The Bobcat Nation

Doug Fullerton and other reps from the BSC are at NCU today to do a physical on their program to determine fitness for conference entry. Decision will be made in the next 45 days or so. Story is Northern is the only program currently under serious consideration.

I've heard their facilities are not that great. Anyone have the goods?

Why would that make any difference with Fullerton. Can't be worse than Sac State or Portland state, can it?

They have pretty terrible facilities at first glance. I spent some time in Greeley with my last job and, trust me, UM and MSU put them to shame. I might have to agreed with HelenaCat on this one though- the Big Sky does not have the best in facilities- Remember how bad Northridge is?

C'mon, people, you are all being too negative. I think the Denver sports market is just waiting to explode with excitement and enthusiasm for a sub-par transitional Division I-AA program....

Once again, I will say that Doug Fullerton is a fool. Some things never change.

BozoneCat wrote:C'mon, people, you are all being too negative. I think the Denver sports market is just waiting to explode with excitement and enthusiasm for a sub-par transitional Division I-AA program....

Once again, I will say that Doug Fullerton is a fool. Some things never change.

I'm still a fan of bringing the Dakotas into the picture.......

lifeloyalsigmsu wrote:

BozoneCat wrote:C'mon, people, you are all being too negative. I think the Denver sports market is just waiting to explode with excitement and enthusiasm for a sub-par transitional Division I-AA program....

Once again, I will say that Doug Fullerton is a fool. Some things never change.

I'm still a fan of bringing the Dakotas into the picture.......

Ditto, ditto, ditto!!!

They were talking about this on egriz last week.....sounds like UNC has a good football program and everything else is crap.

Yep.....we can't seem to get a date to the prom......

WYOBISONMAN wrote:Yep.....we can't seem to get a date to the prom......

Is it just me or does the 2 Dakota Schools and SDSU seem like slam dunks when compared to attendance/facilities compared to Sac State/Portland State etc. I don't get the travel lingo either? You have to fly either way I would think to NAU/SAC STATE from Bozeman etc.? Are the flight costs that much different etc.?

THIS SEEMS LIKE SUCH AN EASY DECISION!

Can't wait to see the spin Doug puts on it if UNC get's an invite. Can he possibly start with comparabiltiy? If so, then he should go get New Mexico Highlands, Southern Utah and bring back Northridge with the proviso they think about bringing back football at some future date.

raincat wrote:Doug Fullerton and other reps from the BSC are at NCU today to do a physical on their program to determine fitness for conference entry. Decision will be made in the next 45 days or so. Story is Northern is the only program currently under serious consideration.

Sorry, it can be done even more efficiently as long as he wants to "dumb down" the conference. Just bring in the balance of the Montana schools..Rocky, Tech, Western, Northern, Carroll. The Cats can buy a good used 84 passenger Silver Eagle and hey, we got ourselves a conference!

It's all about large markets - that's all Fullerton cares about. He would bring in New York Community college if he thought it would get him in the Times, even a 3 line paragraph on page 37.

If UM, MSU and ISU were to try to join the BSC today they would be turned down because none is in a large enough market. If UPS and PLU in Tacoma wanted to join he would just about wet himself to have a team in the Seattle market. Facilities, fan support, academics and competitiveness are not even issues that are considered.

It is no accident that he signed a contract with Altitude, a Denver based network, and then decided that NDSU and SDSU don't meet the BSC rigorous requirements, but UNC is exactly what the BSC is looking for.

Earlier Fullerton said ideally they would have one non-football schedule so there would be a balanced football schedule (4 home, 4 away) and every basketball team would have a travel partner. He really wanted to get UNC and UD into the BSC, but I don't think UD is interested.

Okay, not that I am a big fan of fullerton either, but as has been said before, unfortunately there is a very good set of reasons the Dakota's would not get invited right now.

The sky needs to have 7 playoff eligible, core institutions to retain it's autobid to the NCAA Bball tourneys and all the revenue sharing that goes along with it. Portland State and Sac State both strongly object to the Dakota schools on account of supposed(it is debatable) travel costs. So say the rest of the league decides the Dakota's are going to be invited. PSU and CSUS decided to bolt for the Great West/Big West. That leaves the Sky with only 6 core institutions that are playoff eligible and have now lost their autobid and related money.

Now, I don't know if this is what is happening or if other schools really wanted the Dakotas, but in essence, it doesn't matter how much the other schools want the Dakota's or even whether or not Fullerton does because PSU and CSUS could effectively hold them hostage over this point. If the Dakota's where a year or two further along in their Div. I reclassification this would not be the case. Perhaps in another year or two as CSUS possibly moves on to other conference affiliations the Dakota's could be in the picture again if they haven't already snagged a conference.

