U. adds Boise St. to grid slate

Utah's non-conference football schedule this fall just got a whole lot more difficult.

Boise State is in and Ohio is out. The Broncos, who have claimed a share of three consecutive Western Athletic Conference titles, will visit Rice-Eccles Stadium on Sept. 30 — opening a four-game series that includes annual meetings from 2011-13.

"It's a lot of different things that fell into place," said Utah athletics director Chris Hill. "At the end of the day, it's a good game for us. We're happy to get it done."

Tuesday's announcement cleared what Hill called a convoluted situation over the past three or four weeks.

It began, Hill said, when Ohio felt the need to get out of its contract with Utah to accommodate the addition of Temple to the Mid-American Conference.

"We, obviously, weren't pleased to be hearing at this late date that we weren't having a home game," Hill said. "But Boise turned out to be a good option for us."

Working closely with MAC and WAC officials, the Utes and Broncos would up with a deal. Bowling Green played a pivotal role in the negotiations by agreeing to let Boise State out of a contract to visit Ohio this season.

""For us it was a positive at this late date to get a quality home game. It's exciting for us," Hill said.

The regional matchup featuring teams with a combined 62-13 record over the past three seasons, Hill added, should be exciting for fans of both schools.

"A series with Boise State makes sense for a lot of reasons," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said in making the announcement. "For the last several years they have been very successful and we're excited to have a quality program like Boise State on our schedule."

Besides the Broncos, Utah's non-conference slate also includes a home date with Northern Arizona on Sept. 9. Road games feature a Sept. 2 season opener at UCLA and a Sept. 16 trip to Utah State.

The complete 2006 schedule is expected to be released today when the Mountain West Conference unveils league dates.

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E-mail: dirk@desnews.com