Boise State’s classic win over Virginia Tech last night was their coming out party for many fans, but they’ve gone 49-4 the last four years, including two undefeated seasons, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise. In this post we’ll review their online activation and see if it also belongs on the national stage.

Dedicated Website: www.BoiseStateFootball.com
Boise State is ahead of many of their competitors by just having a dedicated program website. So many major programs ignore this great opportunity to reach Fans, Alumni, Corporate Sponsors, and most importantly Recruits, by just sticking with the templated athletic department website that provides them absolutely zero differentiation.

Taking a closer look at the website experience, there’s a couple things the program could do to really take the solution up a notch:

Design:  The site is based on a template format (Home Page and Secondary Page templates) so there is no room to really showcase the program creatively through the design. The site is also in all Flash so mobile access will be an issue. With this type of setup it would be very easy to do a compatible mobile site.

Content:  They do a great job of using video throughout the site, only problem is this site is based on annual updates, so there is no reason to come back after the first visit. There is no frequently updated content anywhere on the site. No team blogs, articles/interviews, news links, game video or photos, no two-way features for fans, no promos via corporate sponsors for fans, no social media feeds/links, even the schedule doesn’t allow for a “Results” update.

Social Media Integration:  Noted above the site does not include any social media integration at all. We did some checking and the football program does not have a dedicated Twitter, Facebook or YouTube account – everything flows through the main AD accounts. These channels can be so much more beneficial when they are setup for the individual sports and maintained properly.

Another odd thing about the site it was supposedly paid for by the BSU Marketing Department instead of the Football Program, but there is no callout or mention of it on the main BroncosSports.com AD website. At the very least you should include a graphical callout or text link inside the Football section on the site.

Kudos to the program for even having a dedicated presence, but really it needs to be developed a lot further in order for it to start paying dividends. The lack of any social media presence is baffling – frankly for a Top-5 football or basketball program they are a must.

The program is competing in a different game now where teams like Michigan, Notre Dame, Texas, OSU, USC have much bigger budgets so they can’t afford to waste any opportunities to give fans and recruits access to the program.