Had the chance to interview Megan Lobdell of the Big Sky Conference front office at halftime of the game Monday night. This was a live interview. She said some interesting things that I wanted to pass along to those who didn't hear the interview.
1. Megan said the four new schools to the conference have brought a lot, especially in football. It's more work for everyone but well worth it.
2. Megan said that regarding Idaho / football / Big Sky the conference is "very happy right now" with 13 members. She said there is no deadline, no timetable towards Idaho regarding the conference. No, 'you have X number of years to come back or else we'll look elsewhere for a 14th member." Said she understands why Idaho would want to explore options.
3. Regarding Idaho rejoining in basketball. Said the conference has decided to go to two, six teams divisions along a west / east axis when Idaho returns in 2014. Said conference will "try to preserve rivalries as much as possible." (Pure speculation on my part but based on the conferences parameters you could see something like this: WESTERN CONFERENCE- Eastern Washington, Idaho, Portland State, Sacramento State, Northern Arizona and Southern Utah. EASTERN CONFERENCE- Idaho State, Weber State, Montana, Montana State, Northern Colorado and North Dakota...)
4. Regarding the conference schedule, when Idaho comes back, she said "nothing is finalized but it appears we'll go to a 16 game conference schedule." She cautioned however that they are also looking at 18 and 20 game conference options. Said individual schools will vote on what they want to do when it's time. 16 conference games in two divisions gives a 'balanced' schedule and also gives schools more non-conference options including money games for those that need it in my opinion.
5. Regarding who currently makes the schedules? Looks like we finally have an answer. She said Ron Loughery of the Big Sky Conference does some of it but the bulk of it is done by an individual hired by the conference. He does it at home on his computer and submits it to the Big Sky for final approval. The individual also does the schedules for the NBA and the NHL! She didn't say how much, if any, input the individual schools have but it looks like they have some.
6. Regarding the upcoming 50th anniversary celebration for the Big Sky Conference. She said the idea originated with Tanner Gooch of the front office. The initial list of nominees was compiled completely by members of the front office of the Big Sky. She admitted that because a lot of the front office wasn't around for a long time, that they could have missed some candidates (Natalie Doma...cough, cough.) She said that's why those invited to participate have the "write-in" option. She said that in women's basketball for example, number of MVP awards and number of All-Conference honors played a large factor. They did that so that the initial list for the committee members voting around the conference wasn't 250 men's names long for example, that had to be reduced to 50 and so forth.
She said the athletes that make the all time list will be released, starting with the upcoming football season, in parts, by sport, over the next year. When all the names are released, all those athletes will be invited to SLC for the Big Sky's anniversary party.
PBP
1. Megan said the four new schools to the conference have brought a lot, especially in football. It's more work for everyone but well worth it.
2. Megan said that regarding Idaho / football / Big Sky the conference is "very happy right now" with 13 members. She said there is no deadline, no timetable towards Idaho regarding the conference. No, 'you have X number of years to come back or else we'll look elsewhere for a 14th member." Said she understands why Idaho would want to explore options.
3. Regarding Idaho rejoining in basketball. Said the conference has decided to go to two, six teams divisions along a west / east axis when Idaho returns in 2014. Said conference will "try to preserve rivalries as much as possible." (Pure speculation on my part but based on the conferences parameters you could see something like this: WESTERN CONFERENCE- Eastern Washington, Idaho, Portland State, Sacramento State, Northern Arizona and Southern Utah. EASTERN CONFERENCE- Idaho State, Weber State, Montana, Montana State, Northern Colorado and North Dakota...)
4. Regarding the conference schedule, when Idaho comes back, she said "nothing is finalized but it appears we'll go to a 16 game conference schedule." She cautioned however that they are also looking at 18 and 20 game conference options. Said individual schools will vote on what they want to do when it's time. 16 conference games in two divisions gives a 'balanced' schedule and also gives schools more non-conference options including money games for those that need it in my opinion.
5. Regarding who currently makes the schedules? Looks like we finally have an answer. She said Ron Loughery of the Big Sky Conference does some of it but the bulk of it is done by an individual hired by the conference. He does it at home on his computer and submits it to the Big Sky for final approval. The individual also does the schedules for the NBA and the NHL! She didn't say how much, if any, input the individual schools have but it looks like they have some.
6. Regarding the upcoming 50th anniversary celebration for the Big Sky Conference. She said the idea originated with Tanner Gooch of the front office. The initial list of nominees was compiled completely by members of the front office of the Big Sky. She admitted that because a lot of the front office wasn't around for a long time, that they could have missed some candidates (Natalie Doma...cough, cough.) She said that's why those invited to participate have the "write-in" option. She said that in women's basketball for example, number of MVP awards and number of All-Conference honors played a large factor. They did that so that the initial list for the committee members voting around the conference wasn't 250 men's names long for example, that had to be reduced to 50 and so forth.
She said the athletes that make the all time list will be released, starting with the upcoming football season, in parts, by sport, over the next year. When all the names are released, all those athletes will be invited to SLC for the Big Sky's anniversary party.
PBP
