The game also sends a clear indicator that the Big Sky Conference may well be a brawl this season. No fewer than nine of the 12 schools have shown signs solid competitive play. Just this week Weber St gave BYU a scare, EWU took Wyoming to OT and North Dakota did the same with Gonzaga. Northern Colorado steamrolled a Denver team that promptly took Stanford to the wire. Portland State was tied with Oregon at the 3 minute mark. This might be a year where one or two road wins spell the difference in tourney seeding.
For quite a number of years the Big Sky has split into clear upper and lower tiers. With a week of non-con games left, only NAU, SAC and ISU seem basement dwellers in the Big Sky.