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For the casual football fan whose experience with the college game may extend no farther than catching an occasional game with his buddies at the bar, Boise State’s Broncos football team can cause quite a bit of consternation. As members of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), they first captured the attention of much of the nation in the 2006-07 campaign. That season saw the Broncos go undefeated with 13 wins, and then beat the mighty Oklahoma Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl game. For the last several seasons, the Broncos have remained one of the best – and perhaps underrated – teams in the country. Even though they managed another undefeated 14 victory season in 2009, they were never seriously considered for title contention. Oddly enough, though, for most casual fans the Boise State football’s team has not been the real attention-getter – it has been the fact that they play on a blue field!

The history of the Stadium

That blue field in Bronco Stadium has been the subject of much consternation and conversation over the last several decades. Alone among all college football programs, Boise State decided to make their field blue in part out of a desire to get the most out of their three quarters of a million dollar Astro turf change in 1985. Since the turf was going to be so expensive anyway, the decision was made that there was no reason to settle for the new Astro turf looking exactly the same as the old. In an attempt to gain publicity for the turf’s installation, the decision makers at the school opted to install the new field covering using one of the team’s uniform colors – blue and orange. Blue got the nod, and the rest is history.

Is it an unfair advantage?

Of course, it was only natural that there would be much speculation over the course of the next two and a half decades that perhaps the blue field, when seen against the blue of the Boise State players’ uniforms, would serve to camouflage the Broncos players and force opponents to play at a disadvantage. Comments to that effect were, however, quickly dismissed in light of the fact that many colleges and professional teams have worn green uniforms that have been similar in color to the grass on which they played, without serious suggestions that they were somehow invisible to their opponents due to the blending of the colors. One coach of another squad was so adamant that the blue field provided no real advantage to the Broncos that he is famously quoted as saying that the real disadvantage his team had in facing the Boise State team came from the fact that the players on those Broncos units had so much talent.

Alone forevermore

Nevertheless, Boise State is fated to be the sole college team with a football field of blue. The NCAA has made any other such designs illegal, though they still allow the Broncos to retain their field color for as long as they have Bronco Stadium intact.

Fortunately for the Broncos, the rule made an explicit exception for them, leaving them as the only team that has or ever will have a blue football field.

Freddie Brister is a big fan of Football check out his: West Virginia Watch

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