Inaugural 12-team college football playoffs . . .
If the impossible were to happen and the Boise State Broncos were to win this year’s inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff, it would become the only team in the nation to have won all three college division football championships–Junior College, State College, and University . . .
NJCAA Champions 1958
Boise Junior College (BJC) won the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) football championship in 1958:
- Date: November 27, 1958
- Opponent: Tyler, Texas
- Score: 22-0
- Coach: Lyle Smith
- Stadium: Bronco Stadium
- Attendance: 8,500
The win was the culmination of a 10-0 season for the Broncos. Smith, known as the “father of Bronco football”, coached the team to five undefeated seasons. ~ Tom Scott
NCAA Champions 1980
The 1980 NCAA Division I-AA football season, part of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division I-AA level. The third season of I-AA football began in August 1980 and four teams were selected for the postseason, with the national semifinals played on December 13. The 1980 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game was the Camellia Bowl played on December 20 at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento, California.
In a game with multiple lead changes, the Boise State Broncos won their first (and only) I-AA championship, defeating the defending national champion Eastern Kentucky Colonels, 31−29. With less than a minute to play, the Broncos drove eighty yards for the winning touchdown, a 14-yard pass from quarterback Joe Aliotti to tight end Duane Dlouhy with twelve seconds remaining. ~ Wikipedia
Inaugural 12-Team College Football Playoffs
College Football Is Terrified of a Cinderella
Eighteen years removed from the most stirring upset in college football history, the rewatch still washes over you like a dream. It wasn’t that Boise State beat Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl; it was the way Boise State beat Oklahoma, on a series of miracles that felt as if they’d been choreographed to an Explosions in the Sky song:
A hook-and-lateral on the game-tying drive. A Statue of Liberty play on a two-point conversion. A 43-42 Boise State win, followed by a spontaneous and nationally televised marriage proposal from the team’s star running back. In a single evening, Boise State became the public face of something college football had shunted aside for nearly its entire history: the charming underdog. ~ Michael Weinreb
And Why Does This Little Old Lady Care?
As Boise State is my alma mater, I would have been alive to see all three occurrences happen and I couldn’t be more proud!
GO BRONCS!
