1) They are a relative Johnny-come-lately fanbase. This springs from the objective fact that they haven’t been D1 for terribly long.

30–40 years ago, the University of Idaho would dominate them, and it was hard to find ardent Boise State fans outside of the Treasure Valley. Couple that with the fact that Idaho has grown tremendously during the same timeframe that Boise State went D1 and there’s been a natural bandwagon effect.

2) They were treated to almost unmatched success very early on in their tenure as a D1 school, and it warped their perception quite a bit. They lost two games in four years and became national darlings. Their win over Oklahoma was one of the most exciting and celebrated games of the modern era.

It went to their head as it would pretty much any fanbase.

3) They lacked a natural rival and for a while that rival became us. They beat us twice as much as we beat them, and many of those games were heart breakers. Some natural annoyance there.

I’ve observed some Ute and Aggie tendencies with BSU, but overall I find them to lack the same vitriol or little brotherism. Mostly, they love their team and are backing a young but quality program that struggles for inclusion at the big boy table of competitive college football, much the way we did for decades.