The college football season starts tomorrow. Atop preseason polls, legendary programs like Alabama, Ohio State, Texas, Florida and Oklahoma are listed. No surprise. Also no surprise to football insiders, but less legendary, is the team ranked consistently at number three across all of the polls – Boise State. Boise State?
The Boise State Broncos are an exciting team with a high-powered offense. Over the past decade, from the equally-not-legendary Mountain West Conference, they’ve launched their once unknown football program to national power status. But this is a story as much about marketing prowess as it is football prowess.
In the early 1980s, Boise State, which was a junior college until 1965, decided it was ready to be taken more seriously in college football. Athletic Director Gene Bleymaier engineered the school into the Division I ranks and in 1986 he did something radical and unthinkable to football purists. He replaced the Astroturf at Bronco Stadium with bright royal blue Astroturf. Take a look:
Highlights would never be the same. Slowly but surely, the program gained national recognition as “the blue field team.” It was a signature like no other.
But this was no stunt. The blue field was (and is) a signature that set the tone for a challenger brand of football. Coach Chris Peterson’s fast, gun-slinging offenses entertain fans, win games and have shaken up the college football establishment. The contrarian, oh-yes-we-can blue field was as much a philosophy as it was a recognition tool. The blue field is a brand idea. What’s a signature your brand could own to accelerate growth? Find your blue field – but make sure it stands for something.
Love the graphic at the top of your page. Reminds me of the art at Rockefeller Center.