Culture
Boise State wasn’t exposed in Fiesta Bowl loss, but College Football Playoff seeding was
GLENDALE, Ariz. — There were two Boise States on the field on New Year’s Eve.
One was a conference champion living out a dream season. A team carried to the College Football Playoff on the back of star running back Ashton Jeanty, and a storied program atop the Group of 5 conferences once more.
The other Boise State was an outmanned G5 roster putting forth a valiant but futile effort against a better and more talented Penn State squad.
Both versions coexisted in No. 3 Boise State’s 31-14 loss to No. 6 Penn State in the Playoff quarterfinals at the Fiesta Bowl on Tuesday night. The first deserves to be celebrated. The latter provided Big Ten runner-up Penn State a seemingly easier path to the semifinals than Big Ten champion and No. 1 seed Oregon or SEC champion and No. 2 seed Georgia, and will further fuel the narrative that an imperfectly expanded Playoff needs to adjust its seeding format as soon as possible.
For Broncos fans, and those inclined to root for Cinderella, a disappointing and frustrating performance won’t diminish a magical run. No, Jeanty did not break Barry Sanders’ single-season rushing record, coming up 27 yards shy in his lowest rushing output of the season. No, the sport’s preeminent underdog couldn’t pull off yet another Fiesta Bowl upset, on the same field that hosted the program’s defining victories. But 2024 will go down as one of the most memorable seasons in the history of Boise State football.
“I’m so proud of this team. It didn’t go our way tonight, but they re-established the standard in Boise to be a light on the hill, to the country, that had been lost for a little bit,” said head coach Spencer Danielson. “That’s a legacy that can never be taken from them.”
For the other CFP teams that weren’t on the field Tuesday, or fans of college football at-large — an admittedly hard-to-satisfy lot — the matchup underscored a crucial flaw in a system meant to reward conference champions, but designed before realignment thinned the Power 5 to a top-heavy Power 4.
The fault in this Playoff formula, with byes going to the four highest-ranked conference champions, was obvious well before the teams were splashed across ESPN on Selection Sunday, including ninth-ranked Boise State jumping all the way to the No. 3 seed courtesy of a Mountain West championship. It created a bracket where No. 1 Oregon is set to face sixth-ranked Ohio State, which is seeded eighth, and No. 2 Georgia meets fifth-ranked Notre Dame, which is seeded seventh, on New Year’s Day.
Those who understood the format have been warning of these unintended consequences for months. But seeing is believing, and Penn State drove that reality home in the Fiesta Bowl as the fourth-ranked team but No. 6 seed against the ninth-ranked but No. 3 seed Broncos. In a multi-billion-dollar tournament that was years in the making, it was simple negligence (or maybe stubbornness?) that allowed a higher-ranked but lower-seeded team to enter a neutral site, national championship quarterfinal as an 11.5-point favorite — a game the Nittany Lions ultimately won by 17.
“Obviously tonight, we didn’t execute the way we needed to, to win a heavyweight fight like we knew this was going to be,” Danielson said.
Boise State committed four turnovers and 13 penalties. (Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)
Boise State wasn’t a charity case. It outgained Penn State 412 yards to 387, and plenty of its problems — including 13 penalties for 90 yards — were self-inflicted. But a Broncos team that lost only eight turnovers all season committed four on Tuesday, and it benefitted from an opponent that played with its food for the better part of three quarters. Penn State led from wire to wire, and outside of the lead briefly being cut to 17-14 early in the second half, the Nittany Lions felt in control the entire way.
“I think the Big Ten has prepared our guys,” Penn State coach James Franklin said. “Boise is a really good football team. … We were not taking them lightly. We talk about the maturity of our football team — I think that shows up.”
The loss isn’t an indictment of Boise State, or the 12-win season that preceded it. And this isn’t the same debate as those kvetching about Indiana and SMU earning at-large bids. There is no good-faith argument that the Broncos didn’t deserve a Playoff spot and a chance to compete for a national title.
This team exemplified the bigger-tent approach this sport has desperately lacked for decades. The same praises and criticisms that elevated Boise also apply to No. 4 seed Arizona State out of the Big 12, which was slotted 12th in the final CFP rankings and will play third-ranked and No. 5 seed Texas in Wednesday’s Peach Bowl. But the Broncos had the first crack at proving the doubters wrong, validating their “Please count us out” T-shirts. Instead, they left it even harder to justify a system that made the No. 5 and 6 seeds — and losing a conference championship — look more advantageous than the top two spots.
