It’s that time of year where the Big Sky media members are releasing their 2016 Big Sky Football Preseason Poll submittal.
Typically, one will see Montana, Montana State, and Eastern Washington in the Top 3, then everybody else in whatever order. This year appears to be a bit different.
Northern Arizona, UND and Montana all received first place votes in the three polls below. That tells us that this could be a year like last year where the Big Sky has a non-traditional power winning the league (SUU).
NAU has sophomore phenom QB Case Cookus coming back while UND has their own sophomore superstar in RB John Santiago. The two square on at the Alerus Center on November 12th (last game of season for UND). That could be a HUGE game with playoff implications.
Below are a few snapshots of media member polls thus far:
Tom Miller: Grand Forks Herald (UND)
AJ Mazzolini: Missoulian Newspaper (Montana)
Cody Bashore: Arizona Daily Sun (NAU)
As you can see, the expectations for UND Football are starting to be raised to those of the DII days. In the snapshots above, UND was picked 1st, 2nd and 3rd.
With this kind of publicity comes two things: pressure & expectations. The UND players need to realize they are are no longer looked at as a FCS newcomer or D2 transitional team. Which puts a target on their back. Which means they need to gain consistency in their habits, whether that be in summer workouts, fall camp, watching tape, etc.
Also, Craig Haley predicted his 2016 FCS Playoff Field. UND is a part of it.
“North Dakota (at-large bid) Fighting Hawks are probably still talking about being left out of last year’s playoff field.”