Curious if anyone knows what’s up with the Spring season yet. The Florida game was canceled, but the rest of the games were just postponed. Does that mean Eastern has 10 games on the slate? Have any dates been discussed? I almost feel like the FCS should get the most out of the delayed start by mixing up game days to maximize exposure. The crisis actually presents a unique opportunity to push for greater recognition for the “organized” side of D1.
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2021 Spring season
- Thread starter LDopaPDX
- Start date
Palm Springs Eag
Active member
I stumbled across this article from the Greely Tribune that had some good information regarding the Big Sky spring season.
https://www.greeleytribune.com/2020...ball-has-no-intentions-of-reversing-decision/
Here are a couple interesting take aways if you don't want to read the whole article.
The Big Sky is expected to announce the 8 game schedule later in October.
A spring playoffs with 16 teams has been approved and will begin on April 18th and be played through May 15th.
Some non conference games in the Fall are allowed, but no FCS conference has expressed a desire to play a fall season. Big Sky teams will not play fall games.
A maximum of 8 games are allowed in the regular season. That will probably mean dropping Western Illinois and NAU.
A version of Spring Football has been approved to begin in the fall, and includes 15 allowable practices
The 8 game conference schedule is expected to begin in late February
What a wild ride!
https://www.greeleytribune.com/2020...ball-has-no-intentions-of-reversing-decision/
Here are a couple interesting take aways if you don't want to read the whole article.
The Big Sky is expected to announce the 8 game schedule later in October.
A spring playoffs with 16 teams has been approved and will begin on April 18th and be played through May 15th.
Some non conference games in the Fall are allowed, but no FCS conference has expressed a desire to play a fall season. Big Sky teams will not play fall games.
A maximum of 8 games are allowed in the regular season. That will probably mean dropping Western Illinois and NAU.
A version of Spring Football has been approved to begin in the fall, and includes 15 allowable practices
The 8 game conference schedule is expected to begin in late February
What a wild ride!
Any news at all? It seems weird that we’re probably within 16 weeks of kickoff and there’s literally nothing being released. With all FBS having their plans in now, it seems strange that there is barely any news at all from the FCS. You’d think, for the sake of the various staff members, players, and ticket holders, there’d be some info at least being teased... even if not clearly stated.
From what I understand, Eastern will be holding “Spring Ball” this Fall, and knowing the weather, you’d think that would be desired much more sooner than later. Would you rather start practice now, or wait until Thanksgiving when it’s absolutely brutal outside?
From what I understand, Eastern will be holding “Spring Ball” this Fall, and knowing the weather, you’d think that would be desired much more sooner than later. Would you rather start practice now, or wait until Thanksgiving when it’s absolutely brutal outside?
Larry Weir
Active member
Here's a link to the Spokesman-Review sports podcast I produce. Friday I talked to Big Sky Commissioner Tom Wistrcill and he outlines the plans as they exist at the current time. Just scroll down to the September 25th podcast. There are also other fairly recent EWU-centric podcasts on there with AD Lynn Hickey, Coach Best and Coach Legans.
https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-press-box-with-larry-weir
As far as fall practice goes, EWU cannot have a full team practice at this time as Spokane County is in Phase 2 of the re-opening plan and has a long way to go to get to Phase 3. There might be a way around that with a waiver from the county health department, but that would likely involve testing multiple times per week. At this time, it would cost somewhere close to $13,000 per day to test the football players, coaches, athletic trainers, equipment and video personnel. EWU is not spending money currently on testing, but will likely have to at some point. My guess is fall ball for football will consist of what I'm told they are currently doing - small groups within each position with no balls, helmets or pads. Meaning a handful of players at a time working with their position coach only.
9/29 Additional info: My guess for fall ball was wrong. I see on social media the team was back on the Inferno today in t-shirts, shorts and masks. That's a new development and I'm not certain how many players were allowed, but it looked like quite a few. Maybe they got clearance for a cohort of up to 50 people? Not sure...
https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-press-box-with-larry-weir
As far as fall practice goes, EWU cannot have a full team practice at this time as Spokane County is in Phase 2 of the re-opening plan and has a long way to go to get to Phase 3. There might be a way around that with a waiver from the county health department, but that would likely involve testing multiple times per week. At this time, it would cost somewhere close to $13,000 per day to test the football players, coaches, athletic trainers, equipment and video personnel. EWU is not spending money currently on testing, but will likely have to at some point. My guess is fall ball for football will consist of what I'm told they are currently doing - small groups within each position with no balls, helmets or pads. Meaning a handful of players at a time working with their position coach only.
