The Idaho State Board of Education on Tuesday unanimously approved Idaho State University’s request to rename Holt Arena as the Idaho Central Credit Union Dome in return for a 12-year, $6 million gift from the credit union to the ISU athletic department.
The 7-0 vote means that ISU will move forward with the plan to remove the name of Milton “W.” Dubby Holt from the 54-year-old athletic facility, while using the new funding to eliminate one “money game” from the football team’s schedule each season.
ISU will continue to honor Holt’s contributions to the planning, design and construction of the arena during his time as athletic director. The school will develop a large mural of Holt that will cover the north wall of the arena, commemorating his time as an athlete, coach and administrator at ISU. Holt is already a member of the Ring of Honor in the arena, and will also be honored by a display now under construction in the Hall of Champions being constructed in the new ICCU Alumni Center across the parking lot from the arena.
During her presentation to the board, ISU Athletic Director Pauline Thiros was asked if there was discussion of keeping the Holt name in the title of the arena. She said there was discussion of several different names, including one incorporating the Holt name, but that ultimately negotiations between the university and the credit union resulted in agreement on the ICCU Dome.
She was also asked if input from the community was received on the name change proposal. She said ISU reached out to key stakeholders within the community of ISU supporters to judge how the name change would be received. She also spoke with Carolyn O’Connor, Holt’s great niece who represented him when he was inducted into the Big Sky Hall of Fame a couple of years ago. While initially disappointed at seeing the Holt name taken off the facility, she said Holt was the “ultimate wheeler/dealer” who was always looking for a way to improve the lot of ISU athletes, and he would have likely supported the name change.
The main driver behind making the name change was the money that will be generated from ICCU and that will be used to eliminate one football game each season with a Football Bowl Subdivision team. For the past 15 years, ISU has played two such games with schools that have significantly larger budgets, rosters and scholarship limits.
Since 2008, Idaho State has played 30 games against FBS opponents, and the average score has been “bad guys” 51, Bengals 27. ISU did manage to escape with one upset win in their FBS matches, downing Nevada in Reno, 30-28, in 2017. And there have been a few other competitive contests along the way — but there have also been nightmares like UNLV’s 80-8 beat down of ISU in 2015, the 73-7 waxing Nebraska administered in 2012, or the 64-0 whitewashing Oklahoma applied in a downpour in Norman in 2009.
“We had been focusing for years on how we would grow our budget enough to insure that we didn’t have to sell our student athletes for two money games,” said Thiros. “It’s very hard on the program. And we are always looking for new sources of revenue for the program.”
“Our partnership with ICCU is very special,” said Thiros of the credit union that also recently financed a good chunk of the extensive Holt Arena renovations. “They share our goals, our values, the things that are important to us are important to them They were willing to make an exemplary commitment and add to their already significant capital gift in order to rename it the ICCU Dome.”
Idaho State football coach Cody Hawkins welcomed the new naming rights deal and the relief it will provide his team in future schedules.
“I think it just continues to point toward progress, which is what we need to make as a program and as a community that support athletics here,” said Hawkins, whose team finished 3-8 in his first year at the ISU helm last fall. “I’m really excited about the work that Pauline Thiros and (outdoing) ISU President Satterlee did to make this happen. Just to see the renovations in Holt are fantastic, but nowadays collegiate athletics are such an arms race — anywhere you can try to get extra funding, extra resources for your athletes, the better you are going to be.”
Hawkins said he’s looking forward to scheduling more non-conference games against Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) non-conference opponents that compete on the same level as Idaho State.
“It’s really important to play competitive games, playoff caliber teams, but playing teams at our level is really exciting,” Hawkins said. “Whether that’s other FCS type teams we might see later in the playoffs, or another team on the West Coast. We want to play as many FCS teams as we can.”
Hawkins cited years when ISU or other Big Sky Conference teams had winning records in conference but were passed over for the FCS playoffs for not having enough non-conference wins — even though those teams played two FBS opponents those seasons.
“if you look at how the SEC schedules, Alabama is going to play Mercer in the non-conference because they know they’re going to have to play Auburn, LSU and Georgia. For us, we know we’re going to have to play Montana, Montana State, Weber State, the Vandals — so you have got to play as many competitive games as you can. You can’t really afford to go out there and have two losses in non-conference.”
Idaho State has not released its full schedule for the 2024 season yet, but Thiros said there will be only one FBS opponent — Oregon State. The Bengals will play a 12-game schedule next year because of the way the calendar falls, and six of those will be at home.
In addition to eliminating one “money game” a year, the ICCU revenue will also help to add one more coaching position to the football staff to meet the new NCAA allowable limits. “And we’ll be able to do it without spending every single dime we raise,” Thiros said. “That money that we do raise now, it’s just keeping the lights on. It’s going to do more.”
Thiros said “money games” generally generate between $350,000 and $500,000 each, depending on the opponent. Sometimes, that revenue is not as lucrative as it seems because travel expenses can cut into the take. As ISU continues to schedule FBS games in the future, they’ll look to maximize revenue as well as playing opponents that are in the ISU recruiting footprint, where fans and parents can drive to games, and where there is a decent ISU alumni base that can gather.
“We’ve got Utah State basically on a three-year rotation,” Thiros said. “We want to get BYU back on the schedule once they figure out what’s going on with their league and what the years look like. Utah is always a tough game, but we might think about playing them. Where we can drive to the game, that’s an awfully good deal for us.”