• Hi Guest, want to participate in the discussions, keep track of read/unread posts and more? Create your free account and increase the benefits of your eGriz.com experience today!

Has it been good for the Big Sky Conference?

GlacierGrizX

Well-known member
Teams such as: UC Davis this year, Southern Utah the past couple of years, and Portland State a few years back have came out of know where to become champs or really competitive in the Big Sky. Do you feel like this has been good for the Big Sky? Or is it better for the perennial "bell-winners" to continue to go far in the playoffs? If so, is it driving greater fan excitement by putting more butts in chairs at games at these campuses? For example is a UC Davis or Sac State going to have a lot of fans at a playoff game? Are there more rivalries within the confernece now due to some of these teams recent successes? Can the Big Sky leverage Root Sports with their recent successes with tv contracts? Do we have more clout as confernece when bidding for potential playoff spots, knowing we will provide a greater attendance for those games?
 
BSC teams that can go deep into the playoffs is paramount, irrespective of whether they are new qualifiers or traditional powers. Early exits or blowout losses are killers to the reputation of the conf.
 
Weber is the ONLY one that's made a dent in recent years. We got shit like CP & NAU losing to freaking USD in the past two years....that does NOT "help" the BSC.
 
AZGrizFan said:
Weber is the ONLY one that's made a dent in recent years. We got shit like CP & NAU losing to freaking USD in the past two years....that does NOT "help" the BSC.

EWU
 
AZGrizFan said:
Weber is the ONLY one that's made a dent in recent years. We got shit like CP & NAU losing to freaking USD in the past two years....that does NOT "help" the BSC.

Eastern Washington advanced to the semifinals of the FCS playoffs and should have advanced to the title game if not for a one-handed catch as time expired in the end-zone by a Youngstown State receiver.

GlacierGrizX said:
Teams such as: UC Davis this year, Southern Utah the past couple of years, and Portland State a few years back have came out of know where to become champs or really competitive in the Big Sky. Do you feel like this has been good for the Big Sky? Or is it better for the perennial "bell-winners" to continue to go far in the playoffs? If so, is it driving greater fan excitement by putting more butts in chairs at games at these campuses? For example is a UC Davis or Sac State going to have a lot of fans at a playoff game? Are there more rivalries within the confernece now due to some of these teams recent successes? Can the Big Sky leverage Root Sports with their recent successes with tv contracts? Do we have more clout as confernece when bidding for potential playoff spots, knowing we will provide a greater attendance for those games?

Here's a story with quotes from most of the coaches in the league about this subject that we wrote before league play began: Wild, flawed Big Sky race commences this weekend
https://skylinesportsmt.com/wild-flawed-big-sky-race-commences-this-weekend/


In terms of fans at games, UC Davis sold out its stadium for the first time since it opened about 10 years ago when Davis beat Idaho State in overtime. Davis was a Division II power for years and is finally becoming relevant in Division I.

As Southern Utah head coach Demario Warren says in that story above, if SUU is the top team in the Big Sky, the Big Sky will get disrespected on a national level because Southern Utah doesn't have the name recognition Montana, Montana State or Eastern Washington do.

Sometimes these teams come out of nowhere but I think the unbalanced league schedule has a great deal to do with it. You never know who the actual best teams are. If everyone played everyone, the playing field would be much more even. A look at the league champions since the league expanded in 2012 and who they didn't play...

2012

Co-champions

Cal Poly — Didn’t play Montana, Montana State, Southern Utah, one league loss was to co-champion Eastern Washington. Lost in first round

Montana State – didn’t play Idaho State, Weber State, Northern Arizona, Cal Poly – ISU and Weber were bad this season so that’s a disadvantage to not play them but NAU went 8-3 and Cal Poly shared the league title, lone league loss to Eastern. Lost in quarterfinals.

Eastern Washington – Did not play Idaho State, Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado - lone league loss at Southern Utah. Lost in semifinals

2013

EWU won it outright, went undefeated– did not play North Dakota, UC Davis, NAU - went to FCS semifinals.

