Santoro: Pack saying goodbye to Boise State — and this time feels permanent

Sports Fodder:

Nevada Wolf Pack football fans will get a chance to say good-bye to a cherished friend this Oct. 25 at Mackay Stadium. Well, it’s not exactly a friend unless, of course, you consider a friend someone you'd like to punch in the face rather than hug when you meet.

The Boise State Broncos have been one of those faces the Pack has loved to punch ever since the rivalry started in 1971. Love them or hate them, though, the Broncos have been something much more meaningful than just a mere friend all these years and now we don't know when you'll get a chance again to meet them after Oct. 25.

The Broncos, you cannot deny, have given Northern Nevada a reason to care about Wolf Pack football. The Broncos have been the Pack's standard, its elusive brass ring for the better part of the last five decades. Yes, it's a standard the Pack inevitably almost always falls short of. But the mere presence of the Boy-C boys on the Pack schedule has been the best barometer of Pack success.

Beating the likes of San Jose State, Weber State, Utah State, Montana State, New Mexico State, New Mexico and Eastern Washington? Big deal. Those wins barely cause a ripple in Northern Nevada. Beat Boise State? Now that's a reason to hold a parade down Virginia Street.

The Broncos have been a worthy opponent, a respected enemy, the mountain the Wolf Pack has been tasked to climb for as long as most of us can remember. They have been the Magic Johnson to the Pack's Larry Bird. Boise State has been, like it or not, the best proof of whether or not the Pack football program has had a heartbeat. Yes, the Broncos have usually caused the Pack to flatline. But you cannot deny that they also have made Wolf Pack football interesting and worth paying attention to. Most years, without Boise State on the schedule, there wouldn't have even been a reason to care about Pack football.

All of that, though, could come to an end this Oct. 25 when the Broncos make their final visit to Mackay Stadium before venturing off to a new version of the Pac-12 in 2026 along with fellow Mountain West traitors Fresno State, San Diego State, Utah State and Colorado State. Boise State, though, is the one out of that group that should bring a silver and blue tear to all Pack fans' eyes. The Big Sky Conference wars between the two schools will link them forever.

It might be a very long time, though, before the two rivals see each other again after this October. It might be even longer before Boise State comes to Mackay again. The Broncos, you see, are moving on to bigger and better things and leaving the Pack behind starting in 2026. Yes, the Pack left Boise State behind in the Big Sky when it went to the Big West in 1992 and did it again when moving to the Western Athletic Conference in 2000 and leaving Boise in the Big West.

The two rivals have always been like the competitive, snooty neighbors who like to show up the block by buying a more expensive car than everyone else. Boise State started all of this "my conference is bigger than your conference" puffing out of their chest with the Pack when it went to the Big Sky first in 1970, a full nine years before the Pack.

This is nothing new. The two schools have been chasing each other from conference to conference now for almost 50 years. Nobody truly knows what the Broncos' move to the Pac-12 will do to the Boise State-Nevada rivalry. But this just feels different, because everything in college football now feels different. And, by different, I really mean worse. We're now fully immersed in a non-stop money-driven era of college football that seems determined to fracture and destroy all that has been holy in the sport. Natural rivalries seem to be one of those things that are quickly falling by the wayside.

So, just in case this October is a parting of the ways between two old rivals for the foreseeable future, make sure you show up at Mackay on Oct. 25 if only to tell those orange and blue Boy-C boys how much you'd enjoy seeing them get punched in the face one more time.

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While Boise State seems on the verge of moving onward and upward after this season, the Pack seems to be on a backward path.

Mountain West football's response to losing Boise State, San Diego State, Utah State, Fresno State and Colorado State has been to add Northern Illinois and Texas-El Paso. That’s sort of like replacing a riding mower with a pair of hungry goats.

The Mountain West starting in 2026 will consist of nine teams — the seven schools (Nevada, UNLV, Air Force, New Mexico, San Jose State, Hawaii, Wyoming) that didn't get an invite to the Pac-12 party and the two hungry goats.

That means that future Wolf Pack schedules will feature one game the fans care about (UNLV), one game the athletic director and university president cares about (the money bag game) and 10 or 11 that nobody will care about unless the Pack is undefeated at the time. In other words, welcome back to the Big West, Pack fans.

You remember the Wolf Pack's old home from 1992-99, don't you? The musical chairs league that seemed to change members every year. Northern Illinois was in that league with the Pack from 1993-95. The Big West had eight teams in 1992 when the Pack signed up, 10 teams from 1993-95, then just six from 1996-98 and seven in 1999. Big West teams in the 1990s changed leagues more often than selfish quarterbacks looking for the biggest NIL bag.

The Big West then vanished into thin air after the 2000 season, a year after the Pack left, and the remaining six teams (Boise State, Utah State, Idaho, New Mexico State, North Texas and Arkansas State) were left looking for a safe haven like a cockroach when someone turns on the kitchen light.

The Pack, one of college football's most stable programs ever since Chris Ault took over in 1976, also couldn't avoid the chaos. The Pack had four different head coaches (Ault twice, Jeff Horton and Jeff Tisdel) in its eight Big West seasons (they hired a fifth, Chris Tormey, for their first year in the Western Athletic Conference in 2000).

