Big Sky expansion

[Prodigal Cat]

Not crazy about this but need to insulate losing not just one but possible all the California schools.

[Prodigal Cat]

[Montanabob]

maybe unco and psu drop football.

fingers crossed.

[damnyoutuesday]

Mediocre move for football, but it helps save Big Sky autobids in sports such as soccer and softball

Utah Tech and Northern Colorado can duke it out for worst team in the conference every year

[iaafan]

Eww. Sounds like the BSC is preparing for something.

[damnyoutuesday]

Eww. Sounds like the BSC is preparing for something.

Sac State is leaving after this next academic year, and UC Davis basically has one foot out the door to join the MWC in football (non-football MWC member starting next year)

[Prodigal Cat]

Mediocre move for football, but it helps save Big Sky autobids in sports such as soccer and softball

Utah Tech and Northern Colorado can duke it out for worst team in the conference every year

In the short term yes but if you told me 5 years from now Tech is the school from the Beehive State competing for conference titles I wouldn't be surprised. That area is growing as much as Bozeman is and has lots of Tech industries moving in.

[damnyoutuesday]

Mediocre move for football, but it helps save Big Sky autobids in sports such as soccer and softball

Utah Tech and Northern Colorado can duke it out for worst team in the conference every year

In the short term yes but if you told me 5 years from now Tech is the school from the Beehive State competing for conference titles I wouldn't be surprised. That area is growing as much as Bozeman is and has lots of Tech industries moving in.

I think Utah Tech is actually a great move for the future (Southern Utah not so much), but the Blazers are going to be a conference doormat at first

[coloradocat]

If every team outside of MSU, griz and Idaho sucks does that help or hurt the unbalanced schedule problem? I guess schedules aren't unbalanced any more if all three teams play 7 guaranteed win games.

[MSU01]

If every team outside of MSU, griz and Idaho sucks does that help or hurt the unbalanced schedule problem? I guess schedules aren't unbalanced any more if all three teams play 7 guaranteed win games.

It's easy to forget that between MSU's 2012 and 2022 co-championships, both of the Montana schools were totally shut out from winning any conference titles in football. Eastern and Weber both had 4 and even Southern Utah had 2 in that span. I think the Cats and Griz will likely continue to stay at the top given their increasingly large facility advantages over the rest of the league, but hopefully some other schools can get back closer to where they were in the 2010s to make the league as a whole a bit more competitive. I can see Utah Tech being able to build a pretty strong program but it won't happen overnight of course.

[MSUBRONCO]

SUU back interesting. And still gonna call them Dixie state.

[iaafan]

SUU back interesting. And still gonna call them Dixie state.

SUU wasn’t Dixie St that was Utah Tech.

[lutecat]

Didn't utah tech beat the griz the same year we throttled Utah tech?

[iaafan]

Didn't utah tech beat the griz the same year we throttled Utah tech?

No. They lost to NAU the next week though, but won all the rest of their games until the championship.

[vike_king]

Didn't utah tech beat the griz the same year we throttled Utah tech?

No. They lost to NAU the next week though, but won all the rest of their games until the championship.

It was the same day.

Before the game, 4 older folks climbed to the top of the new bleachers at Weber.

As they walked past me, one of the ladies explained that they were Griz fans but were there to support a Mobtana team. I wondered if they knew the fizz had lost and how the quartet would react when Bobcat fans would cheer when the score was announced.

The score was announced in the first quarter, at the end of the quarter they left in a huff. The old lady was disgusted that "every" Bobcst fan had stood and cheered. I replied ", I didn't" she didn't know whether to ******, or go blind. I think that made her angrier.

[damnyoutuesday]

Official announcements from the conference

[MSUBRONCO]

SUU back interesting. And still gonna call them Dixie state.

SUU wasn’t Dixie St that was Utah Tech.

I know, two seperate thoughts one on each team,bad phrasing I wasn't an English major lol

[damnyoutuesday]

Some notes on scheduling:

2026 schedule has to be thrown out completely. Big Sky has been using a 2-6-3 model (2 permanent annual opponents, 6 rotating opponents every year that you play home and away in a 3 year span, and you miss 3 of those rotating opponents a year) that's honestly been a solid scheduling model.

If Big Sky stays the course on 8 conference games, then having 4 annual opponents and 4 rotating opponents every year can work perfectly

If we jump to 9 games (likely with FCS going to 12 game season), then having 6 annual opponents and 3 rotating also works perfectly

[BornBobcat2000]

Eww. Sounds like the BSC is preparing for something.

Sac State is leaving after this next academic year, and UC Davis basically has one foot out the door to join the MWC in football (non-football MWC member starting next year)

Sac is not leaving the Big Sky in football though, right? I thought it was all sports except football

[damnyoutuesday]

Eww. Sounds like the BSC is preparing for something.

Sac State is leaving after this next academic year, and UC Davis basically has one foot out the door to join the MWC in football (non-football MWC member starting next year)

Sac is not leaving the Big Sky in football though, right? I thought it was all sports except football

They are leaving and plan on going to FBS or FCS independent. They will not be football affiliates like Davis and Cal Poly