GLENDALE, Ariz. – On New Year’s Eve there were two Boise States on the field.
One was a conference champion who had a dream season. A team went to the College Football Playoff on the back of star Ashton Jeanty, and yet another storied program atop the Group of 5 conferences.
The other Boise State was a better-manned G5 squad that made a valiant but futile effort against a better and more talented Penn State team.
Both versions coexisted in No. 3 Boise State’s 31-14 loss to No. 6 Penn State in the Playoff quarterfinals at the Fiesta Bowl on Tuesday night. The first deserves to be celebrated. The latter offered Big Ten runner-up Penn State a seemingly easier path to the semifinals than Big Ten champion and No. 1 seed Oregon or SEC champion and No. 2 seed Georgia, and will further fuel the narrative that an imperfectly extended Playoff is necessary, adjust the seeding format as soon as possible.
For Broncos fans, and those inclined to root for Cinderella, a disappointing and frustrating performance won’t diminish a magical run. No, Jeanty didn’t break Barry Sanders’ single-season rushing record, falling 27 yards behind in his lowest rushing performance of the season. No, the sport’s preeminent underdog couldn’t pull off another Fiesta Bowl upset, on the same field that hosted the program’s defining victories. But 2024 will go down as one of the most memorable seasons in Boise State football history.
“I am so proud of this team. “It didn’t go our way tonight, but they restored the standard in Boise to be a light on the hill, to the country, that was lost for a while,” said head coach Spencer Danielson. “That is a legacy that can never be taken from them.”
For the other CFP teams not on the field Tuesday, or for college football fans in general — an admittedly hard-to-please group — the matchup underscored a crucial flaw in a system that was meant to reward conference champions but had previously been designed realignment diluted the Power 5 to a top-heavy Power 4.
The flaw in this Playoff formula, which saw the bye to the four highest-ranked conference champions, was apparent long before the teams were distributed by ESPN on Selection Sunday, including ninth-ranked Boise State jumping all the way to third. of a Mountain West championship. It set up a bracket that will pit No. 1 Oregon against sixth-seeded Ohio State, seeded eighth, and No. 2 Georgia against fifth-seeded Notre Dame, seeded seventh, on New Year’s Day.
Those who understood the format have been warning about these unintended consequences for months. But seeing is believing, and Penn State brought that reality home in the Fiesta Bowl as the fourth-ranked team but No. 6 seed against the ninth-ranked but No. 3 seed Broncos. In a billion-dollar tournament years in the making, it was simple negligence (or perhaps stubbornness?) that allowed a higher-ranked but lower-seeded team to enter the quarterfinals of the national championship with a score of 11.5 points. favorite – a game the Nittany Lions ultimately won by 17.
“Obviously tonight we didn’t perform the way we needed to, to win a heavyweight fight that we knew was going to happen,” Danielson said.
Boise State committed four turnovers and 13 penalties. (Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)
Boise State was not a charity case. It outgained Penn State 412 yards to 387 yards, and many of its problems — including 13 penalties for 90 yards — were self-inflicted. But a Broncos team that lost just eight turnovers all season committed four Tuesday, taking advantage of an opponent that played with its food for the better part of three quarters. Penn State led from wire to wire, and outside of the lead that was briefly cut to 17-14 early in the second half, the Nittany Lions felt in control the entire way.
“I think the Big Ten has prepared our guys,” Penn State coach James Franklin said. “Boise is a very good football team. … We didn’t take them lightly. We talk about the maturity of our football team, I think that comes through.”
The loss is not an indictment of Boise State, or the 12-win season that preceded it. And this isn’t the same debate as the discussions about Indiana and SMU earning at-large bids. There is no good faith argument that the Broncos didn’t deserve a Playoff spot and didn’t have a chance to compete for a national title.
This team was an example of the bigger tent approach that this sport has desperately lacked for decades. The same praise and criticism that elevates Boise also applies to No. 4 seed Arizona State from the Big 12, which finished 12th in the final CFP rankings and will be ranked third and No. 5 seed Texas play in Wednesday’s Peach Bowl. But the Broncos had the first chance to prove the doubters wrong, validating their “Please Count Us Out” T-shirts. Instead, they made it even harder to justify a system that made the No. 5 and 6 seeds — and losing a conference championship — look more advantageous than the top two seeds.
Boise State has nothing to apologize for. Offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter acknowledged this The Athletics last week that the Playoff seeding system will likely be changed, perhaps as early as next season. But it’s not like the Broncos orchestrated or exploited the system.
“We didn’t make those (bye) rules,” Koetter said. “I’m smart enough to realize that we may not be the third best team, but we certainly deserve to be there.”
Danielson echoed that sentiment Tuesday after the game, just as the clock struck midnight on the East Coast and ushered in the new year. College football in 2025 is better because of the expanded playoffs, widening the path to the national title. Boise State earned its entry on that path this season, as did SMU and Penn State and Georgia and every other team in the field. That should not change in the future.
Even though Boise State – at the same time, on the same field – was also the reason the path will look a little different the next time the Broncos arrive.
GO DEEPER
‘This is cheering’: Penn State savors Fiesta Bowl win as Playoff charge continues
(Top photo of Ashton Jeanty: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)