Mike Prater
NOTE: This is a free article but most of Prater’s articles will soon go behind the paywall. Subscribe now using promo code BNN50 to get a one-year subscription for just $50 for unlimited access to BNN content. Subscribe to this limited time offer at this link now.
LAS VEGAS – Change, it’s everywhere these days.
The sports universe is consumed by change. It’s constant, chaotic and confusing for fans who simply want to watch games, fall in love with favorite players and celebrate occasional championships.
Change is the new norm in sports, and we’ve quickly become numb to most of it: Paying for and streaming games on our cell phones, paying student-athletes large chunks of legal cash, wading through social media to read headlines that seem surreal.
NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers plays for the Jets.
Baseball is poised to give Shohei Ohtani $600 million.
Basketball players, college and pro, change rosters more than Charles Barkley opens his mouth.
The Stanley Cup resides in Vegas.
American golf is run by the Saudis.
Messi plays football in a country that calls it soccer.
Or my new favorite slice of Americana sports change (sarcasm): In 2024, college football will launch a 12-team national tournament that’s been greeted with skepticism, USC and UCLA will share the same conference as Indiana and Rutgers, and something called Kennesaw State will compete at the same FBS level as Alabama.
Crazy changes. Insanity at its finest.
Where does it end? It won’t.
Change never stops, so in a moment of personal insanity, I’ve made one of the biggest changes in my 45-year newspaper career: It’s over.
Effective this week, from Mountain West Football Media Days in Las Vegas, my column (and other work) will now appear at BroncoNationNews.com, a subscription-based digital service that founder and publisher B.J. Rains created nearly two years ago. BNN is a brilliantly executed idea in a changing sports world and I’m more than thrilled to join a growing team that’s dedicated to take Boise State coverage to unprecedented heights.
Times have changed since that fall day in 1978 when my first byline appeared in a daily newspaper. The short story from a high school football game was poorly written, placed in a frame, and tucked away in a box somewhere in a dark corner of my garage. Through the glory years of a once-proud profession, I covered prep, college and professional sports for daily newspapers in Twin Falls, Salt Lake City, Vallejo, Calif., Boise and Nampa/Caldwell.
Newspapers were my first passion, sometimes, unfortunately, at the sacrifice of family. Newspapers were important then.
Today, especially in the Treasure Valley, we’ve lost newspapers with passion. Newspapers remain important, but sadly in this market, they are no longer relevant. Sports departments have taken major personnel hits, priorities have shifted and Boise State coverage has suffered.
Bronco Nation News is fresh, important and relevant, with booming readership, an affordable price model, a bright future, and a deep passion to cover Boise State athletics the right way. For you. To use as you see fit – through written words you can trust and daily video shows that inform and entertain. All at your convenience.
Bronco Nation News is here to make sense of a changing sports world, because it makes sense what BNN is doing to change the future of sports journalism and Boise State coverage. We’ll cover all the daily news, all the games, all the issues, all the changes that will continue to happen under the aggressive regime of athletic director Jeramiah Dickey.
More importantly, we promise to change when you tell us to change – feedback is critical so please keep in touch and tell us what you want in your Boise State coverage.
This week, in Vegas, the growing BNN team is chasing all the changes you need to know as new Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez continues her public battle with San Diego State and Andy Avalos approaches his third season as Boise State’s head coach.
Boise State has a new offense. There’s a new coordinator and a growing superstar at quarterback who could change a few things in the school record book. The defense is going through massive depth-chart changes. Forty percent of the assistant coaches are new. There is a changing roster in a transfer-portal era – who’s in and who’s out? Which players will make news this week?
As for the season, I’m keeping my eye on three critical factors.
Can Avalos & Co. navigate one of the toughest nonconference schedules in school history – and how will a changing scheduling philosophy impact the program in future seasons?
Will home success change? Avalos is 8-5 on the blue, far from the program standard and a must-fix-now priority.
Will the Broncos’ domination in the Mountain West continue? Will it lead to a Group of Five appearance in a New Year’s Six bowl game?
So many questions.
So many changes.
A new chapter has arrived. Massive change in college football isn’t going away. I can’t wait to see what happens next.
NOTE: This is a free article but most of Prater’s articles will soon go behind the paywall. Subscribe now using promo code BNN50 to get a one-year subscription for just $50 for unlimited access to BNN content. Subscribe to this limited time offer at this link now.
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.
