BSU's bowl decision hurts or helps new contract..

BSU's decision to play in the Hawaii Bowl is the only blemish on an otherwise fairly impeccable character. Boise State football players, staff and personnel almost always seem to do the right thing. The move to play in Hawaii was selfish and it was apparent the players felt they had some sort of entitlement to be there. I still feel that if the players wanted some sort of reward for their season then they should have played harder and not lost, and earned a spot in a bowl they wanted to play in.

Having said all that, I don't think it will have much of an effect at all on which conference decides to tie in with the humanitarian bowl.  I think they will consider the location, costs and revenue opportunities of playing in boise.

I say less appealing because not only did Boise not play in the H-Bowl, but they lost the Hawaii Bowl.  That made 2 losses for the Broncos at the end of the season, this was the team that the fans were hoping would get to the Sugar Bowl had they beaten Hawaii soundly.  Then to lose to ECU when the majority picked Boise State to win put another nail in the coffin.  What it boils down to is Boise State has lost a good deal of its media appeal.

The Broncos had a plethora of games televised last season on ESPN (3 consecutive games), and they won them untill Hawaii.  They played the "instant classic" Nevada game.  Media coverage and wins like that generates new fans across the country.  People want to see the Broncos win.  Losing kills that fan base.  Losing twice consecutively just about destroys it.

If the Broncos had played the H-Bowl, they would have still held a good percentage of that national fan base and ratings for the H-Bowl would have been great and the future of the H-Bowl would be more secure.  Since they lost the Hawaii Bowl, the Broncos no longer have those fans (or media) on the bandwagon, so fewer people will care what Boise State does next.  And you see by the schedule next season that  the media coverage doesn't look the same.  That feeling lasts a long time and it will be difficult to get other conferences excited about playing the best team in the WAC. (But if the Broncos can defeat Oregon in Eugene, everything will be back on track).