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Big Sky

DrMike said:
Somewhat related note, Bay Area papers are reporting that Texas St. and Texas-San Antonio will be invited to join the WAC and start play in 2012. I don't quite get that. Texas State is FCS and UTSA hasn't fielded a football team yet (they start in 2011). Sounds like Fresno and Nevada will stick through 2011. No invite to Montana.

San Jose State must be thrilled at losing their two closest rivals, in exchange for two teams in Texas - one an average FCS team, the other having never played a game.

Can't believe Hawaii is long for this version of the WAC.
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FYI - The Bee reported, yesterday, that Nevada and Fresneck would play the 2012 season in the WAC.

I don't see how that will work either, there is a two year transition period, so the earliest UTSA or TXST could go to the WAC would be 2013. Besides, UTSA and TXST only sponsor 14 sports right now, they need the FBS minimum of 16 to even start the transition. Montana is in the same boat as TXST.
 
San Marcos — Consider it a done deal.

Texas State will receive an invitation to join the Western Athletic Conference within the next 30 days — or sooner — along with Denver, Seattle and Texas-San Antonio. Montana has gone from a sure bet to sitting on the fringe, at least for the time being.


http://www.sanmarcosrecord.com/sports/x603540177/College-Athletics-Sources-say-Texas-State-is-headed-to-the-WAC
 
Travel to SUU is doable. It will either be a bus trip from Vegas or a bus trip from SLC. All of the driving will be on I-15 and the trip will be the same weekend as WSU or NAU depending on who is SUU’s travel partner. I am more concerned about trips to the Dakotas and the time and money that will consume for hoops and volleyball assuming they are added as full members.
 
SDHornet said:
Travel to SUU is doable. It will either be a bus trip from Vegas or a bus trip from SLC. All of the driving will be on I-15 and the trip will be the same weekend as WSU or NAU depending on who is SUU’s travel partner. I am more concerned about trips to the Dakotas and the time and money that will consume for hoops and volleyball assuming they are added as full members.
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I really hope the additions would allow us to start talking to the Big West for all other sports. If they are looking to have even divisions add Utah Valley as non-football member.
 
Sounds like Monday for UND and SUU and maybe a bit later for USD.

http://siouxfb.areavoices.com/2010/10/31/hello-big-sky/

Superhornet will have to make a trip up to the Dakotas so she can meet with all her fans at Bisonville!


Monday will be a celebration day at UND!
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Sounds like a sure thing so welcome to the BSC UND, SUU, and maybe even USD. I am ok with the football aspect of it as with the divisions sure to come; it is unlikely that Sac State goes to the Dakotas regularly. My issue stands with the all sports geography. Seeing as the BSC has set the precedent that football only associations are acceptable, Wanless and Gonzo need to sac up and pull out of the BSC for everything other than football and move to the Big West for everything else. The financial implications of sending volleyball, two hoops teams, and anything else to the Dakotas every year could be devastating for the recruiting, coaching, and daily operational budgets as I am sure the athletic budget won’t be increased to accommodate the added travel. This will have a significant impact across the board for athletics as a whole.

As a side note, that author has no idea how heavily recruited Northern CA is. With 2 Pac-12 schools, 3 WAC schools (soon to be 2 MWC schools), 3 FCS schools within driving range of NorCal (and 2 Pac-12 schools and another MWC school in SoCal) as well as virtually anyone with the budget to send recruiters to Northern CA, the statement of Northern CA being “an extremely under-recruited area of the country” is completely off base. So please don’t expect UND to waltz into NorCal and just swoop up on busloads of talent. :ugeek:
 
good point on the recruiting....heck, look at the rosters of the NW pac-10 teams and see how many kids you see from Sac, East Bay, Oakland, etc.

i do think the Dakotas will make an inroad at the JC level. i've seen kids from Los Medanos, DVC, Solano on rosters up there, even at places like Sioux City.

I wonder how they will break the football divisions? east-west? north-south. i could picture this:

east : UM, MSU, UND, USD, SUU, Weber, UNC (keep 2 natural rivalries, creates a utah one)
west : Poly, Davis, Sac, PSU, EWU, ISU, NAU

or

north : UNC, EWU, UM, MSU, UND, USD, ISU
south : Poly, Davis, Sac, NAU, PSU, SUU, Weber

no sure how scheduling would go. 6 in your division, and pick-your-own to fill your schedule? or, rotate 2 from the other division to make it 8 scheduled BS games?
 
SDHornet said:
Sounds like a sure thing so welcome to the BSC UND, SUU, and maybe even USD. I am ok with the football aspect of it as with the divisions sure to come; it is unlikely that Sac State goes to the Dakotas regularly. My issue stands with the all sports geography. Seeing as the BSC has set the precedent that football only associations are acceptable, Wanless and Gonzo need to sac up and pull out of the BSC for everything other than football and move to the Big West for everything else. The financial implications of sending volleyball, two hoops teams, and anything else to the Dakotas every year could be devastating for the recruiting, coaching, and daily operational budgets as I am sure the athletic budget won’t be increased to accommodate the added travel. This will have a significant impact across the board for athletics as a whole.
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Could certainly understand Sac State's fans view toward the Dakotas. However, it really isn't that much more expensive to fly to compared to Montana locations. What is tough however is the drive between Vermillion and Grand Forks - 380 miles - especially in the winter if there is bad weather. Some schools might want to fly between Sioux Falls and Grand Forks as part of their tickets.

