Proposal for the Big Sky Conference

With New Mexico State and Idaho closer to accepting relegation, perhaps it is time for the Big Sky Conference to consider its options.  And the WAC finally kicking the bucket opens up a possibility.  And one options I think they should consider is splitting.  There is always the talk of how cool a conference championship game would be.  But at the FCS level, you do not get extra credit for being super large.  The BSC will have one and only one automatic NCAA bid whether the conference is at 20 members or 7.  The other problem is that conference members will have a harder time finding quality non-conference that they can travel to with a super-large conference.  Super Conferences aren't always the best solution.

Therefore, I suggest that the conference split once formally joined by Idaho and New Mexico State for football.  It can be a football-only split, as some members of the conference are football-only schools.

Big Sky Conference

Eastern Washington
Idaho
Idaho State
Montana
Montana State
North Dakota
Portland State
Weber State


Western Rivers Conference

Cal Poly (Football Only)
UC Davis (Football Only)
San Diego  (Football Only)
Dixie State
Northern Arizona
Northern Colorado
New Mexico State
Sacramento State
Southern Utah
Seattle (Non Football)
CSU Bakersfield (Non Football)
Utah Valley (Non Football)
Grand Canyon (Non Football)


This is what I have done.  The Original 5 members of the BSC make up the new BSC, rounded out by EWU, PSU and UND.  There is unity.  These are all public schools and with the exception of UND in place of Sacramento State, have been in the same conference for decades.

The new WRC, has the football only schools, put San Diego University, an outlier of the Pioneer conference.  but has 5 football schools as a base with the inclusion of DSU and NMSU for football.  There are the 4 other remnants from the non-football WAC joining the full-time schools for basketball and the so-called Olympic Sports.

The benefits will be a new conference and a second automatic bid to the NCAA football tournament and basketball tournament, etc.  And there will be help with scheduling.  And it team that finishes 8-3 will not be 5th in the conference.

Think about it.  A Big Sky is good, but a really big sky, not so much.