Idaho State University - Athletics

Athletics

The Idaho State University Bengals compete as a member school of the Big Sky Conference in the NCAA Division I FCS. ISU won the NCAA Division I-AA national championship in football in 1981. It also won NCAA national championships in boxing as Idaho State College in 1953 and 1957.

In more recent years ISU has been competitive in track and field winning the Big Sky Conference Indoor title in 2005 and 2006. The women's track and field team won their first outdoors women's Big Sky conference in 2007 with a score of 140.5 over Weber State. Dave Nielson was named the Big Sky Coach of the Year in Women's track and field and was later named the Mountain Region's Outdoor Women's coach of the year.

Home football games are played at Holt Arena which has a seating capacity of 12,000 for football games and is the oldest enclosed stadium on a college campus in the United States. Holt Arena also hosts indoor track and field events.

For years the Bengals enjoyed athletic rivalries with the Boise State Broncos and the University of Idaho Vandals. However, as far as football is concerned, these rivalries diminished significantly after both BSU and UI left the Big Sky in 1996 to move up to Division I-A. The Bengals still enjoy a healthy rivalry in basketball with both the University of Idaho, who they have dominated in recent years, and Boise State, who has dominated ISU in recent years. With the diminishment of the rivalries with both U of I and BSU in football, the Weber State Wildcats of nearby Ogden, Utah, Montana State Bobcats of Bozeman, Montana, and the Montana Grizzlies of Missoula, Montana have become ISU's main football rivals.

Idaho State also offers a rugby program that plays in Division II. Idaho State offers scholarships to rugby players in the form of allowing out-of-state students to pay the in-state tuition rate. Idaho State finished the 2010 regular season ranked 9th in Division II. Idaho State reached the semifinals of the 2011 Mountain 7s tournament, and reached the semifinals of the 2012 Pacific Coast championship.