Boise State has nothing to apologize for. Offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter acknowledged to The Athletic last week that the Playoff’s seeding system will likely be changed, perhaps as early as next season. But it’s not as if the Broncos orchestrated or exploited the system.
“We didn’t make those (bye) rules,” Koetter said. “I’m smart enough to realize we might not be the third-best team, but we definitely deserve to be in there.”
Danielson echoed that sentiment after the game on Tuesday, just as the clock struck midnight back on the East Coast, ringing in the new year. College football in 2025 is better for having an expanded Playoff, widening the path to compete for a national title. Boise State earned its entry to that path this season, just like SMU and Penn State and Georgia and every other team in the field. That shouldn’t change moving forward.
Even if — at the same time, on the same field — Boise State was also the reason that path is bound to look a little different the next time the Broncos get there.
GO DEEPER
‘This is jubilation’: Penn State relishes Fiesta Bowl win as Playoff charge continues
(Top photo of Ashton Jeanty: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
On Dec. 16, 1775, a girl was born in Steventon, England — the seventh of eight children — to a clergyman and his wife. She was an avid reader, never married and died in 1817, at the age of 41. But in just those few decades, Jane Austen changed the world.
Her novels have had an outsize influence in the centuries since her death. Not only are the books themselves beloved — as sharply observed portraits of British society, revolutionary narrative projects and deliciously satisfying romances — but the stories she created have so permeated culture that people around the world care deeply about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, even if they’ve never actually read “Pride and Prejudice.”
With her 250th birthday this year, the Austen Industrial Complex has kicked into high gear with festivals, parades, museum exhibits, concerts and all manner of merch, ranging from the classily apt to the flamboyantly absurd. The words “Jane mania” have been used; so has “exh-Aust-ion.”
How to capture this brief life, and the blazing impact that has spread across the globe in her wake? Without further ado: a mere sampling of the wealth, wonder and weirdness Austen has brought to our lives. After all, your semiquincentennial doesn’t come around every day.
By ‘A Lady’
Austen published just four novels in her lifetime: “Sense and Sensibility” (1811), “Pride and Prejudice” (1813), “Mansfield Park” (1814) and “Emma” (1815). All of them were published anonymously, with the author credited simply as “A Lady.” (If you’re in New York, you can see this first edition for yourself at the Grolier Club through Feb. 14.)
Where the Magic Happened
Placed near a window for light, this diminutive walnut table was, according to family lore, where the author did much of her writing. It is now in the possession of the Jane Austen Society.
An Iconic Accessory
Few of Austen’s personal artifacts remain, contributing to the author’s mystique. One of them is this turquoise ring, which passed to her sister-in-law and then her niece after her death. In 2012, the ring was put up for auction and bought by the “American Idol” champion Kelly Clarkson. This caused quite a stir in England; British officials were loath to let such an important cultural artifact leave the country’s borders. Jane Austen’s House, the museum now based in the writer’s Hampshire home, launched a crowdfunding campaign to Bring the Ring Home and bought the piece from Clarkson. The real ring now lives at the museum; the singer has a replica.
Austen Onscreen
Since 1940, when Austen had a bit of a moment and Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier starred in MGM’s rather liberally reinterpreted “Pride and Prejudice,” there have been more than 20 international adaptations of Austen’s work made for film and TV (to say nothing of radio). From the sublime (Emma Thompson’s Oscar-winning “Sense and Sensibility”) to the ridiculous (the wholly gratuitous 2022 remake of “Persuasion”), the high waists, flickering firelight and double weddings continue to provide an endless stream of debate fodder — and work for a queen’s regiment of British stars.
Jane Goes X-Rated
The rumors are true: XXX Austen is a thing. “Jane Austen Kama Sutra,” “Pride and Promiscuity: The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen” and enough slash fic and amateur porn to fill Bath’s Assembly Rooms are just the start. Purists may never recover.
