely triple the average revenue distribution, although Thompson said an official per-team figure had yet to be finalized. For Boise State, it will likely be close to double, as the Broncos will continue to receive their additional $1.8 million a year through the 2025 football season.
CBS will own Boise State’s road conference game rights. All four of the team’s MW road games were on CBS Sports Network in 2019, but a big enough game in the future could wind up on CBS. The Broncos have seven home games in 2020 that FOX will carry.
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ESPN helped put Boise State on the map, but it didn’t do the program many favors in recent years, putting a majority of the Broncos’ home games on after 8 p.m. MT, much to the chagrin of fans. The late kickoffs will likely continue, albeit not quite as late, with the games on FOX’s networksstarting at no later than 7:45 p.m. local time and CBS games capped at 8 p.m. local kicks.
FOX Sports president Mark Silverman said the network is “very actively” looking at bringing its Big Noon Saturday road show to Boise next season for Sept. 19’s game against Florida State as a way of celebrating the start of the partnership.
“Hopefully they’re very pleased with the outcome,” Thompson said of Boise State.
The Broncos will gladly take the influx of money. And the FOX deal may end up being a good one for the Broncos, but will it be enough to endear them again to the conference, especially with their extra incentive going away? The next six years will tell.
(Photo: Brian Losness / USA Today)
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