Big Sky Expansion News...Update

Big Sky adds Southern Utah...and the University of North Dakota...It is official!

The Thunderbirds are a natural fit for the conference and some will argue that the Big Sky was foolish to choose Northern Colorado over SUU years ago.  They have two natural rivals in the BSC.  The first is in-state rival Weber State, nestled in the hub of Northern Utah.  In addition, they have a rivalry with their Painted Desert border buddy Northern Arizona.  It also adds another point to the Big Sky Compass, who can add Southern Utah to Eastern Washington, Northern Colorado, and Northern Arizona.  (mmm...too bad Western Washington dropped football.)

It is also official, as announced this afternoon, that North Dakota is also a member of the Big Sky Conference.  North Dakota will be a natural travel partner for Northern Colorado as both were once members of the same conference in Division II.  The Fighting Sioux have been a consistent growth program since moving up to the FCS in the last decade.  A move to the Big Sky Conference will give North Dakota the opportunity to have all of their sports programs in the same conference and to build other natural geographical rivalries with the neighboring state of Montana.

This will be official next season as the Great West Conference will no longer sponsor football.  As it now stands, the Big Sky will be at 13 programs for football and 11 full time institutions.  The details about how the divisions will divide will come later. 

Maybe a 14th program will come later this week, or maybe an existing program, namely Montana, will be lost to the WAC.  I have found nothing from a reliable source that confirms that Montana is WAC bound or is staying.  If you perform a twitter search you are likely to find just as much information on either camp.

However, let me speculate that with North Dakota on board, a north/south division seems more likely

North Division
Eastern Washington
Montana
Montana State
North Dakota
Northern Colorado
Portland State

South Division
Cal Davis
Cal Poly
Idaho State
Northern Arizona
Sacramento State
Southern Utah
Weber State

If Montana leaves, then Idaho State moves to the North.