2014

Eastern Washington outright – did no play Cal Poly, Sac State (Sac’s best team), Weber State - lost at Southern Utah for lone league loss. Went to FCS quarterfinals

2015

Southern Utah outright champ – didn’t play Montana, Idaho State, North Dakota. Got sent on the road for first round of the playoffs, lost 42-39 at Sam Houston

Portland State – got the No.5 seed in the playoffs, did not play North Dakota, Northern Arizona, Sac State. Hosted Northern Iowa, lost in second round of the playoffs.

2016

The stupidest year yet….

Eastern Washington and UND both went undefeated. EWU lost in Semis to Youngstown State, UND blew a lead and lost at home to Richmond 27-24 in second round of first playoff game in school history.

Didn't play each other obviously, EWU didn’t play Weber State, Idaho State

UND didn’t play EWU, Montana, Idaho State

2017

Champs - Weber State and Southern Utah

Weber didn’t play UND, Northern Colorado, NAU - lost in quarterfinals

SUU Didn’t play Montana, Montana State, or Eastern Washington. Received 7 seed, at large bid, lost to Weber at home in second round.


Regardless of if the Montana schools are mediocre, winning a league title or advancing to the playoffs seems less legitimate if you don't play everyone. And who knows what your record might be if you get to play some of the bottom teams, meaning some teams might've shared or won the title if they played the same schedule as some of the league's "best" or top finishing teams since the absorption of the Great West.

The league expanded to 13 teams in 2012 in hopes of having four playoff bids every year. It's only happened in 2013 and 2016. And both years, only Eastern Washington even won one playoff game.

I could go on and on but I'll stop there. This is a really flawed system, a really flawed league and the entire league will continue to suffer to regain national prominence until the league shrinks or some of the top traditional powers return to top form.
 
I dunno, ask any other fanbase in the BSC if they prefer EWU or UM dominating, or if they prefer something resembling parity. I think we all know what the answer will be.
 
AZGrizFan said:
Weber is the ONLY one that's made a dent in recent years. We got shit like CP & NAU losing to freaking USD in the past two years....that does NOT "help" the BSC.

I think this year will change that. This is probaby the first time in a billion years where I would have any confidence in the Big Sky in the playoffs. And by that I mean Davis, EWU and Weber. Not anyone else.
 
Silenoz said:
I dunno, ask any other fanbase in the BSC if they prefer EWU or UM dominating, or if they prefer something resembling parity. I think we all know what the answer will be.

this is true. but to follow colters line of thought, if teams like ewu are dominating the league because they are a dominant team who will make a deep run in the playoffs that's one thing. if a team rolls through conference play because they didn't play anyone all year and gets shellacked in the playoffs that makes the league look like shit.
 
ilovethecats said:
Silenoz said:
I dunno, ask any other fanbase in the BSC if they prefer EWU or UM dominating, or if they prefer something resembling parity. I think we all know what the answer will be.

this is true. but to follow colters line of thought, if teams like ewu are dominating the league because they are a dominant team who will make a deep run in the playoffs that's one thing. if a team rolls through conference play because they didn't play anyone all year and gets shellacked in the playoffs that makes the league look like shit.

Maybe, depends on if the teams were ever any good in the first place. The CAA had an unbalanced schedule in the late 00s, and that was the best the league has ever been.
 
Silenoz said:
ilovethecats said:
Silenoz said:
I dunno, ask any other fanbase in the BSC if they prefer EWU or UM dominating, or if they prefer something resembling parity. I think we all know what the answer will be.

this is true. but to follow colters line of thought, if teams like ewu are dominating the league because they are a dominant team who will make a deep run in the playoffs that's one thing. if a team rolls through conference play because they didn't play anyone all year and gets shellacked in the playoffs that makes the league look like shit.

Maybe, depends on if the teams were ever any good in the first place. The CAA had an unbalanced schedule in the late 00s, and that was the best the league has ever been.

true. I suppose it's not black and white. but as far as the big sky goes our split and our schedule is just awful for the whole conference.
 
Parity v parody

Cannot speak for anyone else ....for me the balance issue speaks to so many variables in a huge conf with an added nutty formula for league schedules

To say UM has lost a step is an understatement. Talent in coaching ranks and on field puts Griz in a place I faintly recall from the pre wa Griz days....middling

I don’t foresee any dominant program anywhere in BSC.
 
