Get ready for a week of talk about the “meaningless” nature of the Boise State football team’s awkward game next Saturday at Fresno State.
The Broncos and Bulldogs will play knowing they’ll meet again seven days later for the Mountain West title — and that game likely will be in Boise even if the Broncos lose the first encounter.
That makes it easy to speculate that the teams might pull some punches in the regular-season game, maybe hold back some banged-up players, maybe use the playbook basics.
Yet for Boise State, that game means far more than it does at first glance.