GLENDALE, Ariz. — Boise State has two states competing on New Year’s Eve.
One was a division champion and had a dream season. A team led by star running back Ashton Jeanty made the College Football Playoff and once again finished atop the Group of Five conference.
Boise State’s other team was a shorthanded G5 team that put up a valiant but futile effort against a better, more talented Penn State team.
Both versions existed Tuesday night as No. 3 Boise State lost 31-14 to No. 6 Penn State in the playoff quarterfinals of the Fiesta Bowl. The first one is worth celebrating. The latter gives Big Ten runner-up Penn State a seemingly easier path to the semifinals than Big Ten champion and No. 1 seed Oregon State or SEC champion and No. 2 seed Georgia, and will further push Imperfect The expanded postseason requires a narrative.
For Broncos fans and those inclined to root for Cinderella, a disappointing and frustrating performance doesn’t take away from a magical performance. No, Jeanty didn’t break Barry Sanders’ single-season rushing record, falling 27 yards behind on his lowest rushing output of the season. No, the sport’s preeminent underdog couldn’t pull off another upset in the Fiesta Bowl, a venue where the program had a decisive victory. But 2024 will go down as one of the most memorable seasons in Boise State football history.
“I’m very proud of this team. It didn’t go our way tonight, but they’ve re-set the standard in Boise and been a beacon of light on the hill and in the country, and that’s been lost a little bit,” Lord coach Spencer Danielson said. “This is a legacy they can never take away.”
For other CFP teams not in attendance on Tuesday, or for college football fans in general — a difficult group to please indeed — this matchup highlighted a critical flaw in a system designed to reward conference champions , but this system is a retcon of a previous design that streamlined the Power 5 into the top-heavy Power 4.
The bug in the playoff format, which gives the four highest-ranked conference champions byes, was evident long before teams were splashed on ESPN on Sunday, including No. 9 Boise State, which jumped all the way to No. 3 seed. It creates a bracket in which No. 1 Oregon State will face No. 6 Ohio State (the No. 8 seed) and No. 2 Georgia will face No. 5 Notre Dame (the No. 8 seed) on New Year’s Day. Seed of the Seventh).
For months, those who understand the format have been warning of these unintended consequences. But seeing is believing, and Penn State brought that reality home in the Fiesta Bowl as a fourth-ranked but sixth-seeded team against the ninth-ranked but third-seeded Broncos. In a tournament that cost billions of dollars and was years in the making, it was through oversight (or maybe stubbornness?) that a higher-ranked but lower-seeded team entered the neutral site with an 11.5-point deficit National Championship Quarterfinals.
“Obviously tonight, we didn’t execute the way we needed to to win a heavyweight game like we knew we could,” Danielson said.
Boise State committed four turnovers and committed 13 free throws. (Mark J. Rebilas/Imagn Images)
Boise State is not a charity case. It led Penn State by 387 yards by 412, and many of its problems — including 13 90-yard penalties — were self-inflicted. But the Broncos, who have committed just eight turnovers all season, committed four on Tuesday, helped by their opponents feeding off most of the three quarters. Penn State led all the way and cut the lead to 17-14 early in the second half, but the Nittany Lions were in control throughout.
“I think the Big Ten has prepared our guys,” Penn State coach James Franklin said. “Boise is a very good football team. … We’re not taking this lightly. We talk about the maturity of our football team — and I think it shows.
This loss is not an indictment of Boise State or the 12-win season that preceded it. This is different from the arguments that were made about Indiana and Southern Methodist University winning at-large bids. There is no good-faith argument that the Broncos don’t deserve a playoff spot and a chance to compete for a national championship.
This team embodies the bigger-tent approach that the sport has sorely lacked for decades. The same praise and criticism for Boise applies to No. 4 seed Arizona State in the Big 12, which is ranked No. 12 in the final CFP rankings and will play No. 3 in Wednesday’s Peach Bowl. No. 5 seed Texas. But the Broncos were the first to prove the doubters wrong with their “Please Leave Us Out” T-shirts. Instead, they make it harder to justify a system that makes the fifth and sixth seeds — and losing conference titles — look more advantageous than the top two.
Boise State has nothing to apologize for. Offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter admitted Competitor Last week there was news that the playoff seeding system could change, possibly as soon as next season. But it wasn’t that the Broncos orchestrated or exploited the system.
“We didn’t make those (bye) rules,” Cote said. “I’m smart enough to realize that we may not be the third-best team, but we definitely deserve to be in it.”
Danielson echoed those sentiments after Tuesday’s game, just as the clock struck midnight on the East Coast and rang in the New Year. College football in 2025 is better suited to expanding the postseason and broadening the path to a national championship. Boise State has earned its way into that path this season, as has Southern Methodist, Penn State, Georgia and every other team in the field. This should not change the way forward.
Even at the same time, on the same field, Boise State is the reason the Broncos’ path is bound to be different the next time they get there.
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‘This is cheer’: Penn State enjoys Fiesta Bowl win as postseason continues
(Top photo of Ashton Jeanty: Christian Peterson/Getty Images)