A Lady Unmasked
Austen’s final two completed novels, “Northanger Abbey” and “Persuasion,” were published after her death. Her brother Henry, who oversaw their publication, took the opportunity to give his sister the recognition he felt she deserved, revealing the true identity of the “Lady” behind “Pride and Prejudice,” “Emma,” etc. in a biographical note. “The following pages are the production of a pen which has already contributed in no small degree to the entertainment of the public,” he wrote, extolling his sister’s imagination, good humor and love of dancing. Still, “no accumulation of fame would have induced her, had she lived, to affix her name to any productions of her pen.”
Wearable Tributes
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jane Austen fan wants to find other Jane Austen fans, and what better way to advertise your membership in that all-inclusive club than with a bit of merch — from the subtle and classy to the gloriously obscene.
The Austen Literary Universe
On the page, there is no end to the adventures Austen and her characters have been on. There are Jane Austen mysteries, Jane Austen vampire series, Jane Austen fantasy adventures, Jane Austen Y.A. novels and, of course, Jane Austen romances, which transpose her plots to a remote Maine inn, a Greenwich Village penthouse and the Bay Area Indian American community, to name just a few. You can read about Austen-inspired zombie hunters, time-traveling hockey players, Long Island matchmakers and reality TV stars, or imagine further adventures for some of your favorite characters. (Even the obsequious Mr. Collins gets his day in the sun.)
A Botanical Homage
Created in 2017 to mark the 200th anniversary of Austen’s death, the “Jane Austen” rose is characterized by its intense orange color and light, sweet perfume. It is bushy, healthy and easy to grow.
Aunt Jane
Hoping to cement his beloved aunt’s legacy, Austen’s nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh published this biography — a rather rosy portrait based on interviews with family members — five decades after her death. The book is notable not only as the source (biased though it may be) of many of the scant facts we know about her life, but also for the watercolor portrait by James Andrews that serves as its frontispiece. Based on a sketch by Cassandra, this depiction of Jane is softer and far more winsome than the original: Whether that is due to a lack of skill on her sister’s part or overly enthusiastic artistic license on Andrews’s, this is the version of Austen most familiar to people today.
Cultural Currency
In 2017, the Bank of England released a new 10-pound note featuring Andrews’s portrait of Austen, as well as a line from “Pride and Prejudice”: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!” Austen is the third woman — other than the queen — to be featured on British currency, and the only one currently in circulation.
In the Trenches
During World War I and World War II, British soldiers were given copies of Austen’s works. In his 1924 story “The Janeites,” Rudyard Kipling invoked the grotesque contrasts — and the strange comfort — to be found in escaping to Austen’s well-ordered world amid the horrors of trench warfare. As one character observes, “There’s no one to touch Jane when you’re in a tight place.”
Baby Janes
You’re never too young to learn to love Austen — or that one’s good opinion, once lost, may be lost forever.
The Austen Industrial Complex
Maybe you’ve not so much as seen a Jane Austen meme, let alone read one of her novels. No matter! Need a Jane Austen finger puppet? Lego? Magnetic poetry set? Lingerie? Nameplate necklace? Plush book pillow? License plate frame? Bath bomb? Socks? Dog sweater? Whiskey glass? Tarot deck? Of course you do! And you’re in luck: What a time to be alive.
Around the Globe
Austen’s novels have been translated into more than 40 languages, including Polish, Finnish, Chinese and Farsi. There are active chapters of the Jane Austen Society, her 21st-century fan club, throughout the world.
Playable Persuasions
In Austen’s era, no afternoon tea was complete without a rousing round of whist, a trick-taking card game played in two teams of two. But should you not be up on your Regency amusements, you can find plenty of contemporary puzzles and games with which to fill a few pleasant hours, whether you’re piecing together her most beloved characters or using your cunning and wiles to land your very own Mr. Darcy.
#SoJaneAusten
The wild power of the internet means that many Austen moments have taken on lives of their own, from Colin Firth’s sopping wet shirt and Matthew Macfadyen’s flexing hand to Mr. Collins’s ode to superlative spuds and Mr. Knightley’s dramatic floor flop. The memes are fun, yes, but they also speak to the universality of Austen’s writing: More than two centuries after her books were published, the characters and stories she created are as relatable as ever.
