MOSCOW, Idaho – Hugh Diener doesn’t think of it as a boycott. He’s merely sticking to what he – and other boosters – told University of Idaho president Chuck Staben months ago.

His message then: If the Vandals football program rejoined the Big Sky Conference, he and his wife would stop attending games and stop donating.

“I’m not boycotting because, frankly, if they continue on in the Big Sky, which I see no other avenue for them at this point, we won’t be going to any games,” says Diener, the former president of the Vandal Scholarship Fund.

Diener, 73, graduated from UI in 1968. His wife, Barbara, completed her Idaho degree a year later. Every year since he left the school, they’ve donated money and resources to Idaho and its athletic program.

Their financial support, added up through the years, tops $100,000. They’ve given so much for so long that their names are listed in the loyal donor program on UI’s website.

But the Dieners are done. Frustrated by a move that Hugh said was “totally unneeded” when it was announced in April, the Coeur d’Alene couple dropped their season tickets and cut off/Josh Wright, SR. More here.

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