UND to to re-examine # of sports and conference affiliation

[billings_poke]

und will want to be football only in big sky and join the summit league for all other sports

 

['68griz]

You know, I would like to go back to the days when Big Sky allowed only those teams that participated in all sports.

 

[SloStang]

Let UND become a football only member and take the rest of their sports to the Summit. Let Sac State become a football only member and take their other sports to the Big West. This leaves 10 full members and a much better travel situation for both the Big Sky non football sports and is better for both UND and Sac State. Split football into two 7 team divisions when Idaho returns. Win, win, win....

 

[BigSkyBears]

An interesting read for sure, however with the Missouri Valley want to bring in North Dakota? And hypothetically if North Dakota were to go join the MVFC would the Big Sky stay 13 teams or would we try to add another school to potentially have two divisions to balance things out? If that happens San Diego really is the only option if they decide to add scholarships or a D2 moves up.

I think it was a mistake to grow to 13 teams in the first place without having a plan in place to split the conference. 13 is too large and we'd be better suited to drop the dead weight from the conference. Drop to 12, split the conference into two six-team divisions, and have a round-robin format to determine a true champion. If UND were to leave and the goal was to get to 12 total teams in the conference, my vote would be to drop Northern Colorado. It's been almost 10 years since they've joined the Big Sky and they've only managed one winning season recently, barely. Add poor attendance to their problem too and it's a no brainier. And it's not just football, it's their basketball program too. The Big Sky needs to start holding members accountable and require they maintain a level of success and a minimum attendance number better than that of a high school football game. Much like the Sun Belt did with Idaho, Idaho was dead weight (and a true outlier) and couldn't maintain any success and brought no value to the conference, so they were dropped. The Big Sky would be wise to do the same with underperforming programs. :twocents:

UNC mens hoops punched a ticket to the Big Dance in year 5 of our transition from D2. We've won several volleyball conference championships. Football has been horrible, but we were only FCS in name, and we were not financed as a true D1 school for most of the beginning years. The Bears had their first winning season in football last season (with a young team). Facilities continue to slowly improve too.

 

[kemajic]

Let UND become a football only member and take the rest of their sports to the Summit. Let Sac State become a football only member and take their other sports to the Big West. This leaves 10 full members and a much better travel situation for both the Big Sky non football sports and is better for both UND and Sac State. Split football into two 7 team divisions when Idaho returns. Win, win, win....

Splitting into two divisions does little when there is no conference championship game.

 

[kemajic]

You know, I would like to go back to the days when Big Sky allowed only those teams that participated in all sports.

You are not alone.

 

[SloStang]

Let UND become a football only member and take the rest of their sports to the Summit. Let Sac State become a football only member and take their other sports to the Big West. This leaves 10 full members and a much better travel situation for both the Big Sky non football sports and is better for both UND and Sac State. Split football into two 7 team divisions when Idaho returns. Win, win, win....

Splitting into two divisions does little when there is no conference championship game.

It reduces travel cost by playing the teams that are closer to you.

North: EWU, PSU, UI, ISU, UM, MSU, UND

South: Sac St., UCD, CP, NAU, SUU, WSU, UNC

 

[CDAGRIZ]

Let UND become a football only member and take the rest of their sports to the Summit. Let Sac State become a football only member and take their other sports to the Big West. This leaves 10 full members and a much better travel situation for both the Big Sky non football sports and is better for both UND and Sac State. Split football into two 7 team divisions when Idaho returns. Win, win, win....

Splitting into two divisions does little when there is no conference championship game.

It reduces travel cost by playing the teams that are closer to you.

North: EWU, PSU, UI, ISU, UM, MSU, UND

South: Sac St., UCD, CP, NAU, SUU, WSU, UNC

That would be very convenient for the South division.

 

[Grizzoola]

Let UND become a football only member and take the rest of their sports to the Summit. Let Sac State become a football only member and take their other sports to the Big West. This leaves 10 full members and a much better travel situation for both the Big Sky non football sports and is better for both UND and Sac State. Split football into two 7 team divisions when Idaho returns. Win, win, win....

Splitting into two divisions does little when there is no conference championship game.

It reduces travel cost by playing the teams that are closer to you.

North: EWU, PSU, UI, ISU, UM, MSU, UND

South: Sac St., UCD, CP, NAU, SUU, WSU, UNC

Makes very good sense. Hope the Powers That Be can take some free advice.

 

[SloStang]

Let UND become a football only member and take the rest of their sports to the Summit. Let Sac State become a football only member and take their other sports to the Big West. This leaves 10 full members and a much better travel situation for both the Big Sky non football sports and is better for both UND and Sac State. Split football into two 7 team divisions when Idaho returns. Win, win, win....

Splitting into two divisions does little when there is no conference championship game.

It reduces travel cost by playing the teams that are closer to you.

North: EWU, PSU, UI, ISU, UM, MSU, UND

South: Sac St., UCD, CP, NAU, SUU, WSU, UNC

That would be very convenient for the South division.

And if they went East/West divisions you would find something else to complain about. BTW the south has the defending Champs and the 2016 favorite. Just saying...

West: EWU, PSU, Sac St, UCD, CP, NAU, SUU

East: ISU, UI, WSU, UM, MSU, UND, UNC

 

[CDAGRIZ]

Splitting into two divisions does little when there is no conference championship game.

It reduces travel cost by playing the teams that are closer to you.

North: EWU, PSU, UI, ISU, UM, MSU, UND

South: Sac St., UCD, CP, NAU, SUU, WSU, UNC

That would be very convenient for the South division.

