Is the University of Idaho coming to the Big Sky Conference?
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Last week, it was announced that the University of Idaho will soon be searching for a new conference. The Sun Belt Conference, the Football Bowl Subdivision (“FBS”) conference where Idaho has played since 2014, said they will part ways with the Vandals and New Mexico State after the 2017 season.
This leaves the University of Idaho with two options: (1) play as an Independent in the FBS (like Norte Dame) or (2) make the move down to the Football Championship Subdivision (“FCS”) and rejoin the Big Sky Conference.
The second option caught our attention, and we posed a few questions to the Montana Mint Sports team: Should the Big Sky Conference take on Idaho? How well would Idaho compete in the Big Sky? Would the Big Sky have to realign and form two divisions? And, most importantly, could this give us a 2nd Cat/Griz during the football season.
Their answers, including a discussion on how this could result in a second Cat/Griz game is below.
Should the Big Sky Conference take on Idaho?
Hot Take Nate (Cats fan): Definitely. Getting Idaho football into the Big Sky Conference makes so much sense. They are already in the Big Sky for basketball, they will never compete at the FBS level in football, and it reinstates one of the original members of the Big Sky Conference (Idaho was a member from 1963-1995).
Clarence Toole (Griz fan): The better question is will Idaho want to drop down? They stand to lose a lot – pride, scholarships, and TV revenue. The school doesn’t give two shits about the scholarships, but the TV revenue is a big deal. Campuses across the US – even prestigious ones – are suffering financially. Football is a cash cow and it’s hard to voluntarily slice money out of your budget.
Hot Take Nate (Cats fan): It’s not like Idaho WANTS to make this move. Their conference dropped them and they’d have to be independent if another conference didn’t want to pick up their bottom feeding football program. I don’t see a conference wanting to take them.
Clarence Toole (Griz fan): I feel bad for Idaho. I’ve been dumped before and it blows. Idaho is getting dumped and it’s national news. That’s gotta sting. Worse than that, they’re getting dumped for being who they were the whole time! When the Idaho and The Sun Belt started dating, she already knew Idaho was a little soft around the middle, watched tons of sports, drank a little too much, and snored at night. SHE SHOULD HAVE NEVER ASKED ME OUT IN THE FIRST PLACE! Oooo…Not me… I meant, Idaho. Listen, it’s just a cruel world, man.
Bear Tycoon (Griz fan): The financial hit might not be as bad as you think. The Idaho Statesman reports that the school will receive $1.9 million in shared revenue from the Sun Belt Conference this year, compared to the $600k they’d likely receive from the Big Sky. But it’s not a decision between the Sun Belt and the Big Sky, they are choosing between the Big Sky and playing as an independent in the FBS. They tried being an independent in 2013, and only received $834k in NCAA revenue. Unless another FBS conference steps up and makes them an offer (which seems unlikely), Idaho’s decision will factor in a difference of thousands of dollars, not millions.
Coach (Cats fan): What a slap in Idaho’s once prestigious face!
What happened to Idaho is exactly what would have happened to UM or MSU had they jumped up when all of the re-aligning went on a few years back. I guess we can take them back. Will their players jump ship or be allowed to transfer without penalty? If their players don’t jump ship and dominate in the Big Sky that first year, I’m not sure that is fair.
Bear Tycoon (Griz fan): But would they dominate in the Big Sky? That’s an open question we should discuss.
Would Idaho dominate the Big Sky?
Bear Tycoon (Griz fan): I’m not convinced Idaho would dominate in the Big Sky. Over the past three seasons in the FBS, they’ve put together a record of 6-29, and this is playing in a Conference that has schools I legit have never heard of. Did you know Southern Alabama University has an FBS football program? Neither did I. Guess what, the Southern Alabama Jaguars are 2-0 against Idaho since they joined the Sun Belt.
FBS football is on the whole unquestionably tougher than the FCS game. But does that mean one of the worst FBS programs would become one of the best FCS programs? Doubtful. Over the past 14 seasons, Idaho has played 9 games against teams currently in the Big Sky Conference. Their record in those games is an underwhelming 5-4, despite having home field advantage in 8 out of the 9 games! Here is the list:
2012 vs. Eastern Washington – L 3-20
2011 vs. North Dakota – W 44-14
2010 vs. North Dakota – W 45-0
2008 vs. Idaho State – W 42-27
2007 vs. Cal Poly – W 20-13
2006 vs. Idaho State – W 27-24
2003 vs Eastern Washington – L 8-5
2003 at Montana – L 41-28
2002 vs. Montana – L 38-31
Yes, they had a winning record. Yes, they had some big wins. But 5-4 is not fear inducing.
Lastly, part of the fun of playing in the Football Bowl Subdivision is that sometimes your team makes a bowl game and you have an excuse to travel to an exotic location to cheer them on. Over the past 20 seasons in the FBS, Idaho has made exactly two of bowl games: the 1998 Humanitarian Bowl (where the Vandals beat Southern Miss) and the 2009 Humanitarian Bowl (where the Vandals beat Bowling Green). And guess what – the Humanitarian Bowl is played IN BOISE IDAHO! That’s just a quick (and likely very sad) five hour bus ride away.
Hot Take Nate (Cats fan): Well, the Cats open up at Idaho this season, so I guess we’ll get a glimpse of what might be to come.
If Idaho dropped down, would the Big Sky need to realign and form two divisions?
