BOISE, Idaho – Merle and Ruth Baptiste have been Boise State season ticket holders since 1974, when the Broncos competed in Division II. They were there when the program won a Division I-AA national championship in 1980, hosted its first bowl game, the Humanitarian Bowl, in 1999 and won its first BCS bowl in 2006.

On Friday night at cool Albertson’s Stadium, they experienced a new first: Boise State qualified for a chance to play for the national championship of major college football. The Broncos’ 21-7 victory over UNLV clinches No. 10 Boise State (12-1) an automatic spot in the first 12 College Football Playoffs.

“It’s about time,” Merle said. “We should have been playing for a (national) championship long before, but we weren’t respected by the big schools.”

The importance of this moment cannot be overstated, not only for Boise State, but for college football as well. It’s a sport that has always functioned as a country club, offering lifetime membership to Notre Dame or Alabama while handing out visitor passes to Tulane or Western Michigan. Back in the BCS days, the powers that be were hauled before Congress and threatened with an antitrust audit for so brazenly excluding half of the sport from their party.

A generation later, when the commissioners created the new 12-team playoff teams, they finally secured a spot for the little guy. It’s fitting that the first Group of 5 program to benefit was one of its original giant killers.

“We would have loved it if there had been a playoff — we felt like we could have played with anyone,” said Jared Zabransky, quarterback of Boise State’s undefeated 2006 Fiesta Bowl team should have been for a long time. I’m just thankful that these kids have the opportunity now.”

These kids, led by Heisman hopeful Ashton Jeanty, won their second straight Mountain West championship on Friday, with Jeanty rushing for a 75-yard touchdown and recording his sixth 200-yard game of the season (209). Afterwards, seemingly all 36,663 fans in the sold-out Albertson’s Stadium streamed onto the blue turf.

“Hope is powerful,” Boise State athletic director Jeremiah Dickey said. “With college football fans, you’ve seen it all year – when you give more opportunities, it really lights a fire.”

Boise State fans were so excited that they tore down the goal post and threw it into the nearby Boise River. They were part of history. Never before had a Group 5 team left the field knowing they were headed to the playoffs. Even undefeated Cincinnati in 2021 couldn’t be sure until the committee made its final verdict.

“It’s a great opportunity for all schools,” Boise State coach Spencer Danielson said. “As a competitor, you just want to have a chance.”

Zabransky and Ian Johnson never had a chance to play for a national championship, despite finishing as the only undefeated team in the country that season. Neither did Kellen Moore and Doug Martin with their own 14-0 team three years later. Dan Hawkins coached a 2004 Boise team that went undefeated in the regular season and landed in the Liberty Bowl. The same thing happened in 2008 for an undefeated Chris Petersen team that reached the Poinsettia Bowl.

Danielson and Jeanty are the latest in a long line of coaches and players who have spearheaded Boise State’s decades-long evolution from junior college to lower-level NCAA school and from FBS to national power. In the early 2010s, the Broncos regularly beat the likes of Georgia, Oklahoma, Oregon and Virginia Tech. They reached three Fiesta Bowls and won all three. But they never got the call to be in a power conference like BCS busters Utah and TCU.

Then the program stagnated for about a decade, still regularly winning 10 or 11 games a year and a few Mountain West championships, but never the kind of breakout season at the national level like UCF in 2017 and 2018 or Cincinnati in 2020 and 21. Both, as well as Houston, UCF and SMU were also called up.

Just 13 months ago, Boise State was 5-5 and facing its first loss of the season since 1999 when Dickey made the surprise decision to fire third-year coach Andy Avalos, a former Broncos linebacker whose team had 10 games per year used to be won. Dickey promoted then-35-year-old defensive coordinator Danielson even though he had every intention of making an outside hire after the season.

Until Danielson’s team won the next three games, reached the Mountain West Championship Game and upset UNLV, which earned Danielson the full-time job.

With Jeanty returning after a 1,347-yard season, Boise was picked to win the conference in the preseason but was hardly considered a leading candidate to make the CFP. The Broncos didn’t appear in the AP poll for the first time until Sept. 22, a few weeks after they faced Eugene and beat then-seventh-ranked Oregon. By that point, Jeanty, who ran for 267 yards and six touchdowns in his team’s opener at Georgia Southern, had been generating early Heisman buzz. But there was certainly little chance that a Group of 5 running back would actually make it to New York.

Three months later, Jeanty just finished a regular season with more rushing yards – 2,497 – than any player in history not named Barry Sanders. The only question now is whether it was enough to beat Colorado two-way sensation Travis Hunter for the trophy.

“He shows week in and week out that he’s the best football player in the country,” Danielson said, “and I don’t think he’s anywhere near that great.”

Jeanty is reason enough for Power 4 playoff teams to be cautious about picking Boise State as an opponent. Unless the committee makes a surprise move on Sunday, the Broncos will likely finish in the top four and receive a bye to the quarterfinals. Geographically, they would likely be placed in the Fiesta Bowl on December 31st. If Clemson upsets SMU in the ACC Championship, Boise could even move up to the No. 3 seed.

If they are the No. 4 seed, it could set up an intriguing matchup with the No. 5 seed, which either loses the Big Ten or SEC championship games or goes 11-1 against Notre Dame.

“Good luck to everyone who … thinks they’re going to win the game (against Boise State),” UNLV coach Barry Odom said. “I think they are one of the best teams in college football right now and I think they will do a great job representing this conference. They’re built to run.”

You’ve done it before. Boise wasn’t nearly as prestigious a program as it is today when Zabransky handed off to Johnson in the famous Statue of Liberty game to beat a top team led by Bob Stoops of Oklahoma. The top-10 Virginia Tech team that the Broncos defeated in the 2010 season opener won the ACC that season. The Georgia team they demolished in the 2011 season opener won 10 games and the SEC East.

But victory in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff would be Boise State’s greatest accomplishment yet – the football equivalent of the early Gonzaga NCAA Tournament teams that helped turn this program into a new-age Blues blood.

“This team wanted to leave a legacy where your actions will have a resounding impact for years to come,” Danielson said. “Standing on the podium and seeing Bronco Nation take the field are moments that can change everything.”

For Boise State and for college football.

(Photo of Boise State coach Spencer Danielson: Loren Orr / Getty Images)