Once TV darlings, Boise, UH went in opposite directions

Once upon a time they were twin darlings of the ESPN networks, the University of Hawaii and Boise State football teams.

The Worldwide Leader’s cameras, it seemed, couldn’t get enough of Hawaiian sunsets and Boise’s smurf turf, the Rainbow Warriors’ wide-open offense and the Broncos’ trick plays.

In a 10-year period when they were slugging it out for Western Athletic Conference supremacy, ESPN showed Hawaii 33 times and Boise State 48. Five times in an eight-year span ESPN featured their head-to-head matchups.

But their game Saturday in Boise will be the first time in five years one of their matchups finds itself on an ESPN platform. And while Boise State is still a mainstay of the network’s offerings, UH gets just its second showing in three years, riding in on the Broncos’ blue coattails, somebody ESPN programmers largely forgot.

Basically Boise State has taken what was once UH’s dream and run to the bank with it.

Back in 1999, when Boise was a freshly minted Division I-A member in the Big West and June Jones was newly arrived at UH, he envisioned the ‘Bows making a name for themselves as a late-night and late-week staple of ESPN programming. “Everybody in the country will see us,” Jones liked to say with characteristic exaggeration.

With 33 ESPN appearances in a 10-year span, UH did establish a brand and a TV following. Enough of one that ESPN jumped at the opportunity to create the Hawaii Bowl to showcase the ‘Bows.

“We’re some of your school’s biggest fans,” an ESPN vice president once gushed to Gov. Ben Cayetano.

But while UH’s success has since tailed off, the Broncos have kept on rising and ESPN has been no small part of it.

The visibility — Boise State will be on ESPN at least 24 times in the current three-year period compared to UH’s two appearances — has given the school in the mountains and nation’s 109th largest TV market a foot in the front door of recruits from Honolulu to Florida.

“ESPN is huge, they are a big part of (Boise State success),” coach Bryan Harsin says. “You’re reaching a large audience of people who are either fans or potential future Broncos.”

Boise State’s TV appeal won it a sweetheart financial deal with the Mountain West to keep from jumping to the Big East two years ago. Under the contract, ESPN has the rights to every Broncos home game and must show a minimum of three per season. The Broncos receive a $500,000 bonus from the conference for each home Saturday appearance on ESPN or ESPN2 and $300,000 for each weekday. Last year that was worth $2 million plus a share of the overall pot.

UH keeps its Oceanic Cable fees but does not share in any MWC TV money or receive any bonuses.

Harsin says, “Everybody talks about the Fiesta Bowl (victory over Oklahoma),” being a turning point for the Broncos. But Harsin said it was really a 2001 victory over No. 8-ranked Fresno State and David Carr on ESPN “and it kind of took off from there.”

That’s worth keeping in mind for UH as it finally returns to what has become Boise State’s stage.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.