The Nevada Wolf Pack's football rivalry with the Boise State Broncos will be seriously diminished over the next four years.
The Broncos, the team northern Nevada loves to hate, will make just one appearance at Mackay Stadium from 2013 through the 2016 season when they visit northern Nevada in 2014.
The Wolf Pack will play at Boise in 2013 and the two teams will not play at all in 2015 and 2016. The two consecutive years without a Boise State-Nevada football game will be the first two-year Pack-Bronco drought since the rivalry began in 1971.
This will be just the third time Boise makes just one visit to Mackay Stadium over a four-year stretch in the history of the 41-year-old rivalry. Boise came to Reno just once from 1994 through 1997 and again just once from 1998 through 2001.
The reason for the lack of Boise State Broncos in Reno from 1994 through 2001 was the transitions both schools were making from the Big Sky Conference to the Big West Conference to the Western Athletic Conference.
The reason for just one Boise State visit to Reno over the next four years is the awkward Mountain West football schedule.
Starting in the fall, the Mountain West will have two five-team divisions, called the Mountain Division and the West Division. The Mountain Division will consist of Air Force, Boise, Colorado State, New Mexico, Utah State and Wyoming. The West Division includes Nevada, Fresno State, Hawaii, San Diego State, San Jose State and UNLV.
The to division champions will meet in an annual Mountain West football championship game in early December at the home of the team with the highest BCS ranking at the time. This year's game will be Dec. 7.
Teams play the other five teams in their own division every season. Teams also play three of the six teams in the other division every year. The teams each school plays from the other division changes every two seasons.
The Wolf Pack, for example, will not play New Mexico, Utah State and Wyoming either this fall or in 2014. The Pack will then not play Air Force, Boise State and Colorado State in both 2015 and 2016.
The lack of Boise State on the Wolf Pack schedule in both 2015 and 2016 means Wolf Pack fans will not have the pleasure of meeting one of their two biggest rivals (UNLV is the other) for two consecutive years for the first time in the 41-year-old rivalry.
It also robs the Mountain West, a conference that is reinventing itself on the fly, of one of its biggest football rivalries.
