Boise sings blues over MWC’s uniform edict

There will be no "working blue" in the Mountain West Conference this football season.

Redd Foxx, Richard Pryor and now Boise State's uniforms. Banned like Barbie's pregnant pal Midge at Walmart.

Word leaked at the MWC media days at Red Rock Resort that a condition of Boise being admitted to the MWC was that the Broncos would no longer wear their traditional all-blue uniforms in conference home games.

Some MWC coaches think that when Boise wears all blue on an all-blue playing field, it makes it difficult to identify the Broncos by their jersey numbers, especially when they are scoring touchdowns.

To hear the MWC coaches tell it, breaking down a Boise State game film is like trying to watch "The Invisible Man" were Dr. Jack Griffin to abandon the facial bandages and dark spectacles. Kellen Moore and Claude Rains? Practically the same guy. Pass the monocane.

Naturally, the fine upstanding citizens of Boise, Idaho, are in a blue funk over this, which is much better than an orange funk. Last year, the Broncos wore all-orange uniforms against Fresno State, nearly causing Bulldogs coach Pat Hill to go blind during a 51-0 defeat.

"It's a tragedy of college football," Boise State coach Chris Petersen told The Idaho Statesman.

Well, that might be overstating it a tad. The Marshall plane crash of 1970 was a tragedy of college football. This is just a silly rule by which the Broncos agreed to abide when they thought the MWC was on the fast track to automatic inclusion into the Bowl Championship Series.

"They could have said no" to joining the MWC, commissioner Craig Thompson said in all seriousness.

That wouldn't have been a tragedy of college football, either, just a colossal mistake on Thompson's part. And where's the hospitality? Idle threats and ultimatums hardly seem the gracious way to welcome a new member that could wind up saving the MWC, now that Utah and Brigham Young have moved on, and Texas Christian will do the same next year.

If anybody should sing the blues about Boise State's uniforms, it would be Idaho quarterback Brian Reader, who threw five interceptions in an all-blue blur at Bronco Stadium in 2009. But Reader said Idaho could have been "shirts" and Boise State "skins" and it wouldn't have made any difference.

"When you play them in their white jerseys," Reader said, "they are just as good, just as fast."

Thompson has more pressing concerns than the hue of football uniforms preferred by conference members, despite the 197 blue-on-blue stories that showed up on a Google search. (The Huffington Post even ran one.) Thompson harped on the financial problems many MWC schools are facing during his state-of-the-conference address Wednesday.

But if Boise State pounds the living spuds out of MWC as it did the Western Athletic Conference, additional concessions may be forthcoming.

In that case, one shouldn't be surprised when transmissions from the Boise coaches in the press box to Petersen on the field get rerouted through Peggy in those Discover Card commercials.

THREE UP

■ Brad Mills did a nice job after being called up to the Toronto Blue Jays from the 51s, limiting Texas to two runs on six hits in seven innings Saturday. Alas, a two-run homer by Mitch Moreland in the second inning made Mills the loser in a 3-0 Rangers victory.

■ Another left-handed starter who appeared in the 51s' rotation this season had a 15-inning scoreless streak snapped Friday in a 3-2 win against the Rangers. Brett Cecil is 3-1 with a 2.19 ERA and two complete games in his past five starts for the Jays.

■ It was a big week for former 51s north of the border, as Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia, who hit 21 homers for Las Vegas in 2009 and 32 last season, hit his 17th in the big leagues -- the most by a rookie backstop since Geovany Soto hit 18 for the Chicago Cubs in 2008. Mills, Cecil and Arencibia are three reasons 51s fans probably should attend games on nights besides Thursday (when beers cost $1) and when there are fireworks.

THREE DOWN

■ There's another story on Bryce Harper in Sports Illustrated this week and it's mostly positive, despite his .234 batting average in 22 games with a homer and five RBIs since being called up to Double-A Harrisburg. Two Washington Nationals executives compare the scrutiny Harper is facing to the scrutiny that Jackie Robinson faced in 1947 when he broke baseball's color barrier. This goes to show that some baseball people should think twice before they speak to Sports Illustrated.

■ One reason one should not always put a lot of stock in recruiting services: Beas Hamga, who scored a grand total of five points during his UNLV career, was ranked No. 26 on Rivals.com's list of top 150 basketball recruits in 2007. Jimmer Fredette, who scored 2,599 points during his Brigham Young career, was not ranked.

■ The possibility that UNLV might start four freshmen on the offensive line this fall would be less of a concern if, say, Captain America was the Rebels' quarterback.

Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.