MOSCOW, Idaho -- This is one of the biggest weekends of the year at the University of Idaho.
The rivalry game with Boise State means as much to the local economy as graduation, mom and dad's weekend and even the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival.
The fan frenzy for Friday's game between the Broncos and the Vandals is building and will have a huge impact on the economy.
This game represents a million dollar weekend for Moscow. That's how much the Chamber of Commerce expects fans to pump into the local economy.
The game is sold out, and all local hotel rooms are too.
And it all comes at a time when the university is letting the public know, it too is pumping lots of money into the Idaho economy.
At the Aquaculture Center on the University of Idaho campus, it's not your typical college classroom.
There are nets not notebooks, and ice chest instead of iPads.
Here students are saving fish, the trout!
"Trying to control disease at some of the aquaculture facilities in the state, both private as well as public," said Ken Cain, Aquaculture Center.
It's a big deal. Idaho is the number one trout producing state in the country. And the work these students are doing now will impact what we eat later.
"Aquaculture is the fastest growing food production segment in agriculture, in the world right now," said Cain.
Thinking beyond its borders is where the university is heading.
"Well we're going out, were going to be bigger," said Jack McIver, Ph.D., VP Economic Development.
Vice President Jack McIver has the numbers to back that up.
An economic impact study done by the university is just now going public.
For every $1 spent on the university, $9 is returned statewide.
That's nearly $1 billion pumped into the state economy.
And for each of these students, McIver says this university of Idaho makes good business sense.
"So every dollar that they have invested in the university including their lost earnings they get $5 back on that, and it turns out that they pay for the college education in about eight years," said McIver.
"Honesty I don't know why I would be alive if I couldn't learn," said University of Idaho junior Meghan Jones.
The Nampa native is a national merit scholar, one of 88 at the school, which ranks Idaho second in the West when it comes to the top students in the country.
The university is proud of getting students like Meghan. She plans to pay it all forward.
"By having the university give me so much I am trying to give back to them by being the best student that I can," she said. "And hopefully I will be able to go into a field that will reflect well on the University of Idaho."
Alumni are a big part of these big numbers for the U of I. The jobs they do in their Idaho communities contribute greatly to that nearly $1 billion infusion into the state economy.
