I’m going to try and knock out two of these every day through December 10. I’ll be going through each division alphabetically, but I’ve arranged my output schedule to balance the divisions out somewhat (in other words, I’m not doing all the FCS conferences first then moving on to Division II). The conferences which play football are going first, and should be wrapped up by mid-November; then I’ll hit the hoops-only leagues.
There will be a lot of basic info in these abstracts which you can get anywhere (Wikipedia represent!, I guess). But I’ll be trying to limit that information to what’s needed to convey the flavor of each conference. I’ll touch on the intriguing parts of their histories, give you an idea how successful they’ve been in the post-season, discuss unique challenges facing them, and attempt to pinpoint key rivalries and whatnot. For leagues which sponsor both football and basketball, I’ll discuss both — with the exception of the FCS leagues, because when it comes to basketball they’re no different than the FBS leagues and thus they’re beyond the scope of what I’m trying to do here.
And so, we begin our 57-day-long (fingers crossed) journey in the Rockies and beyond with the Big Sky Conference.
Members: Eastern Washington Eagles, Idaho State Bengals, Montana Grizzlies, Montana State Bobcats, Northern Arizona Lumberjacks, Northern Colorado Bears, Portland State Vikings, Sacramento State Hornets, Weber State Wildcats.
The Big Sky has become somewhat of a migratory transfer point in recent years, although not nearly to the extent of many other minor conferences. (This theme will be revisited as we work our way through the landscape.) Boise State, Idaho, and Nevada are all former Big Sky members, and if Karl Benson has his way Montana will be joining that list very soon.
As with all conferences which begin to fall into this pattern, the Big Sky has been catching teams on the way up just as it loses teams reaching for greater heights; Sacramento State, Portland State, Northern Colorado, and Cal-Davis (joining in 2013) all moved up from Division II in the last 20 years. Cal Poly-SLO (also joining in 2013) is a long-time FCS school, but has been “trapped” in the Great West for some time, and sought out affiliation with the BSC as a means to access an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs. Other schools have also had conversations with the conference, notably the Dakota schools, who in the end turned their eyes to the east. It seems to be almost inevitable that Southern Utah will eventually join (and they’ve been expressing an interest in doing so for years), since they’ll be the team left out when the Great West closes up shop. They’re a good fit, but you know how these things sometimes work.
But that’s the future. Let’s talk about the past and present.
The conference started play in 1963. Its original members had formerly been affiliated with the conferences which are now the Pac-10 (Idaho and Montana, believe it or don’t) and the WAC. The conference steadily grew through the ’80s before teams started getting loftier ambitions; in its first thirty years of existence, only one team left the conference (charter member Gonzaga, in 1979, and it had long been just a basketball school by this time).
Roughly one-third (15) of the 47 seasons of the league’s existence saw champions crowned who are no longer with the conference (Boise State six times, Idaho five, and Nevada four). Idaho also shared three titles with teams still in the league. Even with the defections, however, the king of the conference has been Montana; the Grizzlies have won thirteen titles outright, and shared another five. Montana State checks in behind them with seven and five. Sacramento, Portland, and Northern Colorado have yet to finish atop the standings, and Weber State has shared three crowns but never won one outright.
As you may imagine, both from the above information and from their presence in the same state, the Montana-Montana State rivalry is the most heated in the conference. They meet annually in the “Brawl of the Wild” for the Great Divide Trophy; Montana holds a 69-35-5 edge in the series. Eastern Washington and Montana also play for a trophy, the Governors Cup. Really, everyone hates Montana for obvious domination reasons, but these are the biggies; Montana also used to have an extremely heated rivalry with Idaho before the Vandals moved to FBS. Idaho State and Weber State have a rivalry, as do the Northwestern campuses of EWU and Portland State.
