Tuesday, December 18, 2007.

For the second straight season, Boise State will be going up against Adrian Peterson in its bowl game. This time he won’t be on the same field, though. The Sheraton Hawaii Bowl will compete for viewers with NBC Sunday Night Football. The NFL has Washington at Minnesota, a game with playoff implications and with Peterson running for the Vikings, but it’s not absolutely Must-See TV. If the Broncos and Pirates start to light up the scoreboard at Aloha Stadium, there could be some curiosity crossover to ESPN. NBC took advantage of its contractual right to “flex” the schedule for this Sunday’s game—the 49ers and Tampa Bay were originally scheduled for that slot. Yikes.

This December 23rd bowl date may seem awkward. It’s definitely been a hindrance to getting any kind of Bronco fan support at the Hawaii Bowl. But it’s not unprecedented, as BSU played in the 2003 Fort Worth Bowl two days before Christmas, too. It just shows how things have evolved in the past four years—and how important the opponent is. The 2003 game was BSU’s first bowl trip outside Boise, and a lot more fans made arrangements to go. And hey, that time it was just 2½ weeks after the Broncos’ season finale at Hawaii, not a month. Then there’s the competition. The Fort Worth Bowl featured two Top 25 teams, as BSU squared off against TCU on the Horned Frogs’ home field and won, 34-31.

Ryan Clady has become the WAC’s first NCAA Consensus All-American since TCU’s LaDainian Tomlinson seven years ago—and Boise State’s first ever in Division I-A. The list is compiled based on five major All-America teams. The star left tackle was first-team on two of them, The Sporting News and the American Football Coaches Association. He was second team with the Walter Camp Foundation and Associated Press. Clady and Central Florida star running back Kevin Smith were the only two players from non-BCS schools to make the list.

With the Broncos settled in at Waikiki, Clady can sit on the beach and contemplate his future. Before the team took off yesterday, Clady was seen pushing a car in the Bronco Stadium parking lot. This can’t be a good omen for BSU. It could have been a super-secret NFL training regimen, or it could have been Clady’s car on the blink, meaning he needs money to get it fixed. Uh-oh. Whatever the case, he has less than a month to decide whether to declare for the NFL Draft or stay for his senior year. There’s a website called NFL Draft Scout.com, and it has Clady as the number one offensive tackle who’ll potentially be eligible next April.

We can’t let last weekend go without props to the three Treasure Valley products being sized for NAIA national championship rings. All three played a part in Carroll College’s 17-9 win over the University of Sioux Falls, earning the Fighting Saints their fifth title in six years. Nampa High grad Scott Holbrook helped the Carroll offensive line pave the way for Gabe Le’s 116 rushing yards, a key difference in the game. But Bishop Kelly’s Zach Thiry allowed the Saints to win the field position battle in difficult conditions at Savannah, TN. Thiry averaged 42 yards a punt and pinned Sioux Falls on its own five-yard line inside the final two minutes with a perfectly-placed kick. Then Capital’s Zach Richardson broke up a Sioux Falls desperation pass to preserve the win.

This is a terrible night for Idaho to be playing a home basketball game against a no-name opponent. Finals are over, and the students have cleared out. Nevertheless, the Vandals host Central Arkansas tonight in the Kibbie Dome. It’s hard enough for Idaho to draw when the students are on campus—there were all of 638 fans at the Vandals’ last home game, a win over Eastern Washington nine days ago. For a university that has such a vibrant campus life, Idaho’s student turnout is alarming. Student support for Boise State basketball has been dismal, but BSU can get away with that because of its population base (though no one is satisfied with the current average of 4,254 fans a game). But the Vandals attract just 992 per night and must have the students there if they are to succeed. Winning would help, of course; Idaho is 2-7.

That magnifies a pressing problem in the WAC. There’s a big enough chasm between the top and bottom of the conference in football—it exists in basketball, too. Just above Idaho’s attendance figure is Idaho is Louisiana Tech, averaging just 1,547 a game, and San Jose State at 2,095. Even the traditionally huge draws are suffering as the WAC has had a rugged go on the scoreboard in non-conference games. New Mexico State’s crowds have taken a dive since Reggie Theus moved on to the Sacramento Kings, down to 3,852 a game. The Aggies were at 9,413 last season. Sure, the gates will increase when the WAC schedule starts. But in most cases, there’s too much ground to make up for this to be a banner season.

One of the best games in Taco Bell Arena last winter was Boise State’s 83-82 BracketBuster win over Albany. The Great Danes, challenged by Eastern weather to even get to Boise, mustered up enough stamina to take the Broncos to the wire in a battle that featured a staggering 33 lead changes. Albany went on to a 23-win season, taking its second straight America East championship and advancing to the NCAA Tournament. The requisite BracketBuster return trip to upstate New York happens this Saturday for BSU, who got a preview of Albany last night on ESPN2. The Great Danes didn’t look so hot in that one, though, getting schooled by No. 6 Duke, 111-70.

The Idaho Steelheads have one main man in goal now as arguably the ECHL’s best team, Las Vegas, comes to town tomorrow night. Steve Silverthorn, who’s experienced a resurgence the past 10 days, has been recalled by Iowa of the AHL, leaving the local netminding in the gloves and skates of rookie Kellen Briggs. Silverthorn has won two straight and preceded that with a shootout loss to improve to 4-5-4 on the season. The 2007 Kelly Cup MVP had endured a terrible stretch starting Thanksgiving week that saw him lose four in a row. In the meantime, Briggs is 5-3-1 and is coming off a one-goal allowed performance in Saturday night’s win over Phoenix. And guess who’s back as emergency goaltender—the ol’ standby, fan favorite Blair Allison.

This Day In Sports…December 18, 1932, 75 years ago today:

The Chicago Bears beat the Portsmouth Spartans, 9-0, in the first NFL game ever played indoors. It was a one-game playoff, moved because of a huge storm in the Windy City. The Chicago Stadium floor was covered with dirt because a circus had just appeared there, and the field was only 80 yards long. (Sounds like some of the old Big Sky basketball games at Montana State’s Brick Breeden Fieldhouse when it was primarily a rodeo arena.)

(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment Sunday nights at 10:30PM on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors five sports segments each weekday on 1350 KTIK/The Ticket. He also handles color commentary on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football.)

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