Big Sky Expansion

[cats2506]

Very happy for SUU.

Happy for the Sioux, however, think that would have been better in a Summit/MVFC but the other MVFC schools didn't see it that way.

Disappointed that USD is backing out of their commitment to the Summit. Understand the 'Yotes need a football home.

Likely to play the 6 games on division side, then 2 of the other division's schools on home/home for two years. So, likely to not play MT but 2x in a 6 year cycle if on the Pacific side.

Strong conference gets stronger, and devastates the WAC all at the same time. Montana not leaving would REALLY hurt the WAC. IMHO UTSA isn't ready to help the WAC out. TX St., not a bad fit, but definitely not any better than SJSU or NMSU quality wise/ attendence wise.

I bet that the Montana's and the Dakota's wind up in the same division, hopfully with WSU and ISU and probably UNC

[catbob]

Too bad Foolerton wasn't being proactive several years ago, then we coulda had the xSDU's instead. He had to wait till several schools expressed interest in bailing for the FBS, then panicked and snatched up every FCS team in the west.

[webfan]

Too bad Foolerton wasn't being proactive several years ago, then we coulda had the xSDU's instead. He had to wait till several schools expressed interest in bailing for the FBS, then panicked and snatched up every FCS team in the west.

Job security?

[Mike Johnson]

Disappointed that USD is backing out of their commitment to the Summit. Understand the 'Yotes need a football home.

Again, it is not at all clear that USD is doing anything. The only announcements are SUU and UND. The USD board is more worried about the white out game with Cal Poly and the Big Sky pages are only indicating SUU and UND. Of course, negotiations may be going on either between USD and the Big Sky or USD and the Summit.

There certainly wasn't a simultaneous announcement of all three schools as had been predicted. This makes me wonder about what is going to happen with South Dakota.

[catbooster]

According to the Big Sky announcement, USD is about signed up:

Monday’s additions bring the future Big Sky to 11 core members and 13 football playing members. The Big Sky Conference is also on the verge of announcing the addition of the University of South Dakota as a 12th core member. The Big Sky will become a 14-team football league and split into two seven-team divisions. The Big Sky does not anticipate losing any of its current nine core members.

and...

The University of South Dakota figures to be the final piece in the Big Sky expansion. The Coyotes of Vermillion, S.D., also compete in the Great West Conference for football. South Dakota and North Dakota are formal Division II rivals in the North Central Conference.

Like North Dakota, South Dakota began the transition to Division I in 2007 and will be eligible for Big Sky and NCAA Championships starting with the 2012-13 season.

“We are negotiating with South Dakota,’’ Fullerton said. “They want to be part of the Big Sky Conference and we want them to be a member. They are just awaiting a final approval process. Approval processes are different at each school.’’

from http://www.bigskyconf.com/news/2010/11/ ... 05326.aspx

[eaglesfootball]

i doubt the big sky would have mentioned anything about south dakota in this release unless it was basically already a done deal.

[SUUTbird]

With the news out that finally we have found a good conference to play in (even though we have to wait until 2012). I honestly hope that the divisions will pan out so that SUU and Weber can start playing and create only the 2nd in state rivalry in the conference: With that in mind here is what i can see the conferences panning out to be:

BIG SKY NORTH
-Portland State
-EWU
-Montana
-Montana State
-North Dakota
-South Dakota
-Sac State/Northern Colorado

BIG SKY SOUTH
-Weber State
-Idaho State
-UC-Davis
-Cal Poly
-Southern Utah
-NAU
-Sac State/Northern Colorado

[SDHornet]

I like this split with UNC going to the North and Sac State going to the South. The divisions are pretty well balanced as far as the competitiveness is concerned. No way in hell do I see any of the CA schools aligned with the Dakotas.

[JBB]

Those are good looking divisions but travel in the south division is going to be a little harder. UNC looks better in the north, they already know the way to the Dakotas.

[Mike Johnson]

Thanks, catbooster. I was hoping USD would come in as well and when I read the Big Sky announcement, it originally didn't say anything about South Dakota. Clearly SUU and UND were announcing their acceptance into the Big Sky and each other's. USD was silent everywhere. I certainly hope the delays for USD--attributed to approval process--are resolved soon. I think SUU and UND had their approvals in place last week. Indeed, everything was agreed for both, apparently, on Friday. USD's was trickier, although in principle not all that different from SUU's as both had to get out of the Summit for this move.

Given a formal announcement by the Big Sky that USD is also soon to join as soon as they get all their dots in place, I will play the alignment game.

