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Move from the Big Sky

C

ChiCity

Active member
This makes a whole lot of sense.

North Dakota: The football program is finalizing a move from the Big Sky to the Missouri Valley Conference, according to the Billings Gazette, which adds the plan is to play in the Big Sky in 2017, followed by two years as an affiliate member and then move to the Missouri Valley in 2020.
 
ND Football isn't the problem. The BSC should not allow ND's other sports to stay when football leaves, that's' where the travel expense is. Maybe ND can put their other sports wherever the rest of the Dakota's are. They should have been there in the first place.
 
I think UND's Olympic sports are planning to head to the Summit League. Once UND is fully out of the conference, it will provide a huge travel relief.
 
good news.

always been so crazy to send all our sports teams half way across the country to play this school.

Our travel budget is huge enough with the conference we are stuck in.

Still hope someday for us to be in the Big Sky for football only and the Big West for all other sports but we got to get the Event Center built and more for that to perhaps be a possibility.

Would like to have the same deal as Davis and Cal Poly has.

We have everything in common with Davis and Cal Poly and all the schools in the Big West and nothing in common with the Big Sky schools.
 
UND is going Summit in 18-19. Good common sense move for everyone involved. The UND BSC add made no sense once USD backed out.

Meanwhile the BWC is set to add UCSD this spring and the WAC just added Cal Baptist (CBU) who will start their D1 transition with the WAC in 18-19 which will put that conference at 4 members in the pacific time zone. Both conferences would substantially reduce our travel budget and further reduce the strain on our student athlete academic needs...something for Nelsen and our future AD to ponder on.
 
thanks for the updates SD. Very interesting about UCSD and CBU moving up.

Can u share your insights about our ability to leave the Big Sky in our sports under the Big Sky (except for football) like Cal Poly and Davis?)

Recall discussion about this topic in the past where it was believed that the Big Sky would not let us leave because the Big Sky wanted a school in CA for for recruiting, brand, marketing , etc. Assume that mostly means football which the Big Sky would still have. Recall the game against Montana State at home this years when our announcers said that MSU had 24 players from CA.

Seems that the Big Sky would still have what they wanted if we remained in football but nothing much would change if we left in all the other sports currently in the Big Sky for us.

Just curious about why Sac State could not do what is best for Sac State and what is preventing us from doing that. Appears that UND came to the Big Sky a few years ago and is now leaving. What have they done and are doing that we cannot as well.
 
Super Hornet said:
Why would leaving the Big Sky be "what's best" for Sac State? Sac has a history of dominating the Big Sky in volleyball, and could return to that pre-eminence fairly soon. And you might want to check THIS out....

http://www.bigskyconf.com/news/2017/1/18/ITF_0118172608.aspx

#1 and #3 in the conference ain't too shabby. And we have people that want to leave?!? SMH.
Click to expand...

SH, I'm a track and field guy, I've have coached high school track for over 30 years. The track and field program has done a great job over the years of representing Sac State. It's great when any of our programs are successful but it has nothing to do with which League alignment is most beneficial for the entire program.

The Big Sky has limited sports, requiring us to spread our 21 sports into several leagues. Unlike California schools most Big Sky members have limited sports. The travel is obviously
much more expensive in the Big Sky than it would be in the Big West.

Finally competing against recognizable California opponents would build interest in the entire athletic program. Consider Men's Soccer in the Big West, it's a big deal when UCSB, Cal Poly etc. play in town.
Unlike the Big Sky schools locals actually have a connection with the Big West schools. I doubt that most people in Sacramento/ California could even tell you where Weber State is located.

If we were offered the opportunity to get the Big Sky/ Big West deal that the dungpile and Poly have we would be crazy not to take it.
 
Yep, staying in the Big Sky is fine.

Just think the Big West is better if we ever got that chance as has been discussed and agreed upon on this board over the years.

And Davis would have a travel partner and the Big West would have two schools in Northern California

And Davis and Sac would be conference rivals in nearly all sports, not just football.

And I really wonder if the Big Sky would miss us if we remained in football but left in all the other sports? We truly have no rivals in the Big Sky except football with Poly and Davis, which would remain. There is nothing about a California school that has any significance in the Big Sky footprint. Nothing about a school in the California Central Valley conjures up thoughts about the Big Sky country.
 
JP: You make a good point about Sac and Davis being travel partners and conference rivals in the Big West. Also, some of the sports BSC does not sponsor are also not sponsored in the Big West (i.e. gymnastics), so those don't really enter into the conversation.

My big objection to your post lies in the last paragraph. While the entire BSC might not "miss" us, certain individual schools like Portland State and Weber State would. We've developed extensive rivalries with them over the years across the sports spectrum. For most sports, the level of difficulty between the BSC and BWC are roughly the same, but with the BSC having a much more regional footprint, I still think we get a more national recognition there than we would in the BWC. And one also has to factor in the fact that the BWC has already kicked us out in certain minor sports. The general feeling I get is that the BWC just plain doesn't want us, for whatever reason. SD might have something to refute that as he's generally got a much closer feel of the "pulse" of things than I do, but that's how I see things....
 
good to hear that Portland State and Weber State have perhaps become rivals with Sac State like a UC Davis or Cal Poly. Any news on this front is positive.
 
See in basketball that we drew 916 against our rival Portland State at Hornet Gym and then 908 against our Weber State rival who is the best in basketball this year and most years in the Big Sky Conference. Portland State a couple weeks ago and Weber a couple nights ago. Both Hornet victories.

Also see tonight that UC Davis of the Big West drew 2,607 at home against UC Riverside on the men's side following a Big West Conference game against UC Irvine in Davis as well.

Big West/Big Sky
 
There are many Big West fans who agree Davis needs a natural travel partner up north. Hawaii can be rotated among the SoCal Schools.

That being said, there are a number of Big West fans that wish the Big West would expand geographically. I just don't see it happening with the UC and CSU politics at play.
 
yep their are those politics.

Just happened to stumble on the UC Davis /Long Beach State (one of 4 CSU schools in the Big West) on ESPN HD yesterday. 5,873 in attendance at Davis and the Agggies win in overtime.

The rival from across the Causeway really has their program rolling.
 
And UC Davis also continues to roll in the Causeway Cup.

Other then a tie in women's soccer and one win in the two match ups in men' soccer Sac State has lost to the Aggies in

Cross Country
Football
Men's basketball
Women's basketball
Volleyball
Gymnastics
Men's tennis
Women's tennis
Softball
and perhaps another sport that I am forgetting.

in the 2016-17 competition .

Can't recall a year like this.

So the 2016-17 Causeway Cup has already been captured by Davis in a run away .

And now it has been years since Sac won the Cup and
this year was not even competitive like the past few years where we lost it as well by a game here or there.

What has happened?

Sac State has hit rock bottom in the Causeway Cup competition so there is no where to go then up from here.

And there is always next year.
 
Wow . The Aggies go down by 30 points to IC Irvine in the Big Est regular season title game. That is pretty bad. Davis seemed to be ripping it up in the big West. Wonder what happened. oh well.
 
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