The Big Sky has sent 12 teams to the I-AA/FCS title game in that game’s 33-year history, winning five titles (Montana twice, plus Boise State, Idaho State, and Montana State). The seven losing appearances were by Nevada, Boise, and Montana; the Grizzlies have appeared in seven title contests overall, losing five including in 2008 and 2009. Overall, conference teams have made 61 appearances in the playoffs (1.9 teams per season average), accumulating a combined record of 65-56 (.537). Montana State also won the 1976 Division II championship, prior to the league moving back up to Division I. The only FCS conferences with winning records against Big Sky opponents are the SoCon (understandable), the Pioneer (say what?), and the SWAC (you’re kidding me — although there have only been three SWAC/Big Sky meetings, ever). The Big Sky actually has a .500 record against an FBS conference; they’re 1-1-1 against the Big East, with a win over UConn, a loss to West Virginia (both against Eastern Washington), and a tie with Syracuse (Montana). Of course, that was back in 1915…
TIDBITS:
Eastern Washington experienced its most sustained success in the mid-2000s with current Washington State head coach Paul Wulff at the helm, achieving three of its six playoff appearances in 2004, 2005, and 2007.
Idaho State has reached the playoffs twice; interestingly, the head coaches for those two appearances were Dave Kragthorpe (’81, Steve’s dad) and Jim Koetter (’83, Dirk’s dad). The most famous former Bengal players are Merrill Hoge and current Viking DE Jared Allen.
Montana has built its long-term success without the benefit of a long-tenured coach who defined the program; Don Read, Mick Dennehy, Joe Glenn, and Bobby Hauck successively led the Grizzlies to 19 playoff appearances, including a current streak of 16 years. Hauck left Montana to take the UNLV job after last season, and was replaced by Robin Pfulgrad. Montana could best be described as a system school; they’ve sent a whole slew of players to the NFL, but Doug Betters is probably the best-known of the bunch. Unless you want to count Marty Mornhinweg.
Montana State was led to three playoffs by former coach Mike Kramer in the mid-’00s. They haven’t been a huge pro pipeline by any means; however, Chiefs Hall of Fame kicker Jan Stenerud was a Bobcat. MSU has also been exploring the possibility of moving to FBS.
Northern Arizona head coach Jerome Souers is the current dean of the Big Sky coaching circle; he’s been at the school since 1998, and has led the ‘Jacks to three playoff appearances. Former Falcons WR Michael Haynes is probably the best-known former Lumberjack.
Northern Colorado was a Division II power, defined by the tenure of Joe Glenn, who led the team to two D-II championships before he departed to take the Montana job. The best-known former Bear is former Chiefs Pro Bowl QB Bill Kenney; more recent contributions to the pros have been Steelers DE Aaron Smith and Chargers WR Vincent Jackson.
Portland State also had success in Division II before moving up, losing back-to-back title games in 1987-88 under Pokey Allen, who moved on to Boise State before tragically succumbing to cancer. (His replacement at Boise was Houston Nutt, setting off the chain of big-name Boise State coaches.) PSU has had several coaches of note; Don Read served there twice before moving on to Montana. Between Read’s stints at Portland, Mouse Davis helmed the program for six years, installing the Run & Shoot with quarterbacks June Jones and Neil Lomax. Jones, of course, went on to perfect the system. Davis also returned to PSU later in his career as offensive coordinator under Jerry Glanville, who was just replaced by Nigel Burton prior to this season. The longest tenure, however, belonged to Tim Walsh, who oversaw the program from 1993-2006. Under Walsh, the Vikings made their only FCS playoff appearance in 2000.
Sacramento State has yet to appear in the FCS playoffs, and only made one appearance in the D-II playoffs (reaching the semifinals in 1988). The Hornets were led for 15 years by Bob Mattos, the only coach in school history with a winning record, but when the school moved up to Division I, Mattos departed. Sac State was one of the teams which made up the short-lived American West Conference from 1993-1995, before joining the Big Sky. Their chief rival is Cal-Davis, so they’re looking forward to the Aggies coming aboard as an associate member.
Weber State has made three playoff appearances, under current UTEP head coach Mike Price in ’87, Dave Arslanian (who moved on to Utah State before leaving coaching) in ’91, and current coach Ron McBride in ’08. McBride came to Weber after being replaced by Urban Meyer following 13 seasons at Utah. The Wildcats’ most notable former player is DL Bob Pollard, who played several seasons for the Saints and Cardinals. Of course, Weber State is best known for having ended North Carolina’s seemingly endless streak of first-round NCAA tournament victories back in 1999.