If UCLA and USC’s departure from Pac-12 spills over the ranks of Western college football, it hasn’t.
And so far, Big Sky Conference membership has been settled with 10 full-time members and two football agencies, suitable for two schedules for the league after leaving southern Utah at the end of last season. Is giving a number.
At least for now, there is no imminent move in and out of the Big Sky.
But at the Big Sky Football kick-off in downtown Spokane on Monday, commissioner Tom Wist Sill admitted that there wasn’t much the league could do to conclude membership.
“We can manage our membership by talking to them about what’s happening,” he said. “If someone at the FBS level comes and asks to attend one of the schools and they want to attend, there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.”
Wistrcill said he wasn’t sure if that would happen, but the FCS team is aware of the financial demands for such translations because he was an athletic director at the University of Akron, a Group 5 institution. I want to make a leap.
“This is a big financial leap because we’re doing it for the opportunity to play in low-level bowls, not national championships,” he said.
Geographically, the West now has three distinct layers of college football, with Pac-12 recognized as the Power Five Conference, 12 teams of Mountain West recognized as the Group of Five, and Big Sky the most prominent. FCS conference is recognized.
This fosters a symbiotic economic relationship in terms of scheduling non-conference football games. According to Wistrcill, these FBS teams want to play seven home games, and playing Big Sky School is a fascinating option. This is because it is easy to travel and the FBS school has a low cost to cover with a contract with the FCS team.
This fall, all but one of the Big Sky teams (except Montana) will face at least one team from Pac-12 or Mountain West. Eastern Washington will visit Oregon on September 10th and play in Florida from the SEC on October 1st.
Montana coach Bobby Hauck is a 28-11 team in his second stint with the Grizzlies and coaches the Big 12 as well as the Pac-12 and MWC.
“I don’t know if anyone really knows where they fit,” Hauck said on Monday. “No one really knows how it’s structured. I think college football has some restructuring. It’s hard to define what it means, but it happens. I don’t think there’s a way around that fact. Every faculty I go to school needs to understand where they fit. “
Wistrcill also said he was hoping for a change, but further pointed out the FBS, and there are potential tears between Big Ten and the SEC from other meetings at that level.
At the FCS level, he states: Our budget is about the same. And when we hear about our (Big Sky) President and talk to leaders across the country, I think everyone is singing (singing) from the same songbook. We are not chasing the Almighty dollar. I will balance scholars and athletics. “
Four of Big Sky’s six charter members (Idaho, Montana, Montana, and Weber) have been members each year since the league’s inception in 1963. Idaho was a former member and remained until he jumped to FBS after the 1996 season. .. The Vandals returned to FCS in 2014.
Gonzaga was another charter member of Big Sky, who had no football team before, but left to attend the West Coast Conference in 1979.
The league has five former members: Boisy (1970-1996), California State University, Northridge (1996-2001), Nevada (1979-1992), North Dakota (2012-2018), and Southern Utah (2012-2022). There is.
