Boise State is about to find out whether a 24.5-point spread means anything when an unbeaten FCS team rolls into Albertsons Stadium.
South Dakota comes to the Treasure Valley on Saturday night with a 3-0 record, a spot at No. 10 in the NCAA rankings, and a resume that suggests this is not the kind of opponent Boise State can casually sleepwalk through. The Coyotes have reached at least the quarterfinals in each of the past three FCS postseasons, and they’ve already proven they can punch above their weight with wins over Minnesota in 2011 and Bowling Green in 2017.
Boise State coach Spencer Danielson has been saying all week that this is exactly the kind of game that can turn ugly if the Broncos are not sharp from the start. He repeated that message Thursday morning while making clear he respects what South Dakota brings.
“South Dakota’s got some really good football players on their team, and they’re really well coached,” Danielson said. “There are some things they do in all three phases that I’m like, ‘I like that; we might try to steal that down the road.’”
The Broncos have history on their side, and plenty of it. Boise State has won 21 straight games against FCS opponents, and the last time it lost to one came almost 30 years ago, in 1997, when Cal State Northridge came to town and left with a 63-23 win. That was only Boise State’s second season at the FBS level, and Cal State Northridge’s football program later shut down in 2001.
There is a more recent Boise State loss to a program that is now in the FCS, but that one came under very different circumstances. Idaho beat Boise State 36-35 in overtime in November 1998, though the Vandals were still an FBS team in the Big West at the time. Idaho had moved up from FCS in 1996 and remained at the FBS level through the 2017 season before dropping back down in 2018.
Boise State and South Dakota have met only once before. That was in 1973, when the Broncos beat the Coyotes 53-10 in the NCAA Division II playoff quarterfinals in Boise.
Saturday’s game kicks off at 8 p.m. Mountain time at Albertsons Stadium, where Boise State is listed as a 24.5-point favorite.
The venue holds 34,423 and features turf. CBS Sports Network will carry the game with Chris Lewis and Randy Cross on the call, while KBOI 670-AM and KBOI 93.1-FM/Sirius XM Ch. 84 will have the radio broadcast with Bob Behler and Mike Callahan.
Boise State enters at 1-1 and 0-0 in conference play, while South Dakota is 3-0 and 0-0. The weather forecast calls for a high of 74, a low of 54, humidity at 52%, mostly cloudy skies and a 30% chance of rain.
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