UI Dominates Rivalry w/Boise State

Seven comments on this post so far. Add yours!

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  idawa on November 20 at 9:40 a.m.

  I guess in terms of who can have the best football team and the option to take classes while living in your parent’s basement, BSU has it hands down.

  But as an actual University, I think Idaho is still the winner. Higher graduation rates, more national merit scholars, more significant research, more doctoral degrees, better party scene, and more tradition. (that’s a lot “more”… ha)

  But, BSU is on an upward trajectory and has come a long way in the past 30 years. Of course, I think the bad economy has hurt their hopes a lot. Idaho (the state) doesn’t have the resources to expand BSU into Kustra’s dream at the moment, which might mean that he, and other visionaries, might bail, thus slowing down progress at BSU.

  (BTW … pointing out WSU’s football trajectory is a good retort for BSU fans who think the current ride will last forever … they better hope that Peterson never dies or retires.)

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  jazzyvandal on November 20 at 12:54 p.m.

  Personally, I am glad BSU is making strides academically. It was a long time coming. They have a ways to go with graduation, retention, and research dollars.

  The state needs to change its attitude about higher education for one thing. Invest more in higher education and bring in more industry. College grads (especially UI grads) are not staying in state after graduation/

  As for the football thing, it’s a good marketing tool for them an it helped them a lot with the increase in students. If you look at the enrollment data, a great number of them are from the Treasure Valley. It will be interesting to see how the CWI affects BSU.

  I heard Kustra wants to make BSU more of a residential campus by attracting more of a greek life. It will be interesting to see how that pans out. Are they trying to get away from the non-traditional students?

  BSU football reminds me of an NFL team because of the type of people in the stands. You never see college age students in the stands or feature stories about campus life on the BSU ESPN broadcasts. It’s kind of unfortunate. UI journalism students produced news packages about the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival and “Akey’s Army” for ESPNU. There’s more to college life than a college football team and it seems at BSU football is the ONLY thing.

  I agree, the winning at BSU will not last forever. BYU’s reign ended and they have not been as good as they used to.

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  Charles_Dixon on November 20 at 4:13 p.m.

  Boise as a city has always been a town in search of an identity. For decades they had the biggest city but didn’t have any real trademark attractions like the biggest college or the biggest industry. BSU football in the last 10 years has simply become part of Boise’s identity. You have people who ten years ago couldn’t possibly care less about football who now have a dozen BSU T-shirts and other garb and who claim to be the biggest bronco fan in town. These people don’t care what NFL teams make the playoffs or what teams make the Final Four but they can sure explain the intricacies of BSU’s chances of getting into a BCS bowl game.

  But you have to realize that this identity connection between BSU and the city of Boise is by and large limited to football. Boiseans in general don’t feel connected to BSU’s students, or to its fine arts department, or even to its men’s basketball team, the second biggest sports attraction. Once football season is over the only real connection between the town and its university is the anticipation for the next football season.

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  spokelooneh on November 21 at 1:21 a.m.

  “more doctoral degrees”

  They let Boise State grant doctoral degrees? In what, pray tell?

  /Shudder.

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  billybob on November 21 at 9:10 a.m.

  I’m Boise State alumni, and your all pretty off when it comes to Boise State campus life and academics.

  Its a great school actually, sorry their football team actually does well. Don’t try to justify with the same old academic argument. BSU does outstanding all around. They’re also adding a new Business/Economics center, a new Political Science and Urban Research center, as well as expanding the SUB and adding parking garages. That school is adding something new.

  Its obvious when rival schools are jealous, they sit and whine about it make excuses. College is college, and Boise is the better one. Sorry if there’s no boy-loving frats that are overrated and outdated because kids enjoy having a real lives these days. Go Broncos!

  And as for students in the stands..do you go to BSU games? Not to mention the stadium is in the middle of Idaho’s biggest metropolitan area, of course there is going to be all kinds of people who want to go! Vandal logic, its the dumbest.

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  billybob on November 21 at 9:14 a.m.

  (Sorry for the typos on the previous post - Saturday football is on)

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  Nick_Adams on November 21 at 5:42 p.m.

  If I wanted to be glib, I’d say that while BSU grads believe they have a better football team; U of I grads think they’re better people.

  That said, Jazzy and Dixon provide fairly balanced opinions on the differences between BSU and Idaho. BSU is still years behind Idaho in a number of academic categories and as a BSU alum the ones that worry me are graduation rates and retention. Kustra has really moved the ball forward (no pun intended) on research dollars without directly competing with Idaho—which is exactly how it should be. Of course, there are still some Vandal alums who believe Idaho should be the only university to receive research dollars, but thankfully that viewpoint is definitely in the minority.

  BSU has become a major economic development force in Boise, thanks in a large part to the football program’s success, but also because Kustra, our Mayor, Congressman Simpson and Senator Crapo have been working very well together to strengthen BSU’s academic and research programs.

  One of the reasons BSU struggled in the past to move forward was simply politics. Gov Andrus took a ton of heat when helped push through the deal to expand BSU computer engineering facilities at the behest of Micron. However, when Dirk Kempthorne was Mayor (and Senator and Governor) he largely ignored BSU. Larry Craig made it very clear that his only priority for federal research dollars was the U of I. The hyper-provincial and ag-based legislature has always favored the U of I—that’s changing a bit as more legislators represent urbanized areas—but the bias is still there.

  I’m quite proud of all of Idaho’s colleges and universities. Each has their role and I hope that the current spirit of cooperation continues. Quality higher education is too important to go back to the bad old days of regionalism, rivalry and repression.

  BSU still has a long way to go to be truly competitive with Idaho on the academic front, but I believe with Kustra’s leadership, we will continue to make progress on all fronts.

  @spoke: BSU offers 3 doctoratal degrees (education, geosciences and electrical and computer engineering). You can learn more here: http://www.boisestate.edu/gradcoll/0003.html

  Go Broncos!

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