Big Sky chooses new basketball tournament location

[Colter_Nuanez56]

Big Sky moving basketball tournaments to Boise
http://skylinesportsmt.com/big-sky-basketball-tourney-moving-to-boise/

 

[Pounder]

Not Boise. Nampa. Only 15 miles away, but huge difference.

I first learned of this from Twitter from my last Boise media follow. First question on their mind: why not the hockey arena in downtown Boise? Having done both, the arenas are 6 of one and a half dozen of the other. You'd simply prefer to walk out to downtown Boise afterward. While the Nampa facility is bigger (built primarily for rodeo), if it's a mostly neutral town (caveat: plenty of UI grads), you're better off at the smaller arena.

Part of me is thinking "couldn't make it work in Reno, just go to Ogden and be done with it." This won't work. It is what it is, though... which is "TV runs sports." That's why the Big Sky won't backtrack to regular season champion hosting.

 

[Colter_Nuanez56]

Not Boise. Nampa. Only 15 miles away, but huge difference.

I first learned of this from Twitter from my last Boise media follow. First question on their mind: why not the hockey arena in downtown Boise? Having done both, the arenas are 6 of one and a half dozen of the other. You'd simply prefer to walk out to downtown Boise afterward. While the Nampa facility is bigger (built primarily for rodeo), if it's a mostly neutral town (caveat: plenty of UI grads), you're better off at the smaller arena.

Part of me is thinking "couldn't make it work in Reno, just go to Ogden and be done with it." This won't work. It is what it is, though... which is "TV runs sports." That's why the Big Sky won't backtrack to regular season champion hosting.

Story has been amended to say the tournament will be hosted at CenturyLink Arena in downtown Boise.

 

[BroadwayVik]

How odd. Why would the Blue Sky Conference opt out of a place like Reno for a freezing cold March venue like Boise?

To get away from the gambling and prostitution, and get into a more wholesome, family-friendly environment, albeit horribly freezing cold?

Methinks something is fundamentally wrong with this paradigm. What is their rationale?

 

[ManOfVision]

Horrible decision.

 

[bigskyconf]

How odd. Why would the Blue Sky Conference opt out of a place like Reno for a freezing cold March venue like Boise?

To get away from the gambling and prostitution, and get into a more wholesome, family-friendly environment, albeit horribly freezing cold?
Methinks something is fundamentally wrong with this paradigm. What is their rationale?

Easier for the members to get to. Boise is within driving distance of Portland, Cheney, Moscow, Missoula, Bozeman, Pocatello and Ogden, and has a good airport to accommodate the rest. The only school within driving distance to Reno really was Sacramento. If the Salt Lake area was not available, Boise is a logical #2.

 

[BroadwayVik]

I'd first be interested in hearing more about the rationale for leaving Reno. Was there too much of a sin city effect? Or is this Boise venue considered so much better that it simply blew away what Reno had to offer?

Boise in February. Brrrrr. But probably crisp daily weather with sunshine. Not so bad.
Average high 45 F, Average low 28 F Think ski trip weather. Still rewarding.

Clean city and centrally located for the northern schools, but not so convenient for UCD, Sac State, Cal Poly & NAU schools. Perhaps the venue will make the trek worth the effort to get there. I wonder what they have for accommodation.

 

[bigskyconf]

Davis and Poly, however, are not in the conference for basketball. They are Big West.

Also, Boise today is not your father's Boise. It has become a nice little city, on par with Spokane, in my opinion.

 

[Pounder]

Also, Boise today is not your father's Boise. It has become a nice little city, on par with Spokane, in my opinion.

Boise was beginning to realize a little Cascadian infusion before I left it 9 years ago. It got a lot more infused after I left. More breweries, more trendy restaurants in converted old buildings, etc.

Still a red state location at heart. But it's not my daughter's Boise, frankly.

If anything, Spokane is kind of depressing rust belt lite while Boise is almost sun belt too clueless to suck.

One other thing: it can be 45, it can be 75... it's not wild weather swings like Denver, but it's not all that consistent.

 

[BroadwayVik]

It would be a better fit for Portland State to go Big West too. We need to better affect leanings politically there. Politicking is one of our comparative advantages. We derive our power from politics.

Hawai'i is a California outlier
Portland State also would be.
And a fellow, contiguous West Coaster
Of Cascadian variety.

Our symbolic Portland State flag

We have to have a political cause to have collective emotional fire. I recommend we start flying this flag at our sporting events. Too radical? Good school colors for us too. Blue not black. This has been our miscue. Make ourselves significant and they'd want us in for added-value sake. Let's show them our passion for membership ... and just never quite let up. We're flexible that way. Our enthusiasm for membership is what ultimately sells them on us.

You present the hurdles to overcome.

 

[Pounder]

Just a reminder: the state of Hawaii- or the university- subsidizes travel for other Big West schools as a condition for membership in the conference. Not that Honolulu media is thrilled about that arrangement because of Hawaii's budget situation... but that's the only way they're in the BWC.

PSU going to the state legislature to ask for same would get my attention; unfortunately more as a source of amusement.

 

[BroadwayVik]

Think

rather than

That is what is meant by thinking positively, thinking progressively. How do we make it happen? What steps do we take? Apply oneself to the task.

