BOISE - Thursday marked Boise State's final day as a member of the Western Athletic Conference - a welcome milestone for many around the Broncos, who have long chased the Mountain West membership that begins today.

But before the balloons rise and the confetti falls, before the celebratory toasts and the logo changes, Boise State owes the league it is leaving a simple statement:

Thank you.

Thanks for the opportunity, the exposure, the support, the cheerleading, the scheduling, the marketing.

Thank you.

It wasn't a one-way relationship, no doubt.

The university, athletic department and program leadership on University Drive deserves the credit for propelling Boise State and Bronco athletics into their current, enviable position.

The Broncos did wonders for the WAC. It was, in many ways, a perfect marriage for each - until Boise State outgrew its league rivals, including Idaho, which didn't, couldn't or wouldn't keep up in football, the sport that matters most.

Boise State joined the WAC from the Big West in 2001, just three years after a secret airport meeting created the Mountain West by siphoning half of the WAC's 16 teams. Four years later, with the Broncos already carrying the banner for the league in football, Rice, SMU, Texas-El Paso and Tulsa left.

The league knows all about rebuilding jobs. Throughout its history, the WAC has been a launching pad, first to Arizona and Arizona State, then to the original Mountain West, now to Boise State.

It was in the WAC that the Broncos became national darlings, an ESPN staple (48 games on an ESPN channel in 10 seasons) and national title contenders.

“It was a tremendous platform for us with the ESPN exposure, with the success that we had not just in football, but in all of our sports,” athletic director Gene Bleymaier said. “It was a very good conference for us competitively and it has given us the platform on where we’re now ranked in the top 10 in the country in preseason in football and getting the visibility that we’re getting and two BCS bowl opportunities and the WAC had three. As a conference, that was significant.”

The 2007 Fiesta Bowl — known around here as the first Fiesta Bowl — marked the arrival of Boise State on the national scene. But it also was affirmation for the WAC, proof that it was back.

Commissioner Karl Benson, a Boise State alum and former Bronco baseball player, wore a bright orange shirt to the game. The pride he felt in his league — his revamped league — was obvious to everyone.

They’d achieved it together: Boise State and the WAC. Benson represented both.

That magical January evening might have signaled the beginning of the end of the relationship as well. The victory against Oklahoma rocketed Boise State into another level. It made its invitation to another conference seemingly inevitable at some point.

Some point came last summer.

Boise State, whom Benson has often lauded as the most dominant football team in league history, was dropped from the WAC website this week in anticipation of the conference change.

Today it will be official. Benson will be playing golf in the afternoon.

The commissioner, in an effort to rebuild his league once again, has taken to talking to about finding the next Boise State. The next upstart program to use the WAC as a launching pad and carry the league along with it for a while.

“I’ve been consistent in saying there isn’t any reason one of those five (remaining WAC) schools or perhaps a Texas State or Texas-San Antonio can’t become the next Boise State,” he said earlier this month. “I don’t see a whole lot of difference in 2011 than where Boise State was in 2001. One of those five schools can indeed be the flag-bearer and national power coming out of the WAC.”

The hard part is in doing it — and Boise State did. There’s no way to know if the Broncos would have done it from the Big West or, had they gotten their wish earlier, the Mountain West.

“The stars were aligned for them,” Benson said.

Aligned in the WAC, a great home for the Broncos for a long time. Certainly one worthy of a thanks.