Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) ― Boise State on Sunday named redshirt junior Joe Southwick the starting quarterback for the No. 24 Broncos. Southwick, a 6-foot-1, 187-pounder from Danville, Calif., was a backup a year ago to Kellen Moore, who during his career won more games than any other quarterback in the history of college football. As a backup Southwick mostly saw action in fourth-quarter mop-up duty. In eight games, he was 23 of 30 for 198 yards and one TD and one interception. Coach Chris Petersen says Southwick knows the system well and prepared hard to earn the starting job. Southwick says he feels privileged as well a lot of responsibility in being named the starter. The Broncos open the season Friday against No. 12 Michigan State in East Lansing, Mich. Click below for a full report from Idaho Statesman sports writer Brian Murphy via the Associated Press; the photo above is by Statesman photographer Chris Butler via AP.

Idaho's state Board of Education has voted unanimously to grant Boise State University's request to boost the base pay for its head football coach, Chris Petersen, to $2 million. In a special meeting, the board voted to bump up Petersen's base pay to $2 million for the 2012-2013 year, up $375,000 from the current $1,175,000. Petersen has a five-year contract that includes annual increases, which would otherwise push his base pay up to $1,575,000 by Jan. 31, 2016; the board will consider a new five-year pact later. He is the state's highest-paid state employee, but the money doesn't come from state funds; instead, it's from program revenues, media, public appearance fees, donations and other non-state funds.

“The impact on the university will be minimal,” said board member Milford Terrell, noting that the change won't tap into any state funds. State Schools Supt. Tom Luna asked to clarify that no state funds will be used, and was assured that was the case. “I don't have a problem with this and I'm going to support it,” Luna said. The AP reports that Petersen is 73-6 in six seasons as head coach for the Broncos.

State Board of Education member Milford Terrell moved to authorize BSU President Bob Kustra to make the final decision “as to whether it is in the best interest of the university to accept an invitation to the Big East conference as a football-only member, and to another conference as to the remainder of the university's intercollegiate sports.” Board member Rod Lewis seconded the motion.

Asked how long all this would take, Kustra told the board, “I would think that by next week we would have a resolution in this matter.” He noted that the appropriate conference varies by sport. “Our wrestling team, for example, is in the PAC-12, because that's simply the best place for our wrestling team to be,” he said. It's important, he said, to find the “best match.”

Board member Bill Goesling proposed to delay a vote so the board could gather more information, but his proposal got no second. The board then passed Terrell's motion on a 7-1 vote, with Goesling, of Moscow, casting the only dissenting vote. Kustra told the board that BSU would join the Big East only if it would play in a new Western Division the conference is establishing, which could include Southern Methodist University, the University of Houston, Boise State, Air Force, and at least one other western school.

BSU President Bob Kustra told the state Board of Education today that a new western division of the Big East conference for football could include Southern Methodist University, the University of Houston, Boise State, and Air Force, plus two more he's not “at liberty” to name, “but I will tell you I'm very pleased about the prospects of this western division, including not only the four I mentioned but two more that would be very solid citizens in a western division like this.”

Asked by the board if it would be a “deal breaker” if the Big East didn't establish a western division, Kustra responded, “Yes, without a doubt, that is a deal breaker.” The idea would be for the western schools to play the western schools, he said.

Here’s a news item from the Associated Press:  BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The “firsts” keep coming for the Boise State football team. The third-ranked Broncos will be featured on the national cover of Sports Illustrated magazine this week. The Idaho Statesman reports that SI writer Austin Murphy spent much of last week in Boise to report and write a story about whether the Broncos should be eligible to play for the BCS national championship. Two photographers shot the Boise State-Oregon State game on Saturday night. Boise State was on a regional cover of Sports Illustrated’s college football preview in August, but this is the school’s first national cover. It hits news stands Wednesday. Boise State’s game against Oregon State also drew ESPN’s “College GameDay” show to Boise for the first time on Saturday. And the game against Oregon State was the first regular-season Boise State game to air nationally on network television.

Idaho Sen. Jim Risch won his bet with Virginia Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia when the BSU Broncos defeated Virginia Tech on the football field, 33-30, so today, Warner had to pay up by posing on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in a Boise State jersey. Here’s the photo. Interestingly, Risch has long been an outspoken opponent of gambling, and led the fight in the state Senate in 2001 to reject then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne’s negotiated tribal gaming compacts with Idaho’s Indian tribes; Risch said then that the move would “sell our beautiful Idaho into the harlotry of casino gambling.”

Boise State University has accepted an invitation to join the Mountain West Conference and become its 10th member institution, joining such schools as the U.S. Air Force Academy, BYU, TCU and the University of Utah. The move is effective next summer, on July 1, 2011. The invitation to move from the Western Athletic Conference, or WAC, to the Mountain West, according to BSU President Bob Kustra, “reflects the excellence that Boise State University has demonstrated academically and athletically.” He said, “This move is in the best interests of Boise State’s future, and the university is excited to be part of one of the nation’s most outstanding conferences.” Click below for the full announcement from BSU.

Boise is still buzzing in a big way over the wild BSU-Oregon game last night at Bronco Stadium, which drew a record crowd and ended in a 19-8 win for Boise State. Excitement was running so high about the game that it seemed that business came to a standstill in Boise around mid-day yesterday, as folks poured down to the stadium and its vicinity. There was even a bit of a delay in issuing the governor’s press release about the state’s latest budget shortfall yesterday afternoon, as staffers scrambled to get their boss’s final approval on the press release when he’d already headed out to the stadium.

The game was wild, full of errors and missed opportunities on both sides, but it was BSU’s night, culminating in a bizarre moment when, live on national TV (ESPN), Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount, reacting to taunting from BSU player Byron Hout, punched Hout in the face, knocking him to his knees. Several large men had to restrain Blount as he left the field, as he lunged toward BSU fans who again taunted him. Blount apologized the same night; according to AP, he said, “I just apologize to anyone watching that. I just apologize to all of our fans and all of Boise’s fans. That’s something I shouldn’t have done. I lost my head. … I should have handled that situation a lot better than I did.” Click here to read the full AP story as posted this morning on the U of O’s Web site.

To top things off, the game started much later than usual - kickoff was at 8:15 p.m. - and went deep into the night, so those who watched, whether at the stadium, at an overflow viewing center set up at BSU’s Taco Bell Arena, at gatherings or at home on TV, are generally exhausted this morning. Perhaps it’s time for the long weekend to begin…