Presented by BBSI BOISE.

This Day In Sports…March 18, 2015, 10 years ago today:

A quirk in the NCAA Tournament selection process places Boise State in the First Four in Dayton—against Dayton. The Broncos and Flyers were the last two at-large teams picked and were No. 11 seeds in the East Region. With Dayton the pre-determined host site, Boise State was forced to play the first true road game in the NCAA Tournament in 28 years in front of a First Four record 12,952 fans.  

The city of Dayton has totally immersed itself in this play-in pageant since it began in 2001 as a single-game event. Dayton was a regular NCAA Tournament site before that and has now hosted 135 tourney games, more than any other city. But the selection committee never intended the Flyers to play a home game in the First Four, and the procedure was tweaked after the Boise State disadvantage was roundly criticized.

As for the game, Boise State almost got out of there with a win. The Broncos led by 12 points in the first half and by nine with 6½ minutes left, but the Flyers won it 56-55 on a three-pointer with 35 seconds remaining. It seemed unfair that a foul wasn’t called on Derrick Marks’ three-point attempt in the final seconds when there was clearly contact, but Boise State could have put this one away long before the last possession. At the time it as considered as crushing a loss as the Broncos had suffered in a long, long time.

It was Marks’ final game as a Bronco, and it was a lot more positive than negative. Sure, the Mountain West Player of the Year missed his last five shots and turned the ball over twice in the final 1½ minutes when Boise State’s offense slowed to a crawl. But it was Marks who put the Broncos in a position to win with a lot of dazzling playmaking that resulted in a game-high 23 points.  

Boise State has had bad luck on Selection Sunday. The Dayton-in-Dayton thing was the ultimate. But you had last year’s situation, when every metric said the Broncos were safely in the field of 64 before they were sent to Dayton as an 11-seed to face Colorado. Boise State let that one get away, too, in a 60-53 defeat. And, of course, on Sunday the Broncos were left out of the 2025 NCAA Tournament altogether. It wasn’t a total shock, but enough bracketology sheets had them in that it was a disappointment nonetheless.

(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.) 

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