Yes, it's been good, but only if they sustain success.

EWU is a great example. Won notional championship, then followed with Big Sky championships and now what used to be record game attendance is now the norm. Even games against the likes of Weber, Idaho State, etc. draw 9k+. Used to be that only happened against a Montana school.

Having one or two teams utterly dominate the conference is not good, imo.
 
Its only good if the teams that represent the BSC in the playoffs perform well...Its a killer for the conference to have newcomers make the playoffs and lose home games to crap teams from crap conferences, like big sky teams have done recently...Its one of the reason a team like EWU last year (who has dominated the Big Sky and most of the FCS for the past 8 years) was left out at 7-4.
 
My take on this is the BSC NEEDS to have UM at the top on a regular basis. Maybe they don’t have to win it every year. However let’s face it the BSC is better when the conf champion has to come through UM or at the very least the state of Montana. I don’t think the BSC can afford for UM and MSU to have continued bad seasons and run the risk of those fan bases start not following the teams and more importantly stop traveling to away games. If that happens it has a huge negative affect on the BSC.

We all know the darn near every school in the BSC puts a circle around games where UM and MSU come to town because they know those fan bases travel pretty well and in turn will more than likely get more of the hometown crowd to show. This certainly was much more common when UM was atop the conference.

I have been to PSU games in years past when NAU or NC or Weber came to Portland. Talk about freakin sad to see not even enough people in the stands to make a decent high school game.

On the other hand I have been to games at PSU where UM or MSU are in town and it’s totally different.

The BSC better hope that UM gets things turned around before to long.
 
Do we get rid of out-of-conference games and play strictly the majority of the teams in the Big Sky? Or do we have those three games at the beginning of the year be decided by the previous year's success? For example #1Big Sky vs #1 MVC , #2 Big Sky vs #2 MVC...... etc I know "money" games are not taken into account. How does wins like EWU beating Washington State or UC Davis beating San Jose State effect the confernece when the selection committee is in session? I definitely don't like us not playing EWU this year! With Idaho's lack of success, does that make confernece look better or worse? This meaning that the conference as a whole could compete regularly with a former FBS team or Idaho just stinks up the ranking potentials?
 
GlacierGrizX said:
Do we get rid of out-of-conference games and play strictly the majority of the teams in the Big Sky? Or do we have those three games at the beginning of the year be decided by the previous year's success? For example #1Big Sky vs #1 MVC , #2 Big Sky vs #2 MVC...... etc I know "money" games are not taken into account. How does wins like EWU beating Washington State or UC Davis beating San Jose State effect the confernece when the selection committee is in session? I definitely don't like us not playing EWU this year! With Idaho's lack of success, does that make confernece look better or worse? This meaning that the conference as a whole could compete regularly with a former FBS team or Idaho just stinks up the ranking potentials?

Big Sky Conference teams can play other Big Sky teams in non-conference games. When the league first expanded in 2012, Montana State and Eastern Washington were not on each other's conference schedules, but played non-conference games in 2013 and 2014. NAU and EWU played a non-conference game this year, as did Weber State and Cal Poly. A few years back, Portland State played an FBS then 10 straight Big Sky games.
 
Colter nailed it. This conference sucks. The unbalanced schedule is a complete shit-show and an embarrassment.
 
Griz2k said:
Colter nailed it. This conference sucks. The unbalanced schedule is a complete shit-show and an embarrassment.

I completely agree that the unbalanced schedule makes for a total mess.
 
AZGrizFan said:
Weber is the ONLY one that's made a dent in recent years. We got shit like CP & NAU losing to freaking USD in the past two years....that does NOT "help" the BSC.

I guess you missed our multiple deep playoff runs in recent years.
 
I too hate the unbalanced schedule. That being said, it has nothing to do with the quality of the teams. We’ll get 3 or more almost every year and if that third team shit stomps the playoffs it’s good for the conference as a whole. A truly good team will make the playoffs unless they reduce back to 16. That’s the fun thing about the playoffs, the last team in can win it all.
 
Back
Top