Boise State University, football

As Alabama took down Texas' scared and panicked freshman quarterback after knocking the Longhorns star quarterback out of the game on the first play (BCS bowl last night), I flipped channels between the game on Fox and Idaho Dialogue on Idaho Public TV. Several journalists talked with host Marcia Franklin about the upcoming legislative session at the updated and restored Idaho state capitol. I missed much of their discussion, but did clue in that the governor is due to announce further budget cuts, especially to education.

It would be great if the bowl-playing football teams at both University of Idaho and Boise State could transfer some of their winnings to the k-12 educational system. Boise has been on the move to build up the campus, the stadium and become a research university, and ditch it's reputation as a 4-year junior college. Football is one of the means to get more attention, and more money into the school to do so, and Boise State has made a huge investment in this strategy. I think President Bob Kustra is an educator at heart, and really wants to build the university into a top notch academic center.

It seems a circular process, though, that in order to build a nationally respected university, BSU will build a large and successful football team, which will then bring money into the university so it can build the sort of research facilities and offer the sort of programs that will then allow the football squad to move to a more difficult and prestiguous league (some of those UCs and top 10 regulars can't have their players playing against just any ol' state college opponent), which can then bring in more money for the educational goals (and the coaches pocketbooks).

One of my cousin's from CA just moved here to attend Boise State, and found that even with the out of state tuition costs, it is cheaper for him to pay those than to pay in state tuition to a CA university. I guess that's one of the ways to make more money for BSU too--more out of state students who pay more in tuition.