Cat-Griz basketball games move to Monday night.

[duelalumnicat]

The Big Sky Conference has decided that during the 2013-2014 season the four Cat-Griz basketball games will be played on Monday nights. And that the games will no longer be played as double-headers. When the Griz men are in Bozeman (on a Monday night), the Cat women will be in Missoula. And vice versa when the Cat men are in Missoula. I think this is stupid and unfortunate. Nothing like playing your hated rival on a Monday night. Big Sky Commissioner Doug Fullerton screws the Bobcats over every chance he gets.

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[wbtfg]

Well that sucks.

[allcat]

I would bet that this was not a unilateral decision by the big sky, MSU athletics had some say in this.

[wbtfg]

Id imagine gate revenues will take a big hit on this. Was television a factor in the decision?

[John K]

And MBB takes another step along the path to irrelevance. The attendance will now be much smaller at the one home game a year that could still draw a decent crowd. Although I agree that the BSC probably wouldn't have forced MSU to do this without their consent. Fields decision to bring Huse back for two more seasons indicated that he believes the corpse is already almost completely buried, so why not throw one more shovel full of dirt on it.

[Hawks86]

It sucks but it's only for one year.

Tinkle told us they expect this to only happen once. When Idaho joins the conference for hoops one year from now, the 12-team schedule should allow the Cats and Griz to play doubleheader Saturdays once again.

[WSUWILDCAT]

It's not just UM and MSU, I think the Sky has designated Monday's to "Rivals night". I have only checked Weber's and EWU's, but Weber is playing thier biggest rival (ISU) both times on Mondays, and Eastern Wash is playing Portland State both times on Monday nights


Weber played Idaho State both times last year on a Monday night as well. but I dont think it really hurt our attendance numbers considering we almost hit 9,000 on a monday night

[John K]

It's not just UM and MSU, I think the Sky has designated Monday's to "Rivals night". I have only checked Weber's and EWU's, but Weber is playing thier biggest rival (ISU) both times on Mondays, and Eastern Wash is playing Portland State both times on Monday nights


Weber played Idaho State both times last year on a Monday night as well. but I dont think it really hurt our attendance numbers considering we almost hit 9,000 on a monday night

I'll bet that a lot more of our fans (and UM's) come from out of town though, as compared to you guys, especially for Cat-Griz. I think that our attendance will be significantly impacted by playing on a Monday night, rather than Saturday.

[WSUWILDCAT]

It's not just UM and MSU, I think the Sky has designated Monday's to "Rivals night". I have only checked Weber's and EWU's, but Weber is playing thier biggest rival (ISU) both times on Mondays, and Eastern Wash is playing Portland State both times on Monday nights


Weber played Idaho State both times last year on a Monday night as well. but I dont think it really hurt our attendance numbers considering we almost hit 9,000 on a monday night

I'll bet that a lot more of our fans (and UM's) come from out of town though, as compared to you guys, especially for Cat-Griz. I think that our attendance will be significantly impacted by playing on a Monday night, rather than Saturday.

Understandable

[bozbobcat]

I remember a quote from the former Weber State coach Joe Cravens that said something like "the Big Sky Conference schedule was drawn up on a cocktail napkin." There have always been a few quirks to this schedule, but it seems to get figured out. All of the conference games have to be played after Christmas so it doesn't leave a lot of time for the games. This adjustment seems fair to all teams in the Big Sky. I bet Weber State would draw better playing Idaho State on Saturday instead of Monday as well. It's not going to be a great arrangement, but it's only for this year. In the future, I'd hope that the Big Sky would emphasize these rivalry games and play them on Saturdays.

This leads me to a funny thought...when it comes to the Big Sky, we think that the conference is doing everything in its power to downplay Montana and Montana State. The other schools think that the conference is doing everything to promote Montana and Montana State. Since everybody is ticked off, does it mean the Big Sky is doing something right?

[John K]

I remember a quote from the former Weber State coach Joe Cravens that said something like "the Big Sky Conference schedule was drawn up on a cocktail napkin." There have always been a few quirks to this schedule, but it seems to get figured out. All of the conference games have to be played after Christmas so it doesn't leave a lot of time for the games. This adjustment seems fair to all teams in the Big Sky. I bet Weber State would draw better playing Idaho State on Saturday instead of Monday as well. It's not going to be a great arrangement, but it's only for this year. In the future, I'd hope that the Big Sky would emphasize these rivalry games and play them on Saturdays.

This leads me to a funny thought...when it comes to the Big Sky, we think that the conference is doing everything in its power to downplay Montana and Montana State. The other schools think that the conference is doing everything to promote Montana and Montana State. Since everybody is ticked off, does it mean the Big Sky is doing something right?

Actually, they did play conference games before Christmas last year. MSU's first two conference games were in mid-December. I haven't looked at the 2013-14 schedule yet, but with 20 conference games again this season, I'd bet that they'll start before Christmas again. I presume that the BSC will go back to a 16-game schedule in 2014-15 when Idaho rejoins the league. I would guess that they'll split into two divisions, with teams playing their intra-division opponents twice, and inter-division opponents only once. If so, they should be able to go back to starting conference play after the first of the year again. Especially since there will be an even number of teams again, which makes scheduling for basketball infinitely easier. They should also be able to go back to a straight Thursday-Saturday schedule, since it was having an odd number of teams that necessitated games being played on other nights of the week the past few seasons.