Through years and years of battles with Boise State football fans, there is one common beauty I have grown to appreciate more than anything else.
You just want to watch games.
Boise State football fans, you are simple fans with simple intentions, blue collar to the core, loyal to a fault, and that must be appreciated and celebrated in today’s complicated cesspool of college football greed.
Some of you attended Boise State, many of you did not, but the Broncos are your hometown team with a long track record of success, so you expose your heart to something that feels good to you and your family, your neighbors and your co-workers.
You invest your part-time emotions, but you don’t invest a lot of your money or time. You’re a fan on your own terms, with plenty of interests beyond Boise State football, and that’s perfectly OK.
Most of you don’t buy season tickets and too many of you go to games only when tickets are free.

Mike Prater
There are passionate hardcores, but not enough for the amount of people living in the Treasure Valley. Too many newcomers haven’t engaged in Boise State football, for all kinds of reasons.
You may be a Boise State football fan, but most of you don’t care about being an official booster, you don’t give money to the athletic department, you don’t lose sleep over the transfer portal, and you darn sure don’t contribute to external causes such as name, image and likeness.
You like your fandom clean and simple, without distractions.
You just want to watch games.
You want to watch six home games a year from the stadium, the parking lot or in front of your TV. You catch road games on the couch (and complain about the channel and kickoff time), you take occasional road trips when it makes sense, and you travel to bowl games when they’re compelling.
Today, all college football fans are being tested, teased and tormented by shocking headlines that are anything but compelling. We’re living in an offseason of chaos, an offseason that has altered the sport forever, an offseason that has soured far too many fans.
Collectively, here in Boise, where we like it simple, we’re all sick and tired of the nonsense.
We’re all on the same page: We just want to watch games.
Sadly, madly, that’s not what college football is about anymore. It’s about making media companies – and the cold-blooded suits who run them – rich for doing nothing but negotiating contracts that completely ignore the beautiful traditions of a grand game.
The past few days have been brutally painful. College football in the West is being destroyed. The Pac-12 is gone, as is Boise State’s dream of playing in that league one day.
OK, you’re right, it could happen. Let’s say the Pac-4 suddenly has desperate interest in Boise State and other programs … frankly, playing in that league right now would be embarrassing.
Boise State fans already get a steady dose of Oregon State and Washington State. Stanford and Cal will never compete in the same league as Mountain West teams. The financials of a potential merger, or get-together, or whatever you want to call it, make it almost impossible to happen.
Change is everywhere, every day, and Boise State fans are being wishful, again, and being teased, again. It’s fun being a Boise State fan, but not always easy.
Even the greatest recruiting coup in the history of Boise State football failed to unite the fanbase over the weekend.
Gatlin Bair, the most decorated recruit in Idaho high school sports history, committed to Boise State on Saturday, picking the Broncos over Michigan and sending shockwaves throughout college football.
Unfortunately, you already know the catch: The Burley High wide receiver will play his senior season this fall, followed by a church mission. He won’t play college football until 2026, and he took a beating from skeptical fans who don’t think he’ll ever wear the blue and orange.
College football has always been hard.
Today, for fans, it’s almost impossible to follow along.
The future promises to bring more turmoil, more changes, more chaos. Winning the cash race, for too many college football entities, has become more important than winning the conference race.
That’s not a good thing for Boise State, where raising cash has always been a difficult chore.
By 2026, we won’t recognize college football as we’ve known it. The Group of Five will lose its coveted access to the College Football Playoff. The haves will grow, the have-nots will desperately chase. College football on Saturday will resemble professional football on Sunday.
Again, that’s not a good thing for Boise State, where fans like to keep it simple by focusing on the most basic aspect of college football: Watching games.
Thankfully, the offseason from hell is almost over. There’s a game on the schedule in only a matter of days.
It can’t get here fast enough.
Mike Prater is the Bronco Nation News columnist who co-hosts Idaho Sports Talk (KTIK 95.3 FM on Monday-Friday from 3-6 p.m.) and the Boise State football postgame show (KBOI 670 AM). He is on Twitter @MikeFPrater and can be reached at mikefprater@gmail.com