Also, with divisions the travel should be reduced. For certain sports, like track & field, X-country, golf, Sac St should never have to go that far east as the conference doesn't require round-robins. For certain ones like soccer and tennis that don't attract much attendance, matches could actually be someplace like Las Vegas or Phoenix, which are both very cheap to fly directly into from both ND/SD and from Sac, and then knock out a number of matches over a long weekend.

I do wonder if Fullerton has a few cards up his sleeve as far as television. UND has a good share of its athletics broadcast nationally on Fox College Sports (the Atlantic, Central and Pacific channels). If the Big Sky can expand that relationship with the whole conference and put together an advertising package (Fox grants the "owner" a high % of advertising spots), the Big Sky could begin benefiting from TV is a manner that hasn't been possible before.

As a side note, that author has no idea how heavily recruited Northern CA is. With 2 Pac-12 schools, 3 WAC schools (soon to be 2 MWC schools), 3 FCS schools within driving range of NorCal (and 2 Pac-12 schools and another MWC school in SoCal) as well as virtually anyone with the budget to send recruiters to Northern CA, the statement of Northern CA being “an extremely under-recruited area of the country” is completely off base. So please don’t expect UND to waltz into NorCal and just swoop up on busloads of talent. :ugeek
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Don't virtually all Big Sky schools except E Wash and N Colo recruit the Bay Area / Sacramento? Would seem that S Cal is actually the area that is under recruited. Many of the California players on UND's team have some very specific majors that few other schools offer: like pilot training, air traffic control, airport management, meterology, or chose the entrepreneurship program that is highly rated.
 
My understanding is that the Big Sky returns around $400 k/yr to each school. The Big West returns around $100 k/yr per school. If Sac State goes the football-only route, it would have to pay the Big Sky $10 k / yr like Poly and Davis do as an annual fee (which is a rather good deal on the surface). However, the Big Sky will actually benefit much more from Poly and Davis' membership, as the NCAA grants the Big Sky money based on scholarships granted, and with Poly's and Davis' football teams in the Big Sky, the Big Sky's reimbursements from the NCAA go up even higher.

Going to the Big West might not be the slam dunk financial decision that many think it is, as Sac State would lose at least 300 k/ yr and then have to deal with exit and entrance fees.
 
HornetHope said:
SiouxFan,

what conference are you in for Hockey? Any chance the Sky starts to field teams or is UND pretty set?
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Hockey is aligned almost totally different than traditional conferences.

UND is in a conference (WCHA) with Minnesota, Wisconsin, Denver, Colorado College, Alaska-Anchorage, Nebr-Omaha and Minnesota regional schools.

Other major conferences are the CCHA (Michigan, Mich St, Ohio St, Notre Dame, + MAC and DII Mich schools), Hockey East (BC,BU, NH, Me, VT, UMass + other Mass schools), ECAC (Ivy and NY schools), and Atlantic Hockey (smaller private schools)

Penn State just announced that it will be adding hockey as it will be receiving an $86 million gift for an arena, so all the Big Ten schools will be moving hockey under the Big 10 name in three or four years. Supposedly, Indiana and Illinois are considering hockey when they get new arenas built.

When that happens, it will really open up opportunities for new schools to come in. Supposedly, Denver, North Dakota, Notre Dame, and Miami (Oh) will form the backbone of a new conference. Maybe Iowa State, Pitt, DePaul, or Colorado St or some other Big 12 or Big East schools will join them.

Of western schools, Washington and Utah are most often mentioned. California actually has some very good talent coming out of the state (including a couple of players on UND). Stanford could probably afford it.

For hockey to be successful, the average school really needs 5-8000 seats in a decent arena near campus and a local population that will embrace it. Pro arenas generally are just too large (except at Wisconsin). Not many schools have that right type of situation. In the Big Sky, Northern Arizona used to have a team that played in their dome (Flagstaff has a hockey history), but NAU always had to play as an independent. In the past, there had been considerations at E Wash to start hockey - EWU has a practice rink on campus - and play in Spokane (which is a good hockey town). Not sure if any other Big Sky school has a venue that is suitable. Rinks in Bozeman and Missoula are rather small (2-3000 seats).
 
SF, all schools recruit CA. That was one of the selling points and reasons the BSC took Sac State and Fullerton back in the late 90’s. It’s probably one of the reasons why the BSC won’t allow Sac to leave the BSC if it was requested.
 
Siouxfan said:
My understanding is that the Big Sky returns around $400 k/yr to each school. The Big West returns around $100 k/yr per school. If Sac State goes the football-only route, it would have to pay the Big Sky $10 k / yr like Poly and Davis do as an annual fee (which is a rather good deal on the surface). However, the Big Sky will actually benefit much more from Poly and Davis' membership, as the NCAA grants the Big Sky money based on scholarships granted, and with Poly's and Davis' football teams in the Big Sky, the Big Sky's reimbursements from the NCAA go up even higher.

Going to the Big West might not be the slam dunk financial decision that many think it is, as Sac State would lose at least 300 k/ yr and then have to deal with exit and entrance fees.
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Sure they pay a $10k/yr fee, but the savings in travel for the non-football sports will easily dwarf that figure. I’d be fine with a fee and saving boat loads of cash on flights and travel.

Another thing you are leaving out is the NCAA Hoops Tourney money. Now that the BSC is adding more mouths to feed, the payouts to each school will be less which will further diminish the revenue sources each school depends on. Both the BSC and Big West only get one bid, so that payout will be the same for both conferences, the only difference will be the distribution of that money based on who has more schools to split the pot amongst.
 
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