I started with the google maps distances between each pair of Big Sky schools. I then proceeded to assign schools to a division starting with the longest distances, ensuring that the longest separated schools were not in the same division.

The two sets of seven schools that have the smallest average distance between those in the same set are:

North Dakota
South Dakota
Montana
Montana State
Northern Colorado
Weber State
Idaho State
676 miles average distance between schools

Cal Poly
UC Davis
Sacramento State
Northern Arizona
Portland State
Eastern Washington
Southern Utah
642 miles average distance between schools.

Note, the order given here for each division is the order in which the algorithm assigned schools to each division as it separated the schools starting with those that were the furthest apart.

Minimum distance may not be the most appropriate way to split the conference into divisions, but it is an option that could be considered.

[Mike Johnson]

I honestly hope that the divisions will pan out so that SUU and Weber can start playing and create only the 2nd in state rivalry in the conference:

I find it interesting that Weber State and SUU will be in the same conference only shortly after Utah and BYU decided to go their separate ways and it began to look like there would be not be any colleges in the state of Utah in the same conference (except of course for the community colleges).

Taking your proposed divisions (with UNC in the north and Sac State in the south), the average distance between schools in the north would be 835 miles and the average distance between schools in the south would be 550.

[CatMom]

TX St., not a bad fit, but definitely not any better than SJSU or NMSU quality wise/ attendence wise.

Thanks for the support there RR. Hope one day I can come back and make you eat those words.

[SJHornet]

With the news out that finally we have found a good conference to play in (even though we have to wait until 2012). I honestly hope that the divisions will pan out so that SUU and Weber can start playing and create only the 2nd in state rivalry in the conference: With that in mind here is what i can see the conferences panning out to be:

BIG SKY NORTH
-Portland State
-EWU
-Montana
-Montana State
-North Dakota
-South Dakota
-Sac State/Northern Colorado

BIG SKY SOUTH
-Weber State
-Idaho State
-UC-Davis
-Cal Poly
-Southern Utah
-NAU
-Sac State/Northern Colorado

No way the Cali schools get split up. Would be the worst conference split up ever.

[SuperHornet]

With the news out that finally we have found a good conference to play in (even though we have to wait until 2012). I honestly hope that the divisions will pan out so that SUU and Weber can start playing and create only the 2nd in state rivalry in the conference: With that in mind here is what i can see the conferences panning out to be:

BIG SKY NORTH
-Portland State
-EWU
-Montana
-Montana State
-North Dakota
-South Dakota
-Sac State/Northern Colorado

BIG SKY SOUTH
-Weber State
-Idaho State
-UC-Davis
-Cal Poly
-Southern Utah
-NAU
-Sac State/Northern Colorado

No way the Cali schools get split up. Would be the worst conference split up ever.

Not that I disagree with you, SJ, but how would that be any worse than Cal/Stanford getting split from UCLA/USC, which has already been determined for the Pac-12?

[ArmyOfDarkness]

I agree with you SJ...

Sac - UCD - CP all will be in the same division

But what I don't understand is why people are thinking UM and EWU will be split? I think in the same way the Cal schools will be bundled, the I-90 corridor of EWU - UM - MSU will be as well.

*Edit* corrected name

[SJHornet]

With the news out that finally we have found a good conference to play in (even though we have to wait until 2012). I honestly hope that the divisions will pan out so that SUU and Weber can start playing and create only the 2nd in state rivalry in the conference: With that in mind here is what i can see the conferences panning out to be:

BIG SKY NORTH
-Portland State
-EWU
-Montana
-Montana State
-North Dakota
-South Dakota
-Sac State/Northern Colorado

BIG SKY SOUTH
-Weber State
-Idaho State
-UC-Davis
-Cal Poly
-Southern Utah
-NAU
-Sac State/Northern Colorado

No way the Cali schools get split up. Would be the worst conference split up ever.

Because its us! Seriously though, splitting up Cal and Stanford is just retarded.

[Green Cookie Monster]

The three Cali schools will boost attendance. With Sac State hosting we will seat 19K for UCdavis and 15K for Cal Poly. I am sure those schools would max out too.

Besides UM/MSU, there are no other BSC rivalries where those numbers exist and are travelling fan friendly.

Sac State
Weber
Portland State
Cal Poly
UCdavis
NAU
SUU

Montana
Montana State
EWU
ISU
N. Colo
North Dakota
South Dakota

[ArmyOfDarkness]

The three Cali schools will boost attendance. With Sac State hosting we will seat 19K for UCdavis and 15K for Cal Poly. I am sure those schools would max out too.