KMAX is perfect in his analysis; we're being held hostage by SAC and PSU right now and if UNC were admitted, we could let them go their merry way and still have our automatic bid like the Southland in football and our basketball tournament winner. Then next year, we could admit the Dakotas and perhaps Southern Utah. Anyway, it'll take a little while for our decisive leaders to make up their minds.

I am not aware that UNC is playoff eligble yet either - they are only 1 year ahead of the Dakota's.

Yes they are.

Correct, they are only one year ahead of the Dakota's in their transition. I believe there is a clause in the rules that says if you become a member of a playoff eligible conference then your waiting time to become playoff eligible drops to like 3 years or so. I heard this from some SDSU fans so if 89rabbit or someone is around they can likely set this one straight. So with that said, the earliest UNC would come in would be '06 at which point because they are in the Sky they would be eligible. NOTE, I am not 100% certain on this.

However, regardless of whether or not they are playoff eligible, it doesn't change my previous point. UNC is getting looked at because there was unanimous approval from all 8 existing Big Sky schools that they wanted to look at UNC for possible membership. There is no threat of PSU or CSUS leaving if UNC gets invited, thus no real concern if they are not playoff eligible for the first year or two of membership.

kmax wrote:Correct, they are only one year ahead of the Dakota's in their transition. I believe there is a clause in the rules that says if you become a member of a playoff eligible conference then your waiting time to become playoff eligible drops to like 3 years or so. I heard this from some SDSU fans so if 89rabbit or someone is around they can likely set this one straight. So with that said, the earliest UNC would come in would be '06 at which point because they are in the Sky they would be eligible. NOTE, I am not 100% certain on this.

However, regardless of whether or not they are playoff eligible, it doesn't change my previous point. UNC is getting looked at because there was unanimous approval from all 8 existing Big Sky schools that they wanted to look at UNC for possible membership. There is no threat of PSU or CSUS leaving if UNC gets invited, thus no real concern if they are not playoff eligible for the first year or two of membership.

Your logic sounds right. It's more likely that it's UNC and a partner for now. The SDSU and NDSU teams will then look at joining when Montana goes 1A with some partner school (Montana and MSU if MSU gets a stadium extension). They would probably go to the WAC and then SDSU and a partner joins the BSC. I can't see NAU, CSUS, and PSU will go for it. There is a lot of draw for them to go Cal poly, Cal Davis, etc.

kmax wrote:The sky needs to have 7 playoff eligible, core institutions to retain it's autobid to the NCAA Bball tourneys and all the revenue sharing that goes along with it. Portland State and Sac State both strongly object to the Dakota schools on account of supposed(it is debatable) travel costs. So say the rest of the league decides the Dakota's are going to be invited. PSU and CSUS decided to bolt for the Great West/Big West. That leaves the Sky with only 6 core institutions that are playoff eligible and have now lost their autobid and related money.

I'm not entirely sure about the facts on this one. However, the 'Sky only needs 6 football members to keep the I-AA playoff bid. I think the 'Sky could get a waiver for the NCAA, but Fullerton (for some reason beyond me) wants to keep Sac/PSU in the conference because he thinks they add something.

BobcatLionFan wrote:The SDSU and NDSU teams will then look at joining when Montana goes 1A with some partner school (Montana and MSU if MSU gets a stadium extension). They would probably go to the WAC and then SDSU and a partner joins the BSC. I can't see NAU, CSUS, and PSU will go for it. There is a lot of draw for them to go Cal poly, Cal Davis, etc.

It's not smack talk, but MSU simply isn't ready to join the WAC right now (or in the next few years, when Montana should move up). Football attendence isn't high enough, facilites need improvement, on the field performance isn't good enough to compete, etc.. But, Montana State should dominate the 'Sky once Montana leaves, so there is a future.
Fullerton believes that Montana will leave, and is trying to set up the conference to best deal with the void. I know Fullerton went after Denver, but Denver didn't want to join the 'Sky. The problem is that UNC will sink basketball. Consider how long it took Sac to develop a decent on the court program, and that is what the 'Sky is looking at in UNC.

kmax wrote:Perhaps in another year or two as CSUS possibly moves on to other conference affiliations the Dakota's could be in the picture again if they haven't already snagged a conference.

I've heard rumors that Sac wants to go I-A, but there is no way the WAC would take them (historically terrible basketball, miserable football attendence), and they are too far away to join any other conference. The only thing I see happening is Sac joining the Big West for all sports and GWFC for football. However, I believe that Sac and Davis will end up in the same conference. Even though Davis has been cold on the 'Sky, they might join for that reason. Then again, Davis might end up in the WAC in a big hurry, they have the fan base to do it.