Boise State University

• 1. Introduction

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  Boise State University, in Boise, Idaho, stands on ground that served as the city's airport through the 1930s. Planes once used the land where students now cross the grass between classes.

  A school with that origin raises a few questions. Who started it, and how did it end up a public institution? What do its students study, and what sort of research does a university in Idaho's capital pursue? And why does its football stadium have a field known far beyond the state for its color?

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• 2. Church College to State University

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  In 1932, the Episcopal Church founded the school that would grow into Boise State University. Two years later, in 1934, it became an independent junior college.

  It took until 1965 for the school to begin awarding baccalaureate and master's degrees. Four years after that, in 1969, it became a public institution.

  In 1974, the school became Idaho's third state university. Two others came first: the University of Idaho, which dates to 1889, and Idaho State University, which dates to 1963.

  More than 75,000 living alumni now hold degrees from the school, which awards associate, bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities accredits it. Those graduates trace their studies to a campus beside the Boise River.

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• 3. Library and Stage

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  The campus covers 285 acres on the south bank of the Boise River, facing Julia Davis Park across the water. Capitol Boulevard marks its western edge and Broadway Avenue its eastern one. More than 170 buildings sit near downtown, at an elevation of 2700 feet.

  Albertsons Library carries the name of grocery pioneer Joe Albertson. It holds more than 650,000 books and over 130,000 periodicals. Students share 107 public terminals and can reach over 300 online databases.

  The Velma V. Morrison Center for the Performing Arts opened its doors in April 1984. Its main hall seats 2,000 people and hosts concerts, the Broadway in Boise series and other fine arts events.

  Some of the newest investments around the campus, however, serve laboratories and software teams rather than audiences.

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• 4. Science and Technology

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  Micron Technology, headquartered in Boise, gave $25 million to create the Micron Center for Materials Research. Completed in 2020, the building was designed by Hummel Architects and Anderson Mason Dale Architects. Hoffman Construction served as lead contractor.

  One wing holds sensitive equipment and state of the art research laboratories. A second wing holds classrooms and offices. With this gift, Micron's total investment in materials science and engineering at Boise State reaches $40 million. That support backs a full set of degrees in the field, from bachelor's through doctoral.

  The computer science department took a different route and moved off the main campus into a new downtown building. It occupies 53,549 gross square feet, covering the full second and third floors. Clearwater Analytics shares the building, and about 20 more of Boise's top technology companies are a short walk away.

  In the 2024 fiscal year, Boise State reported research awards above $83 million and research expenditures over $70 million. The university is classified as R2, a tier for doctoral universities with high research activity. Earlier, the National Science Foundation counted approximately $48 million in research and development funding for 2022, which ranked Boise State 217th in the nation.

  In 2025, researchers in the Nagarajan Lab won a five-year federal biochemistry grant, the first of its kind awarded in Idaho. The money supports molecular research and interdisciplinary science education.

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• 5. Degrees and Reach

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  More than 190 fields of study at Boise State are organized into eight named units. These are the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Business and Economics, the College of Education and the College of Engineering. The others are the Graduate College, the College of Health Sciences, the School of Public Service and the College of Innovation and Design. An honors college sits alongside them.

  In 2022, the Idaho State Board of Education approved a School of the Environment inside the College of Arts and Sciences. It was established in 2023.

  In the 2015-16 school year, the university awarded diplomas to 3,916 distinct graduates. They included 18 doctorates, 10 education specialists, 670 master's degrees and 2,998 bachelor's degrees. For the 2024-2025 academic year, the middle half of enrolled students scored between 1050 and 1360 on the SAT, with a midpoint of 1210.

  In 1971, the university began publishing the Western Writers Series, a run of monographs on authors of the American Frontier and American West. New titles stopped at the end of 2006. Albertsons Library still maintains an online collection of publications and documents on Idaho history.

  The Center for Idaho History and Politics offers a nine-credit field school called Investigate Boise. It focuses on heritage, government and urban affairs. Each round of classes produces a publication written by students and edited by faculty.

  Extended Studies at Boise State carries programs to the College of Western Idaho in Nampa, Mountain Home Air Force Base and Gowen Field. It also reaches Twin Falls, Lewiston and Coeur d'Alene. Another 29 degrees and certificates can be completed fully online.

  Beginning in 2016, Boise State partnered with Harvard Business School to offer the Harvard Business School Online business fundamentals program to Idaho students and the business community. It is the only such Harvard collaboration with a public U.S. university.

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• 6. Who Studies Here

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  In fall 2016, Boise State enrolled 23,886 students, and about 76 percent of them were Idaho residents. By the 2023-24 year, enrollment had reached 26,727, with about 69 percent coming from Idaho. The university has the largest graduate enrollment in the state. More than 90 percent of first-year students arrive directly from high school.

  For most students, home is not a campus dorm. Only 18 percent live in housing that the college owns, operates or is affiliated with, while 82 percent live off campus.

  As of fall 2023, the Greek community included 8 Panhellenic sororities and 11 fraternities, a sign of growth. In 2023, however, the fraternity Alpha Kappa Lambda was suspended for four years over hazing rituals and incidents of alcohol abuse.

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• 7. Broncos on the Move

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  Buster Bronco is the official mascot of Boise State's athletic teams, known as the Broncos. Men's teams compete in football, basketball, cross country, track and field, golf and tennis. Women's teams compete in volleyball, basketball, cross country, swimming and diving, soccer, track and field, gymnastics, golf, softball and tennis. Most play in the Mountain West Conference.

  The national championship team of 1958 came from the junior college days and was coached by Lyle Smith. He is remembered as the father of Bronco football.

  In 1970, Boise State College joined the NCAA in the university division, now called Division I. Football was the exception. It spent its first eight seasons in the college division, which later became Division II.

  In 1978, Big Sky Conference football moved up to the new Division I-AA, now called FCS. Two years later the Broncos won the national championship. In 1996, Boise State moved up to Division I-A, now FBS, as a member of the Big West Conference.

  The Western Athletic Conference came next, in 2001, followed by the Mountain West Conference in 2011. The school is set to join the Pac-12 Conference in 2026. Both the WAC and the Mountain West departures followed those conferences dropping sponsorship of football.

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• 8. The Blue and the Pavilion

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  Albertsons Stadium opened in September 1970 with a capacity of 14,500. Ground had been broken after the 1969 season. Expansions came in 1975 and 1997, and capacity now sits at around 37,000.

  Before 1986, the synthetic turf on what is now called Lyle Smith Field was standard green. Athletic director Gene Bleymaier came up with the idea of "The Blue," the first non-green football field in the country. Fans also call it "The Smurf Turf" because of its color.

  The stadium hosted the NCAA Division I Track and Field Championships in 1994 and 1999. Since 1997 it has been home to the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

  ExtraMile Arena opened in May 1982 and seats 12,380 on three levels. It was the Boise State University Pavilion until June 2004, then Taco Bell Arena from 2004 until 2019. Basketball, wrestling, women's gymnastics, community events and several concerts each year all use it.

  The arena hosted rounds one and two of the NCAA basketball tournament on nine occasions between 1983 and 2018. In 2002, it hosted the third and fourth rounds of the NCAA women's tournament.

  Construction began in February 1980 on the site of the tennis courts and part of the baseball field. That year the Bronco baseball team played its home games at Borah Field, now Bill Wigle Field, at Borah High School. The program was discontinued that May. The tennis courts were rebuilt immediately west of the arena, on what had been the baseball infield and right field.

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