How much did the BYU game bring in? How about the Oregon State game? Could we play a third game for the sake of income? What are our options here? We could adopt the Idaho strategy to make ourselves respectable doormats to great teams that pay off well while, at the same time, using the games to improve our style of play. When we go back to conference, we have little respect for teams that can't pay us well (or play us as well), so we end up obliterating them primarily for that reason. Not a bad strategy.

 

[bigskyconf]

It would be a better fit for Portland State to go Big West too. You present the hurdles to overcome.

1. Location. 500 miles from the nearest Big West school. 900 miles from most.
2. No football. Big West does not sponsor football. Would it really be beneficial to use the football revenue to support the trips for the lesser sports to California constantly?
3. No basketball history of success. The Big Sky is not on a par with the Big West in terms of basketball as Davis points that out to Sac State constantly.
4. The Big West booted Utah State and Idaho out a few years back and that was after Utah State was the flagship school in basketball, due to them not fitting in the footprint. They made it expressly known at that time they wanted a California only conference. They only accepted Hawaii because Hawaii was willing to cover the costs of travel, as Pounder pointed out.

There are some hurdles to overcome. Counterpoint?

 

[Alan1]

Broadway says think "how" not "can't" regarding moving our athletic programs (minus football) from the Big Sky to the Big West. The first question to be asked should be "why." That is also a question to be asked about our continued membership in the Big Sky. We have given up a lot to finance our membership there. We sacrificed very successful baseball and wrestling programs. In both of those programs I believe we competed in the Pac10.

After nearly beating Oregon State two weeks before, on Saturday afternoon, in our football home opener against UC Davis, we managed to wedge 4,442 fans into 21,000 seat Providence Park to sadly watch the Aggies completely dominate a most inept Viking squad.

Virtually no one in the metro area is the least bit interested in Viking athletics. If we want to continue offering athletic programs to PSU students maybe we should step down to D2 and compete in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. If 35,000 student Simon Fraser University finds it an appropriate home I would think we could too.

 

[BroadwayVik]

It would be a better fit for Portland State to go Big West too. You present the hurdles to overcome.

1. Location. 500 miles from the nearest Big West school. 900 miles from most.
2. No football. Big West does not sponsor football. Would it really be beneficial to use the football revenue to support the trips for the lesser sports to California constantly?
3. No basketball history of success. The Big Sky is not on a par with the Big West in terms of basketball as Davis points that out to Sac State constantly.
4. The Big West booted Utah State and Idaho out a few years back and that was after Utah State was the flagship school in basketball, due to them not fitting in the footprint. They made it expressly known at that time they wanted a California only conference. They only accepted Hawaii because Hawaii was willing to cover the costs of travel, as Pounder pointed out.

There are some hurdles to overcome. Counterpoint?

1. I would say that road trips to California and flights to Hawai'i would be very nice (ever cruise down to Disneyland?) North Dakota is very far away and fraught with risk due to weather, and so are those to the Montana schools and Greeley, CO.

2. Like UC-Davis and Cal Poly, we can continue as a football-only school in the Big Sky. We seek to join them and our old affiliate, CS-Northridge, in this warmer weather conference. They know us and could vouch for us. We could still play Big Sky schools but, hopefully, improve beyond them.

3. Oregonians love college basketball; I think this goes under the category of "if you build it, t[he]y will come." The Big West is a conference that would become attractive to recruit more sought-after players to PSU. The conference affiliation would do wonders for our recruiting. West Coast is leading, Big West is improving, Big Sky is falling behind. Where do we want to be?

4. The problem with USU and Idaho was that their venues were not population centers. Portland, on the other hand, is. Overcoming the California-only bias, though, is a very real hurdle. A very good point in your favor. We would have to be willing to compensate logistically for our not being in California and would also have to make ourselves attractive enough to overcome the present "California only" bias. We would have to charm them with wild salmon, Marionberry ice cream, Pinot Noir & Riesling wines and any other means by which to charm them. Our volleyball is quite good competition. We have a basis on which to build favor with them, to charm them, to woo them. If we have personality leaders in the midst (e.g. Jordan Schnitzer, Rick Miller, Wim Wiewell et al.) willing to represent us, they may well come to make room for us. Let's find out if we can dazzle them with some Portland persuasiveness.

 

[goviks2]

Re: Oregonians love college basketball...

Maybe so, but Portlanders only love Trailblazer basketball...just ask UP, which has had some decent teams. The hole in the sports market here is football. Professional football isn't in the cards. OSU and the best team money can buy have got to play all their games in their respective cities to justify their ticket prices. PSU is the only possible candidate to fill that void. Goviks!

 

[Alan1]

Re: Oregonians love college basketball...

Maybe so, but Portlanders only love Trailblazer basketball...just ask UP, which has had some decent teams. The hole in the sports market here is football. Professional football isn't in the cards. OSU and the best team money can buy have got to play all their games in their respective cities to justify their ticket prices. PSU is the only possible candidate to fill that void. Goviks!

Not going to happen.

 

[ManOfVision]

To me, the idea of dropping back to DII is crazy. If forced to make the choice, I'd actually rather drop football and remain in D1 in everything else (presumably in the Big West).

 

[Alan1]

Why is dropping back to D2 crazy?

 

[ManOfVision]

Why is dropping back to D2 crazy?

It's just my opinion, but I think the prestige and media coverage that comes with DI is valuable for the university. You can be a perennially great sports school at the lower divisions (and we've had some in Oregon recently with Linfield, Southern Oregon, etc.), and not generate the coverage you get from an occasional NCAA basketball tourney trip at the top level.