Wednesday, February 20, 2008.

Attendance continues to be baffling for Boise State. You’d have figured the Taco Bell Arena crowd for Fresno State would certainly be bigger than the one for Nevada last Thursday. After all, it was a game against a rival on a Saturday night, not a weeknight. Furthermore, there was no competition from Valentine’s Day, and the Broncos were coming off a win instead of a loss. Well, it was bigger, alright. By 24 people (5,268 to 5,244).

It’s not the style of play that’s keeping this 19-6 team from catching fire with fans the way it did in the deliberate Rod Jensen days. These Broncos lead the WAC in scoring by a wide margin and top the nation in shooting percentage. They’re on the cusp of only their second 20-win season of the new century, yet they’ve managed only a modest bump at the turnstiles. Is it a disconnect with coach Greg Graham? If that’s the case, it’s unfortunate.

On the other hand, BSU is one of only two WAC schools up in attendance this season (the other is Utah State). WAC crowds are down over 1,000 fans a game this season on the average, a drop of 16 percent. The Broncos are up almost 1,000 a game over 2006-07, to 5,361 a game. Thing is, it should be so much more. And attendance doesn’t promise to get a big bump from tonight’s non-conference game against Cal State Bakersfield.

How many people remember where Bobby Dye coached before being hired by Boise State 25 years ago? Yes, it was Cal State Bakersfield, which Dye had taken to consecutive Division II Final Fours. Now the Roadrunners are making the transition from D-II to D-I and will try to prevent the Broncos from winning their 20th game tonight. It would be the eighth 20-win season in BSU history if it happens. CSUB is 8-17 but is coming off a home win over Long Beach State.

It’s ironic, considering all the shots Boise State’s BracketBuster exposure is getting—the game Saturday night against Siena is live on ESPN360.com. Matt Nelson caught more eyeballs yesterday on national TV than the Broncos could ever hope to in the BracketBuster. Seems this guy named Paul Karason had been taking a silver extract to treat dermatitis, and it turned his skin blue. Karason was a guest on Oprah, and they showed a clip of the astonished looks he got while walking through the airport. The place happened to be Fresno, and there was Nelson, gawking at the blue man around Tyler Tiedeman. Nelson wasn’t identified, though. No 15 minutes of fame there.

There’s no questioning Bronco Nation when it comes to football, and it’ll be out in force at the Internet ballot box today. Boise State’s Statue of Liberty that won the Fiesta Bowl is up against the Cal-Stanford “The Band Is On The Field!” play in ESPN’s “The Greatest Highlight with Chris Berman”. It’s one of four quarterfinal matchups in this highlight vs. highlight tournament, with the survivor to be revealed on ESPN SportsCenter tomorrow at 4PM. Today they’ll give us the results of yesterday’s matchup: Hank Aaron’s 715th home run against Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary.

From Buck Buchanan Award winner at Idaho State to franchise player for the Kansas City Chiefs in less than five years. That’s where Jared Allen is after KC placed the “franchise” tag on the star defensive end yesterday. It’s bad news-good news for Allen, as he won’t be able to work out a contract on his terms (negotiations with the Chiefs have been stalemated for a year). But the “franchise player” terms ain’t bad: he’ll make almost $9 million next season, the average salary of the five highest-paid NFL defensive ends. And any club that signs Allen away would have to give Kansas City two first-round draft picks. Despite being suspended the first two games of last season because of his DUI convictions, the remorseful Allen led the NFL in sacks with 15½. Fruitland’s Jordan Gross also got the franchise designation with the Carolina Panthers.

This is an eventful week for the Idaho Steelheads. They could come home from Canada in first place in the ECHL’s West Division for the first time this season. The Steelheads open a showdown three-game series tonight at Victoria, whom they trail by three points. The Steelies are going to know where Salmon Kings star center Ash Goldie is at all times. Twice this season Goldie has been named ECHL Player of the Week, and one of those weeks saw him earn ECHL All-Star game MVP honors to boot. The former Long Beach Ice Dog is fifth in the league in scoring with 57 points and is tops in the ECHL in hat tricks with three this season.

Time for a regular season wrap on the much-anticipated Steelheads-against-Scott Burt adventure, since Monday night’s Steelheads win wrapped up their season series with Utah. Burt, the beloved Steelhead who wasn’t offered a guaranteed spot with the organization last fall, went to the Grizzlies as a free agent. And he’s having a solid season, with 47 points, including a hat trick a week and a half ago at Bakersfield. Interestingly enough, Burt has had the most success against his old Steelies teammates, scoring 11 points (five goals, six assists).

It was 5½ years ago now that Seattle Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln spoke to Boise’s City Club and insisted he was going to rectify the absence of the M’s on the radio airwaves in this market. Something that happened yesterday regurgitated this for me. Dave Niehaus, the Voice of the Mariners since they were born in 1977, was named winner of the Ford C. Frick Award on his 73rd birthday and will be honored during induction ceremonies at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in July. Sure, we can hear Niehaus for a few innings on Fox Sports Northwest’s Mariner telecasts. But there’s nothing like hearing a classic guy like that on the radio.

This Day In Sports…February 20, 1963:

Centerfielder Willie Mays signs a contract with the San Francisco Giants that will pay him $100,000 for the 1963 season, making him baseball’s highest-salaried player. Alex Rodriguez makes that much now in six innings. The Giants were rewarding Mays for leading the team to their first pennant since moving to San Francisco in 1958 (it would be 27 years before they’d get another). Mays led the National League in 1962 with 49 homers and drove in 141 runs.

(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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