With all the talk going on in the last few days about the Big Sky/Summit and who goes where, we couldn’t help but think about one of the possibilities. It has been awfully quiet lately after the Big Sky had its meetings last week. The silence on all ends could be good or bad for UND. Everyone in the UND Athletic Department and on from the President’s office has been mum.
We are officially on board with the Football-Only invite to the Big Sky. Even without Montana and Montana State (if they go FBS), the conference is still going to be one of the Top 3 in the country. Lets look at the members if this scenario went down:
- Eastern Washington (Top 15 team)
- Northern Arizona (Top 15 team)
- Sacramento State
- Idaho State
- Portland State
- Cal Poly (Top 25 team)
- UC Davis
- Northern Colorado (old rival)
- Weber State (Top 25 team)
- Southern Utah (Soon to be GWC Champ)
- North Dakota
- South Dakota
The thing we love about the Big Sky is the brand of football they would bring to The Alerus Center every year. There are very exciting games in the Big Sky every single week and with the exception of Montana, there is quite a bit of parity. Old NCC foe Northern Colorado would be back in the mix so there would be some familiarity there. There is only one perennially bad team in the entire conference (Idaho State) and if it somehow works out where Montana/Montana State were to stay in the conference, then you start to think “super-conference” in the mold of the CAA out east. They are both Top 15 teams this year. We don’t know how that would work with numbers but it will work itself out. This could potentially be promising for the conference in securing multiple playoff bids each year like the Colonial does, especially given the playoff expansion that has happened.
Recruiting out west probably gets much easier for football in the Big Sky. In terms of scheduling, we still think there would be opportunities to schedule non-conference games with the Dakota schools as well.Â
This scenario would also mean the rest of the athletic department at UND would join the Summit League. This would save huge amounts of money by allowing bus trips for most teams to Fargo, Brookings, and Vermillion. It would also renew old rivalries that have been missed by most fans.
If BSC Commisssioner Fullerton could pull this off, it would be a big coup for the Big Sky. The next question is if a full league membership is offered. What would UND and/or USD do in that scenario if they have the Summit option too?
Of course, this is all speculation.