1980 Boise State Broncos football team
The 1980 Boise State Broncos football team represented Boise State University in the 1980 NCAA Division I-AA season. They competed in the Big Sky Conference and played home games at Bronco Stadium in Boise, Idaho. Led by fifth-year head coach Jim Criner and the celebrated Four Horsemen backfield—quarterback Joe Aliotti, fullback David Hughes, and halfbacks Cedric Minter with Terry Zahner as a reserve—BSU finished the regular season 8–3, 6–1 in the Big Sky, winning the conference title for the fifth time in eleven seasons (their first since 1977).
In the previous year they were 10–1 and undefeated in the Big Sky, but were on probation in 1978, making them ineligible for the conference title or the 1979 I-AA playoffs.
During the 1980 season, the Broncos beat two Division I-A opponents but lost a late road game to Cal Poly-SLO, the eventual Division II champions who they had defeated at the end of the previous season. They also defeated rival Idaho, then ranked ninth, in Boise in mid-October.
On November 8, during halftime of the Nevada-Reno game, the field at Bronco Stadium was dedicated to athletic director and former head coach Lyle Smith. Their only conference loss was a one-point defeat at Montana State, decided by a late two-point conversion.
The Broncos earned a spot in the four-team I-AA playoffs as Big Sky champions and hosted the first-round game. In the national semifinal on December 13 they defeated Grambling State 14–9 in fog, advancing to the championship game in California against defending champion Eastern Kentucky. In a foggy contest at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento, Boise State won 31–29 to capture their first I-AA national title.
Boise State returned to the I-AA semifinals in 1981 and 1990, and played for the title again in 1994 before moving up to Division I-A in 1996. One senior from the team was selected in the 1981 NFL draft.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 14:51 (CET).