9/29 Additional info: My guess for fall ball was wrong. I see on social media the team was back on the Inferno today in t-shirts, shorts and masks. That's a new development and I'm not certain how many players were allowed, but it looked like quite a few. Maybe they got clearance for a cohort of up to 50 people? Not sure...
Larry Weir
Active member
Here's an article from ESPN today that focuses on Montana and the Big Sky. It's basketball centric, but there is a football nugget or two toward the end that raised my eyebrows a bit...
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/29993776/why-mid-low-major-college-basketball-programs-big-trouble-buy-games
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/29993776/why-mid-low-major-college-basketball-programs-big-trouble-buy-games
Palm Springs Eag
Active member
Larry,
Thanks for the information, thanks for joining us here, and thank you for all you do for EWU athletics!
Thanks for the information, thanks for joining us here, and thank you for all you do for EWU athletics!
Palm Springs Eag
Active member
If I can read between the lines well enough, it seems like the Big Sky spring schedules should be coming out in the next week or two. I saw they were supposed to come out in October, and I also saw somewhere they were supposed to come out the second week of October. We will see soon enough I suppose.
Palm Springs Eag
Active member
WOW!
Sacramento State opts out of the spring season and will focus on the fall of 2021. It will be interesting if any other Big Sky school do the same.
Sacramento State opts out of the spring season and will focus on the fall of 2021. It will be interesting if any other Big Sky school do the same.
EWU98 said:
Maybe Sac State going rogue was the reason for the scheduling delay. As much as it sucks for fans in this area, sports just aren't prioritized as highly on the West Coast as they are in other parts of the country.
People around the country just have to be mystified by the decisions related to college sports that are made out here. I can understand FCS delaying until Spring because schools don't have the resources to test daily, especially because until recently, testing was pretty expensive. But this was the great fear... someone just says "ah, the Hell with it" and cancels altogether.
FWIW, the Big Sky needs to get schedules out ASAP. Schools need to know what they're dealing with in February.
Palm Springs Eag
Active member
From the Big Sky Commissioner, indicates a 6 game conference only schedule with 12 teams participating (that just excludes Sacramento State) with a schedule being released in early November.
We'll see!
https://twitter.com/BigSkyCommish/status/1317208502612369408?s=20
We'll see!
https://twitter.com/BigSkyCommish/status/1317208502612369408?s=20
Palm Springs Eag said:
This is silly. You’ve already pushed the season back, let the team play a more complete schedule. Six games is a half-ass solution.
The question is what are the other FCS conferences doing? If everyone else is playing 8+, what does that do for the Big Sky making the tourney? It would be hard to take a 4 win team with two losses under any circumstances... it’s just not enough of a resume. The only way this has any positive effect is if MVC, Colonial, et al are doing the same.
The other issue is, with 6 games, the whole season may depend on which six teams you play. If we get both Montana’s, Weber, UC Davis, Portland State, and Idaho that’s light years different than Northern Colorado, Southern Utah, Idaho State, Cal Poly, NAU and Idaho.
Palm Springs Eag
Active member
It will be interesting to see what gets scheduled and how they schedule. It is totally a guess, but I bet we can count on PSU and Idaho for sure, then Montana, Montana State, Idaho State, and Weber State. We'll see though!
marceagfan5
Active member
LDopaPDX said:
I may be wrong, but I don’t believe the Montana schools want to play more than six games… Also, the problem with the schedule, is if one team loses one game, they’re no longer going to play their starters for the rest of the season as the playoffs would no longer be a possibility
marceagfan5 said:
Question.. since the FBS players all get an extra year, does that apply to us as well? Would Eastern lose any players between Spring and Fall?
The way I understood the rule was that all NCAA teams get the eligibility exemption and the schollies for seniors in 2021 don’t count against the total.
marceagfan5
Active member
LDopaPDX said:
I believe they will still get an extra year regardless if spring games are played or not....i don’t think that’s set in stone but I believe that’s the perception right now