The Big West years, while they did provide memorable Las Vegas Bowl games in 1992, 1995 and 1996, left the Pack football program on a never-ending merry-go-round that really didn't slow down until Ault came back again in 2004. It was mediocre football at best, ugly at its worst. How mediocre? The Pack, with a I-AA roster and budget, won the Big West in its first year in Big West I-A football in 1992. That's about as mediocre as you can get.

It was during the final years of that head-spinning era (specifically 1999-06) that Boise State passed the Pack on the college football highway like a Maserati blowing a Mazda off the road and into a ditch. That probably wasn't a coincidence since the Pack was a little distracted. We'll see how distracted the Pack becomes in 2026 when it looks around and discovers that almost all its rivals have moved on to bigger and better things while it was distracted with saving a struggling and drowning program since 2021.

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Should the Los Angeles Lakers get rid of LeBron James? Of course they should. But it's not really the Lakers' decision, is it?

James, now 40, is still a great player, one of the best in the NBA and arguably the best in the league's history. That's not the issue. The issue is that it is now almost fact that if LeBron James is on the roster, the franchise will never win another title.

Don't even mention that fake, contrived, let's-make-sure-LeBron-wins-so-we-can-get-TV-ratings COVID summer league title in 2020. Since winning that artificial title, the Lakers have gone to the playoffs four times and been bounced out in the first round three times. The other time they got to the conference finals and were swept.

The league allowed them to steal Luka Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks this year and they proceeded to get trounced by the Denver Nuggets (a team that had just fired its head coach) in four of five games in the first round. LeBron won't even allow the Lakers to hire a real head coach anymore. J.J. Redick is more of a fake than the Lakers' 2020 title.

It's time the Lakers have a private conversation with LeBron and tell him to find a new home where he can possibly win another title. The Lakers need to rebuild around Doncic and build another champion with a real coach. LeBron should buy an NBA team so he can start Bronny at power forward and himself at small forward, but it doesn't seem he'll consider that until he's assured of setting every counting stat record in the league.

The next step with the Lakers, though, is probably naming LeBron head coach and allowing him to still play. He's already doing that without the title of head coach, so it should be an easy transition. The only real difference is LeBron will invent rest management for head coaches and just stay home when he gets bored.

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Which building will be up and running first, the new Nevada Wolf Pack men's basketball arena in the Grand Sierra Resort parking lot or the Athletics' new major league stadium in Las Vegas? If you believe the people in charge, the Pack arena will be built by the fall of 2027 and the A's new home will be ready by spring 2028.

So, yes, put your money on the new Pack arena being built first.

Take that, Las Vegas.

The new basketball arena, we've been told, will help the Wolf Pack buy better players and coaches. Lawlor is a worn-out dump and the new arena will be like sitting in a state of the art shopping mall with pretty waitresses and valet parking. It will be comfortable and fun with even louder music and brighter scoreboards and more ads.

Everyone involved, the Pack tells us, is thrilled to death and can't wait for the fall of 2027. Even Pack fans, who will no doubt have to spend considerably money at the GSR than they are now paying at the dump (so they say) known as Lawlor Events Center to watch Pack basketball, seem to be thrilled. It's all about bigger scoreboards and louder music, right? Who wouldn't be happy?

And, oh yeah, one other thing. There's also the promise of better players and an endless stream of Mountain West titles and non-stop NCAA Tournament appearances. If it means paying $55 at the GSR for a seat that once used to cost $5 or $10 at Lawlor, so be it.

The Pack has to charge more for tickets, beer, hot dogs and parking in the new arena, right? You want to win? Pay up, buddy. Look at how big that scoreboard is. You think that is cheap?

The Athletics, too, are promising the same things to their fans once they get to Las Vegas. Quality free agents will be signed, and current players won't just automatically leave for fatter contracts. You know, all of the things the A's couldn't do when they called Oakland home.

Believe it all if you want to. But just keep in mind that the only thing guaranteed when sports franchises (college and pro) tell you they are raising prices so they can build better teams and win championships is that prices will certainly be raised. Everything else is just a used car salesman trying to sell you undercoating.

Give all of your disposable income to your favorite teams if it makes you feel good. We all have our vices. Just don't feel cheated when your money doesn't show up in the form of championships on the field. What, exactly, has your hard-earned money donated to the athletes' NIL coffers at Nevada already accomplished in the way of success on the field and courts?

All it gets you are excuses and new coaches every four or five years. That's going to change when the seats have more cushion, the hot dogs taste better and the scoreboard is bigger? Give your money to Nevada because you love the school and want to support it. Don't give it because you think you can buy championships. Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, USC and Florida can buy championships. Nevada couldn't even get into a desperate Pac-12 a few months ago.

So, yes, enjoy the new arena, scoreboard, concessions and softer seats in the GSR parking lot. There's nothing wrong with that. You deserve it after all of those years in that 1980s monstrosity up on N. Virginia Street. Just don't buy into the used car salesman pitch that promises future championships. You'll sleep better at night.