Besides UM/MSU, there are no other BSC rivalries where those numbers exist and are travelling fan friendly.

Sac State
Weber
Portland State
Cal Poly
UCdavis
NAU
SUU

Montana
Montana State
EWU
ISU
N. Colo
North Dakota
South Dakota

That looks like the most realistic split to me.

[SDHornet]

I second that.

[cats2506]

The three Cali schools will boost attendance. With Sac State hosting we will seat 19K for UCdavis and 15K for Cal Poly. I am sure those schools would max out too.

Besides UM/MSU, there are no other BSC rivalries where those numbers exist and are travelling fan friendly.

Sac State
Weber
Portland State
Cal Poly
UCdavis
NAU
SUU

Montana
Montana State
EWU
ISU
N. Colo
North Dakota
South Dakota

Gotta have WSU and ISU in the same division, absolutely no sense to split them up and the AD's wont go for it

[bincitysioux]

The three Cali schools will boost attendance. With Sac State hosting we will seat 19K for UCdavis and 15K for Cal Poly. I am sure those schools would max out too.

Besides UM/MSU, there are no other BSC rivalries where those numbers exist and are travelling fan friendly.

Sac State
Weber
Portland State
Cal Poly
UCdavis
NAU
SUU

Montana
Montana State
EWU
ISU
N. Colo
North Dakota
South Dakota

Gotta have WSU and ISU in the same division, absolutely no sense to split them up and the AD's wont go for it

They could be assigned as "permanent rivals" so as to preserve an annual game between the two, like the Pac 10/12 has done with their 4 CA schools.

For the basketball divisions, ISU could slide into the South/West divsion.

[SUUTbird]

BIG SKY NORTH
-Portland State
-EWU

-Montana
-Montana State

-North Dakota
-South Dakota
-Northern Colorado

BIG SKY SOUTH
-Weber State
-Idaho State
-UC-Davis
-Cal Poly
-Southern Utah
-NAU
-Sac State

With this format here you would keep:

-All the Cali Schools together
-Weber State would be in the same conference as ISU and SUU
-The Montana and Dakotas together
-Eastern Washington with Portland and Montana
-SUU and NAU (last couple seasons a possible start for a rivalry game)

I like this format the best even though the travel may be a bit longer then others have mentioned, however i few it would help everyone in the long run as the Northern teams would just have to switch off between visiting 1 Montana and Dakota school each season, the Dakotas could visit just one out of EWU or Portland each season. For Example:

South Dakota Conference Schedule 2012 (example)
-@ Montana
-vs North Dakota
-vs Montana State
-@ EWU
-@ Northern Colorado
-vs Portland State

And in the South the farthest the Cali schools would have to travel would be Utah, Idaho and Arizona and if they wanted they could switch off between the teams in each state, for example:

Sac State Conference Schedule 2010 (example)
-@ Idaho State
-vs Weber
-@ SUU
-vs NAU
-@ Cal Poly
-vs UC-Davis

In this case they would make 1 trip to Idaho and 1 to Utah and would have to do so each season except they would go to Arizona not Idaho the following year...not to shabby.

[cats2506]

Gotta have WSU and ISU in the same division, absolutely no sense to split them up and the AD's wont go for it

They could be assigned as "permanent rivals" so as to preserve an annual game between the two, like the Pac 10/12 has done with their 4 CA schools.

For the basketball divisions, ISU could slide into the South/West divsion.

permanent rivals is an idea but I dont really like it either, it basically eliminates (or freezes) one of the cross division games and creates an uneven system when picking the AQ, this may work in the FBS where you have a championship game in the end, but the FCS wont have a conference championship game.

the 4 charter members of the Big Sky should stay together, (preserving traditional rivalries) this means MSU, UM, WSU & ISU then add in the Dakota's and UNC for geography. I know EWU is geographically close to UM but their traditional rival has become PSU. also EWU wants the Cali exposure. The worst part about this scenario is the limited Cali exposure to the North/West division.

talking football only, BB has other issues that I am not up on and they may have different divisions or no divisions (22 game schedule)

[SloStang]

I would bet that there will be different All-Sport divisions and than football divisions. That is because you will see Cal Poly and UC Davis in the same football division and that would leave the All-Sport divisions unbalanced at 5 and 7 teams. I would bet that in the All-Sport division, sports like basketball will have each team will play a home and home with the teams in their division and only one game with the teams in the other division giving you a 16 game conference schedule.

[Willie]

Shit Chris...that means we have to add 5 forums to the Big Sky Fans network...