Hot Take Nate (Cats fan): Most likely yes. If Idaho joined the Big Sky, we would have 14 Big Sky schools. Here is where they are located on the map:
This would mean two seven team divisions, everyone playing 6 division games, and then a conference championship game to decide the Big Sky automatic bid to the playoffs. No more schedules where at the end of the year we need to tie break everything to see who gets the bid and no more shares of conference titles. No more sharing. Sharing is stupid.
So how would we set up the divisions? Geographically? Evenly based on the history and past success of teams? Do we need to make sure rivalry games are played each year?
Here’s my initial take: You have to keep the main rivalry games within the divisions. This means MSU and UM are together, UC Davis and Sac State are together, and Idaho and Idaho State are together. Is Weber State and Southern Utah a rivalry game?
Coach (Cats fan): If you split it up geographically, the divisions would looks something like this: Division A: MSU, UM, EWU, ISU, UI, UND, and PSU. Division B: Northern Colorado, Sac. St., Cal Poly, UC Davis, NAU, Weber st., So. Utah.
I think what would be more fun is if we split up one team from each region so that UM and MSU could potentially play for a conference title. That could look like this…Division A: MSU, ISU, EWU, Weber St., Sac. St, NAU, Northern Colorado. Division B: UM, UI, PSU, So. Utah, Cal Poly, UC Davis, and North Dakota.
Hot Take Nate (Cats fan): Yeah, let’s separate the Cats and Griz so that they MIGHT play each year. I’m sure that would go over really well. “Hey everyone, we know Cat/Griz is kind of a big deal in your state and it’s one of the longest running rivalries in the nation BUT we’re going to split them up.” Good call, Coach!!!!
I have issues with your initial groupings too. I just don’t think you can have Cats, Griz, and EWU all in the same division. Too top heavy right now. My divisions would be – Division A: MSU, UM, ID, ISU, ND, UNC, NoAZ. Division B: EWU, Davis, Sac St, Weber, So Utah, Poly, PSU
They line up pretty well geographically and are evenly built. All rivalry games are still intact, too. Also, now-a-days geography doesn’t matter as much. It used to when everyone would bus everywhere but they fly now – geography is a non-issue in my mind.
I don’t get why we would ever put UM and MSU in different divisions.
Coach (Cats fan): Who says that members of the two divisions can’t play non-conference games against each other?
Wait, does that mean we could potentially get two Cat/Griz games a year?
Bear Tycoon (Griz fan): Yes. Yes it does. For this reason I’m supportive of putting UM/MSU in different divisions.
A seven team division would only eat up 6 games in your schedule. In 2015, UM played 11 total regular season games, of which 9 were against Big Sky Conference teams. Let’s assume the Big Sky can convince the FCS to tweak their current rules on Conference Championship games, and that going forward Big Sky teams only schedule 10 games to allow for the Conference Championship. Their schedule could be: 6 division games, 1 rivalry game (Cat/Griz), 1 non-division BSC game, 2 nonconference games.
Regular season Cat/Griz would move to earlier in the year before division play started (late September) and the Conference Championship would move to the weekend traditionally held for Cat/Griz. The bonus would be that every few years we get a SECOND Cat/Griz game (when both teams win their divisions).
Moving Cat/Griz to September would be weird, but worth it, in my opinion, if it adds the possibility of a second high stakes game.
Clarence Toole (Griz fan): I like everything you said about that, and I LOVE the idea of a 2nd Cat/Griz game. Additionally, in a magical and perfect world, both Griz and Cats make the playoffs and meet in the National Championship. So a 3rd Cat/Griz in one season!
Hot Take Nate (Cats fan): Still think it’s a horrible idea. Ohio State/Michigan? Same division. Florida/Florida state? Same division.
Good luck trying to convince the state of Montana that it’s a good idea. Two Cat Griz games in a season (besides playoffs) dilutes the game. You can’t have 4th of July multiple times – that’s why it’s awesome – it comes once a year and it’s an amazing holiday.
Bear Tycoon (Griz fan): Uhhhh…how’s this? “Hey Montana, you know how much fun Cat/Griz weekend is? What if every few years we got to do it twice?” Not only would people buy that argument, but they’d probably elect me as Governor after I presented it.
Clarence Toole (Griz fan): And it’s not likely to dilute the game because the Cats are so infrequently the 1st or 2nd best team in the conference.
Z-Train (Griz fan): Zing! People would definitely go for this. GFHS fans LOVE when CMR and GFHS meet in AA football playoffs. We loved it as players. They had to move in extra stands to accommodate crowds. An all Montana Big Sky Conference championship game would make the state explode. It would be way more satisfying than a three-way tie.
And I don’t think this would necessarily mean changing its timing in the season. Why couldn’t it still be the end of the season?
Bear Tycoon (Griz fan): Great point. Imagine if it is the last regular season game, and then they meet the next week in the conference championship! My head would implode.
Hot Take Nate (Cats fan): Maybe I’m being selfish – I physically wouldn’t be able to handle two straight weekends of Cat Griz – there’s no way. The second one would be diluted. Think about it: It’s like going on a vacation with your friends or to a wedding weekend. The first night you are so happy to see each other that you black out. You are hung over the for second day and by the third day you are still kind of hung over and no matter how much you drink you can’t get as drunk as the first night. This happens almost every single time.
This is what would happen with two Cat Griz in a row – we’d have a BLAST the first game and then the next weekend we’d be worthless and I’d be hungover.
Is two Cat/Griz games a good idea? Montana seems torn over the idea. Vote in the twitter poll below
would u support moving Cat/Griz to September if it meant a potential 2nd Cat/Griz game for a Conf championship?
— Montana Mint (@montana_mint) March 5, 2016
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