kemajic said:
Griz til I die said:
To be fair to the big sky, they did take feedback from the schools this year on how they’d like to structure the schedule so it’s hard to put the blame on them for this one.
I've confirmed that indeed the BSC changed our "rivals" over the winter to PSU and MSU. I doubt this was what UM recommended. Never mind that PSU has never been a rival (13-32 vs. UM), that we've played Idaho 86 times for the Little Brown Stein and EWU 46 times for the Governor's Trophy. Or that Portland is 1000 miles from most of Montana with PSU playing at a high school in Hillsboro. Or that both EWU and Idaho are geographically between Missoula and Portland. If they can do no better than this, the whole rivalry idea should be dropped. No wonder the rivalries have not been announced. If Montana has no more influence on the BSC than this, we do indeed need to be looking for a new home.
From the BSC website; a document of real BS:
SPOKANE, Washington (July 24, 2021) – When the Big Sky Conference becomes a 12-team football league next season, what will that look like? Well, after a process that began over six months ago, that future has been carefully crafted with today’s announcement of the 2022-24 conference football schedules.
The future 2022-24 schedules will still feature eight league games that include two annual opponents, some of whom have changed since the last time, and six rotating opponents. This format was selected in part based on feedback from the league membership about wanting to make sure teams did not go a long time during the three-year slate without playing a fellow conference opponent.
“The Big Sky’s new football scheduling model preserves so many of our most historic annual rivalries while ensuring a balanced rotation of playing each conference opponent,” Commissioner Tom Wistrcill said. “For this three-year scheduling block that begins in 2022, our 12 football programs and their supporters will enjoy knowing that each school will play every other Big Sky school at least twice – once at home and once on the road – so each player will have the opportunity to compete in every stadium and each local fanbase will have the chance to see every conference team come to their town.”
League schools also had increased input into the scheduling process, with each institution allowed to request their preferred annual opponents (every school was granted at least one of their requests) and one week per season during which they would like to be home or not at home (either away or open). The nine non-California-based teams will play one game each season at either Cal Poly, Sacramento State, or UC Davis, and will host one of those three every year as well.