For those that were worried that Boise State's exposure on the national scene would suffer as a result of joining the Mountain West Conference, those worries have been put to rest for the coming season at least. The latest announcement from the university athletic offices is that the football game with the Toledo Rockets has been moved to Friday evening at 6 pm MT, September 16. Before the move the game had originally been scheduled for Saturday the 17th, in Toledo.
The announcement out of the University of Toledo today noted the game will be on either ESPN or ESPN2. "We're excited to be hosting Boise State at the Glass Bowl in front of a national TV audience," Toledo head coach Tim Beckman said. "It's going to be a great experience of our players and fans, and it's great that football fans all around the country will get a chance to see the University of Toledo and our Toledo community on national TV."
Boise State becomes a member of the Mountain West Conference on July 1, and the Toledo game makes three scheduled for broadcast by ESPN. The first ESPN airing will be the Broncos' season opener against the
Georgia Bulldogs in the Chik-Fil-A Kickoff Game on September 3.
The third game to air on ESPN will be the Fresno State game on Friday, Oct. 7 game in Fresno. ESPN decided to air the Boise State-Fresno State football game
because of its contract with the Western Athletic Conference.
In addition to the three ESPN games, Boise State's other games will also be televised. The CBS Sports Network (formerly CBS College Sports) has picked up three of those games. Versus and The MTN will both air three games each.
Boise State's 2011 Television schedule:
Sep 3 at Georgia ESPN 6 pm MST
Sep 16 at Toledo ESPN/ESPN2 6 pm MST
Sep 24 vs. Tulsa CBSC 6 pm MST
Oct 1 vs. Nevada VERSUS TBD
Oct 7 at Fresno St. ESPN HD 7 pm MST
Oct 15 at Colorado St. the MTN 4 pm MST
Oct 22 vs. Air Force VERSUS 1:30 pm MST
Nov 5 at UNLV CBSC 8:30 pm MST
Nov 12 vs. TCU VERSUS 1:30 pm MST
Nov 19 at San Diego St. CBSC 6 pm MST
Nov 26 vs. Wyoming the MTN 12 noon, MST
Dec 3 vs. New Mexico the MTN 4 pm MST
While ESPN has almost 100 million viewers, the CBS Sports Network has 38 million subscribers, Versus has 74.1 million, and the The Mtn has 12 million subscribers. With the Toledo game now under ESPN contract, that puts every game on high definition, national television - a first for Boise State. And that is a whole lot of national exposure for any team.