Bonnets Fit for a Bennett
For this summer’s Grand Regency Costumed Promenade in Bath, England — as well as the myriad picnics, balls, house parties, dinners, luncheons, teas and fetes that marked the anniversary — seamstresses, milliners, mantua makers and costume warehouses did a brisk business, attiring the faithful in authentic Regency finery. And that’s a commitment: A bespoke, historically accurate bonnet can easily run to hundreds of dollars.
Most Ardently, Jane
Austen was prolific correspondent, believed to have written thousands of letters in her lifetime, many to her sister, Cassandra. But in an act that has frustrated biographers for centuries, upon Jane’s death, Cassandra protected her sister’s privacy — and reputation? — by burning almost all of them, leaving only about 160 intact, many heavily redacted. But what survives is filled with pithy one-liners. To wit: “I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.”
Stage and Sensibility
Austen’s works have been adapted numerous times for the stage. Some plays (and musicals) hew closely to the original text, while others — such as Emily Breeze’s comedic riff on “Pride and Prejudice,” “Are the Bennet Girls OK?”, which is running at New York City’s West End Theater through Dec. 21 — use creative license to explore ideas of gender, romance and rage through a contemporary lens.
Austen 101
Austen remains a reliable fount of academic scholarship; recent conference papers have focused on the author’s enduring global reach, the work’s relationship to modern intersectionality, digital humanities and “Jane Austen on the Cheap.” And as one professor told our colleague Sarah Lyall of the Austen amateur scholarship hive, “Woe betide the academic who doesn’t take them seriously.”
W.W.J.D.
When facing problems — of etiquette, romance, domestic or professional turmoil — sometimes the only thing to do is ask: What would Jane do?
A famous poet once observed that it is difficult to get the news from poems. The weather is a different story. April showers, summer sunshine and — maybe especially — the chill of winter provide an endless supply of moods and metaphors. Poets like to practice a double meteorology, looking out at the water and up at the sky for evidence of interior conditions of feeling.
The inner and outer forecasts don’t always match up. This short poem by Louise Glück starts out cold and stays that way for most of its 11 lines.
And then it bursts into flame.
“Early December in Croton-on-Hudson” comes from Glück’s debut collection, “Firstborn,” which was published in 1968. She wrote the poems in it between the ages of 18 and 23, but they bear many of the hallmarks of her mature style, including an approach to personal matters — sex, love, illness, family life — that is at once uncompromising and elusive. She doesn’t flinch. She also doesn’t explain.
Here, for example, Glück assembles fragments of experience that imply — but also obscure — a larger narrative. It’s almost as if a short story, or even a novel, had been smashed like a glass Christmas ornament, leaving the reader to infer the sphere from the shards.
We know there was a couple with a flat tire, and that a year later at least one of them still has feelings for the other. It’s hard not to wonder if they’re still together, or where they were going with those Christmas presents.
To some extent, those questions can be addressed with the help of biographical clues. The version of “Early December in Croton-on-Hudson” that appeared in The Atlantic in 1967 was dedicated to Charles Hertz, a Columbia University graduate student who was Glück’s first husband. They divorced a few years later. Glück, who died in 2023, was never shy about putting her life into her work.
But the poem we are reading now is not just the record of a passion that has long since cooled. More than 50 years after “Firstborn,” on the occasion of receiving the Nobel Prize for literature, Glück celebrated the “intimate, seductive, often furtive or clandestine” relations between poets and their readers. Recalling her childhood discovery of William Blake and Emily Dickinson, she declared her lifelong ardor for “poems to which the listener or reader makes an essential contribution, as recipient of a confidence or an outcry, sometimes as co-conspirator.”
That’s the kind of poem she wrote.
“Confidence” can have two meanings, both of which apply to “Early December in Croton-on-Hudson.” Reading it, you are privy to a secret, something meant for your ears only. You are also in the presence of an assertive, self-possessed voice.
Where there is power, there’s also risk. To give voice to desire — to whisper or cry “I want you” — is to issue a challenge and admit vulnerability. It’s a declaration of conquest and a promise of surrender.
What happens next? That’s up to you.
Cold weather can serve as a plot point or emphasize the mood of a scene, and this week’s literary geography quiz highlights the locations of recent novels that work winter conditions right into the story. Even if you aren’t familiar with the book, the questions offer an additional hint about the setting. To play, just make your selection in the multiple-choice list and the correct answer will be revealed. At the end of the quiz, you’ll find links to the books if you’d like to do further reading.
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