Big Sky Loses Fighting Hawks to MVFC

[Gil Dobie]

Still get them for a couple more years though.

link

The University of North Dakota is leaving the Big Sky Conference and will join the Missouri Valley Football Conference in the fall of 2020, according to a report from the Grand Forks (North Dakota) Herald Tuesday.

[BDKJMU]

Why weren't they in the MVFC in the 1st place? When the Dakota schools began moving up from Div II over the last doz years ago I thought it was odd that NDSU, SDSU, and USD all went to the MVFC and ND went to the Big Sky.

[Gil Dobie]

Why weren't they in the MVFC in the 1st place? When the Dakota schools moved up from Div II around a doz years ago I thought it was odd that NDSU, SDSU, and USD all went to the MVFC and ND went to the Big Sky.

NDSU, UNC and SDSU moved first. UNC to the Big Sky, SDSU & NDSU to the Great West then the MVFC. A few years later UND and USD moved up to DI. The UND nickname was an issue, so both UND and USD joined the Big Sky, with USD bailing for the MFVC at the last minute.

The DII NCC conference voted on moving up as a conference. NDSU, SDSU, UNC and I think UNO voted for it, the others said no. There was bad relations at the time of the move. The other members said NDSU & SDSU would fail in the move and would not schedule them. Time appears to have healed the wounds.

Well almost: If you want to lead, go to NDSU, if you want to follow go to UND.

[Wildcat Ryan]

Makes sense, though I will miss the games Weber has played against them, they have all been good ones.

[biobengal]

Good move for all involved... hope this signals a return to sanity with conference shuffling.

[Mvemjsunpx]

This became inevitable after the nickname issue was resolved & the football cold war with NDSU ended. Geographically speaking, the four Dakotas fit much better in the Summit/MVFC than the Big Sky.

Nothing really needs to change for football, but I do wonder if the Big Sky will look to add a basketball-only member to replace UND (Utah Valley? CSU-Bakersfield?). Scheduling with an even number of teams is so much easier and equitable than having an odd number.

[Wildcat Ryan]

This became inevitable after the nickname issue was resolved & the football cold war with NDSU ended. Geographically speaking, the four Dakotas fit much better in the Summit/MVFC than the Big Sky.

Nothing really needs to change for football, but I do wonder if the Big Sky will look to add a basketball-only member to replace UND (Utah Valley? CSU-Bakersfield?). Scheduling with an even number of teams is so much easier and equitable than having an odd number.

With the possible instability of the WAC right now I bet almost every team in that conference is bangin on the Big Sky's door.

Part of me wishes Denver would leave the Summit and join the Sky, they would be the perfect partner for UNC. But it's not likely that will happen.

[Mvemjsunpx]

This became inevitable after the nickname issue was resolved & the football cold war with NDSU ended. Geographically speaking, the four Dakotas fit much better in the Summit/MVFC than the Big Sky.

Nothing really needs to change for football, but I do wonder if the Big Sky will look to add a basketball-only member to replace UND (Utah Valley? CSU-Bakersfield?). Scheduling with an even number of teams is so much easier and equitable than having an odd number.

With the possible instability of the WAC right now I bet almost every team in that conference is bangin on the Big Sky's door.

Part of me wishes Denver would leave the Summit and join the Sky, they would be the perfect partner for UNC. But it's not likely that will happen.

Denver would be the only private school in the Big Sky, if that were to happen—that could be a problem. Also, UVU averages more fans-per-game and has a slightly bigger arena than Denver.

[Wildcat Ryan]

With the possible instability of the WAC right now I bet almost every team in that conference is bangin on the Big Sky's door.

Part of me wishes Denver would leave the Summit and join the Sky, they would be the perfect partner for UNC. But it's not likely that will happen.

Denver would be the only private school in the Big Sky, if that were to happen—that could be a problem. Also, UVU averages more fans-per-game and has a slightly bigger arena than Denver.

I agree, I think the most likely candidates for "expansion" are UVU, Grand Canyon or Bakersfield. If they brought in GCU or CSBU they may have to shuffle the travel partners around. UVU would be best of the three for travel partners purposes with UNC and they are the most likely to build a football program.

[clenz]

Fuck this move.

It completely fucks scheduling in the MVFC.

Fuck this bullshit.

[Wildcat Ryan]

**** this move.

It completely **** scheduling in the MVFC.

**** this bullshit.

Well at least you wont have to deal with it till the season of 2020...

[clenz]

**** this move.

It completely **** scheduling in the MVFC.

**** this bullshit.

Well at least you wont have to deal with it till the season of 2020...

Yeah...Can't wait to see UNI's schedule for that year. We are already consistently fucked on the rotation by the MVFC.