And if they went East/West divisions you would find something else to complain about. BTW the south has the defending Champs and the 2016 favorite. Just saying...

West: EWU, PSU, Sac St, UCD, CP, NAU, SUU

East: ISU, UI, WSU, UM, MSU, UND, UNC

That would be very convenient for the West division.

 

[billings_poke]

Let UND become a football only member and take the rest of their sports to the Summit. Let Sac State become a football only member and take their other sports to the Big West. This leaves 10 full members and a much better travel situation for both the Big Sky non football sports and is better for both UND and Sac State. Split football into two 7 team divisions when Idaho returns. Win, win, win....

Splitting into two divisions does little when there is no conference championship game.

It reduces travel cost by playing the teams that are closer to you.

North: EWU, PSU, UI, ISU, UM, MSU, UND

South: Sac St., UCD, CP, NAU, SUU, WSU, UNC

And how do you pick the champion?

 

[Lakerhater]

Rock, paper, scissors ????

 

[UTGrizFan]

There would be a Big Sky South and a Big Sky North champion it's getting a bit to the playoffs. If you wanted to declare a true champion how to help with playoff seeding have all cross-division games count towards overall Big Sky record and base it off that. I really like the idea of the two division approach, can guarantee 8-9 Conference games (6 in Division and 2-3 cross Division games) which would allow teams to end up in opposite divisions to continue to play their rivals and get the money games that they need.

It reduces travel cost by playing the teams that are closer to you.

North: EWU, PSU, UI, ISU, UM, MSU, UND

South: Sac St., UCD, CP, NAU, SUU, WSU, UNC

That would be very convenient for the South division.

West: EWU, PSU, Sac St, UCD, CP, NAU, SUU

East: ISU, UI, WSU, UM, MSU, UND, UNC

That would be very convenient for the West division.

We have no right to complain or judge especially considering that we got our asses kicked by Portland State, lost to Cal Poly and Weber State at home, Northern Arizona is always a pretty good team and SUU is the reigning Big Sky Champion (who despite what many of you people think earned their championship last year) on top of almost being embarrassed by Idaho State last year. We have no right to be looking down their noses at anyone until we return to consistently being the Big Sky Conference Champions.

 

[EverettGriz]

Good god. There's really only one answer to this disaster:

Get Montana the eff out of this conference.

 

[BubbleScreenBob1]

Good god. There's really only one answer to this disaster:

Get Montana the eff out of this conference.

and its only gonna get worse.

 

[BadlandsGrizFan]

Does our conference pay their travel costs, or at least a part of their travel costs? Because it would seem fair if we did?

Why? They wanted in; they knew the geography. It costs as much for teams visiting Grand Forks as it does for UND to travel. It was a bad move from the start; they are not needed in the BSC. Thanks, Fullerton.

For one, thanks for answering my question. Two, to answer your question, they have way farther to travel. I see membership as a two way street. The Big Sky needed them (for some reason) and they needed the Big Sky. If I were negotiating for UND, I would have argued for a travel reimbursement.

How did the Big Sky need them? They have a half decent basketball program, shit football.....

The only program UND has worth a shit (and its awesome) is hockey....which neither the MVC of BigSky have.....theyre kinda always gonna be an odd ball because of this

 

[get'em_griz]

An interesting read for sure, however with the Missouri Valley want to bring in North Dakota? And hypothetically if North Dakota were to go join the MVFC would the Big Sky stay 13 teams or would we try to add another school to potentially have two divisions to balance things out? If that happens San Diego really is the only option if they decide to add scholarships or a D2 moves up.

I think it was a mistake to grow to 13 teams in the first place without having a plan in place to split the conference. 13 is too large and we'd be better suited to drop the dead weight from the conference. Drop to 12, split the conference into two six-team divisions, and have a round-robin format to determine a true champion. If UND were to leave and the goal was to get to 12 total teams in the conference, my vote would be to drop Northern Colorado. It's been almost 10 years since they've joined the Big Sky and they've only managed one winning season recently, barely. Add poor attendance to their problem too and it's a no brainier. And it's not just football, it's their basketball program too. The Big Sky needs to start holding members accountable and require they maintain a level of success and a minimum attendance number better than that of a high school football game. Much like the Sun Belt did with Idaho, Idaho was dead weight (and a true outlier) and couldn't maintain any success and brought no value to the conference, so they were dropped. The Big Sky would be wise to do the same with underperforming programs. :twocents:

UNC mens hoops punched a ticket to the Big Dance in year 5 of our transition from D2. We've won several volleyball conference championships. Football has been horrible, but we were only FCS in name, and we were not financed as a true D1 school for most of the beginning years. The Bears had their first winning season in football last season (with a young team). Facilities continue to slowly improve too.

UNC benefited hugely by having a cakewalk of a schedule to have its first winning season in 9 years. Three of those games were gimme's in Western State, Houston Baptist, and Abil Christian, and two of those three games could have easily been losses. I will give credit to the Bears for beating Portland State. That was one of the program's best wins in their FCS tenure. But in all honestly, don't be surprised that people see last year for UNC as nothing more than getting lucky. This year, UNC has an opportunity to have another winning season, but the best scenario is maxing out at 5 wins. If UNC can continue to improve and have multiple winning seasons in-a-row, then public perception of UNC football may begin to change.

 

[EverettGriz]

Besides, membership in the BSC OUGHT to be about more than a few wins or marginally successful seasons. It should also be about things like quality of facilities, reasonable attendance, the university's commitment to and investment in athletics, community support of the programs.

It's a real shame that Foolerton never understood any of that.