BOISE, Idaho — As the ripple effects of college realignment continue to make their rounds, athletic departments throughout the country, including the one located in Boise, Idaho, are beginning to brace for whatever comes next.
It's been just over a week since USC and UCLA, two long-standing perennial powers in the Pac-12 Conference, shook the landscape of collegiate athletics, when they announced their intentions to move to the Big Ten in 2024.
Decades of well-established west-region traditions were discarded, and the geographical logic associated with two Los Angeles-based institutions playing in the same conference as a school located in New Jersey was obviously insignificant.
The Trojans and Bruins, two well-known rivals, shared a common interest: Securing a more lucrative future by claiming a spot in one of the leagues that seemingly will inevitably evolve into one of the Super 2 conferences.
The pending departures of USC and UCLA — and the Los Angeles television market — will leave two holes in the Pac-12 that simply can't be equally filled. It also triggered a chess match between the Pac-12 and Big 12, as both search for ways to stabilize their respective futures.
Will one of them eventually collapse? Or can both survive?
Does either conference want to expand? If so, who will they target?
For the first time since the latest round of realignment rocked college athletics, Boise State director of athletics Jeramiah Dickey explained the current position and stance of his department in an exclusive interview with KTVB.
The Broncos are current members of the Mountain West, but there's a mutual understanding that they, too, are keeping their options open.
"The fact of the matter is Power 5 conferences know there is interest in Group of 5 teams wanting to move into the Power 5. Our value speaks for itself and there are a lot of determining factors that we don't control," Dickey told KTVB.
"We are the front porch of this state, and I do see a lot of value in the things that we're doing and have done over the past year and a half," Dickey added. "We want to be elite and we very much have a Power 5 mentality."
That being said, the amount of dialogue currently taking place between Boise State and a potential Power 5 conference suitor isn't as fluid as one might assume. There are certain factors that have to play out first, and believe it or not, accessing an application to join a prospective conference isn't as simple as logging on to CareerBuilder.com.
Over the next few weeks, the Pac-12 will have a better idea of what their future looks like. They recently expedited the conference's media rights negotiations, a process that will reveal if it's financially beneficial for the league to simply stay at 10 teams or if they need to expand. If they choose the latter, any university the Pac-12 targets would have to bring added value to the league.
How much value?
John Canzano, a columnist and radio host in Oregon, recently interviewed former Fox Sports Network president Bob Thompson, who projected the Pac-12's pending media rights deal will fetch approximately $300 million a year.
Split amongst the 10 members still committed to the Pac-12, that would mean approximately $30 million a year per member institution. So unless those 10 universities are OK with making less money, which seems unlikely, any expansion candidates would have to add significant value.
So that appears to be what Dickey is focused on — increasing the value of Boise State's brand and appeal, regardless of conference affiliation, because that's one thing he can control.
"My job specifically is to do our personal and serviceable best on a daily basis to improve our situation, to continue to impact fan experience, to sell as many tickets as possible, to get as many donors involved as possible and to represent this great state," Dickey told KTVB.
"I don't worry about what I can't control," Dickey continued. "I need help as it pertains to Bronco Nation and the support from this community, and we need people to get on board. We need the support at our football games and we need the support at our basketball games and we need to make sure we're continuing to impact that experience as much as we possibly can."
Why specifically football and basketball?
Those are two revenue generating sports not only at Boise State, but for pretty much every other college athletic department in the country. The value of those sports impacts the value of any conference media rights deal, which is ultimately the driving force of realignment.
With so much at stake, Dickey acknowledged there is a sense of urgency for the Broncos to put their best foot forward.
"I'm more passionate today than I was a year and a half ago," Dickey said. "If anything, this is driving forward the momentum that we need to take that next step. When you look at what's happening with conference realignment, it has people talking, and ultimately [evokes] questions from our community and those we represent of, 'what else can we do?'
"When you look at what we can control, there's a lot, and if anything, that timeline is now cut in half," Dickey said. "We know there's value in six games, six sellouts. We know there's value in success on the blue, and success in Extra Mile (Arena). We know there's value in continuing to build on the brand that I was very grateful and fortunate to walk into, that we've been building for the last 25 years as an FBS institution."
Reflecting back on the last 18 months specifically, Dickey can see where the Broncos have made progress. From reorganizing the infrastructure of the department, to the new scoreboards set to go up at Albertsons Stadium this fall, to record-setting fundraising efforts, Dickey says the Broncos are in a better position now than when he was hired.
"As I look at the future, everything is ahead of us," Dickey said. "It goes back to the day I arrived here; we're not going to let our foot off the gas. There is a lot that we can control in this process in terms of packing out facilities, improving our fan experience, and making sure that we are innovative and ahead of what others are doing. We are competing with ourselves. And we are going to define those expectations. And in this chaos, it's allowed me to really push forward some things that I think will improve our situation. I think the future is extremely bright for us."
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