2020 schedule
OOC: @ Iowa State and then two top 15 ranked opponents because that's apparently how we schedule now. Oen at home one on the road

MVFC Road:
SDSU
NDSU
UND
USD

Home:
ISUb
WIU
MSU
SIU

There is now a difinitive geographic split - the Mississppi River. It's always been that way, but another Dakota school makes it even more so as the eastern schools are going to fight to avoid those trips. This makes it real easy for the conference to go to divisions without saying there are divisions because it's an uneven number

West
NDSU
UND
SDSU
USD
UNI

East
WIU
SIU
ISUr
ISUb
YSU

That leaves MSU, who is on an island from everyone, as the floater between the two divisions to even it out. Why is MSU the floater and not YSU, who is just as isolated? MSU has the MVC ties to ISUb, ISUr and SIU (along with being MVFC mates with WIU since 1985) on the east side to go with their geographic westside mates. YSU only has ties to being a "rival" with UNI on the west side.

That means NDSU, SDSU, UNI, USD, and UND will play each other every year with a couple of the others sprinkled in. Meanwhile the east teams could easily miss playing SDSU, UNI and NDSU at all.


Fuck this.

Any objective person isn't opposed to UND over racial issues or the fact UND is easy to hate. It has to do with how it now splits the conference schedule unbalance even more

[BisonCardinal]

Pixie dust Clenz. Welcome to the Summit/NCC dark side. It's all good. When the MVFC - West moves to the FBS, you will want to be a part of it.

BTW, bring your Big Dance credits with you. Thx!

[AZGrizFan]

Fuck this move.

It completely fucks scheduling in the MVFC.

Fuck this bullshit.

I lol'ed at the title to this thread....."loses".....I do not think that word means what you think it means...

[clenz]

Fuck this move.

It completely fucks scheduling in the MVFC.

Fuck this bullshit.

I lol'ed at the title to this thread....."loses".....I do not think that word means what you think it means...

No shit.

A conference doesn't waive the exit fee for a team they want to keep.

[SeattleGriz]

We didn't want them anyway.

Now they have the be the "has been Big Sky" team to beat UNI every year. Every other team in the Big Sky beat them last year.

[YoUDeeMan]

2020 schedule
OOC: @ Iowa State and then two top 15 ranked opponents because that's apparently how we schedule now.

Note to CS.com...clenz has already filled out his 2020 Top 25 sheet.

[clenz]

2020 schedule
OOC: @ Iowa State and then two top 15 ranked opponents because that's apparently how we schedule now.

Note to CS.com...clenz has already filled out his 2020 Top 25 sheet.

Our 2020 schedule isn't complete but that's how we've been scheduling lately based on preseason polls

2018 @ Montana and SUU
2017 Cal Poly and @ SU
2016 Montana and @ EWU
2015 EWU and @ Cal Poly
2013 McNeese State (ended up a 6 seed in the playoffs)

Funny story about UNI always losing to Big Sky teams is that the two losses this year were first OOC road loss to an FCS school since 1997 and just the third OOC home loss to the FCS since 1997. UNI is 54-23 all time against the Big Sky. Montana is the only Big Sky team that can lay any kind of claim to actually "owning" in any kind of way UNI

[clenz]

Also, interesting to note that the vote was supposed to be today by 5PM Central time....no word has come out about the vote

[polsongrizz]

GOOD, they never should have been in the BSC to begin with...

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

Fuck this move.

It completely fucks scheduling in the MVFC.

Fuck this bullshit.

I lol'ed at the title to this thread....."loses".....I do not think that word means what you think it means...

Sometime when they lose.......we win

[Ursus A. Horribilis]

I lol'ed at the title to this thread....."loses".....I do not think that word means what you think it means...

No shit.

A conference doesn't waive the exit fee for a team they want to keep.

I think they extended the deadline too.

[clenz]

No shit.

A conference doesn't waive the exit fee for a team they want to keep.

I think they extended the deadline too.

It would be real intersting to see how things transpired if the MVFC vote left UND out of the conference.

I don't think it would/did happen but I could easily see a path where it would.

SDSU and NDSU abstained from voting when USD was added to avoid potential political and fan base conflicts. It's reasonable to believe that same approach would be taken towards UND. I don't know how USD would vote, but it seems reasonable to assume they may also abstain.

UND needs 7 votes to get in. If 3 of 10 abstain they need every other school to say yes. UNI's new president doesn't start for a few months. It's entirely possible UNI would abstain as well meaning the most potential yes votes would be 6.

This could create a conundrum in that there isn't even enough schools actually voting to get to the required 70% threshold. That could be why we haven't heard how a vote went. The conference office may not know how to react or what to do.

Go back to 2010 when the vote on USD happened at the last minute. The MVFC told UND and USD there wasn't support for 11 members and UND took that idea and said "Well, fuck you we are going Big Sky". USD went "Well, what about 10 members" and the rest is history with the last minute vote.

UND may well end up with us, but it will be real interesting if they don't. The Big Sky doesn't want them anymore, but they may not have a choice but to stay and be the step child that has shown they want out, has been told to leave, and yet ended up living in the basement again.

[SuperHornet]

Lose?!? THis is more a case of "don't let the door hit you on the way out", and hopefully they take SUU with them....

[89Hen]

Remember when the Big Sky was relevant? It was longer ago than when the Hens were relevant.