Back in May 2019, the Big Sky Conference announced its complete league football schedule for all teams through 2023, just in case you made hotel reservations for an Aggie away game in Ogden, Pocatello, Flagstaff, Greeley, Moscow, Missoula, Bozeman, Cheney , San Luis Obispo, Cedar City or Portland. Or even Sacramento.
Since then, however, the 2020 schedule has been completely canceled due to COVID, a ragged spring 2021 season had five teams refusing to play at all and a sixth knockout after three games, and southern Utah announced that this would be soon when ” Former “member of North Dakota join.
When the season ends in Fall 2021 – if it plays as expected – the Big Sky will be reduced from its previous high of 14 to 12 teams.
“As a result,” said the league stage in a press release, “the previously published planning format for the seasons 2021 to 2023 has been canceled.”
Strong words from a proud conference.
In other words, it’s back to the drawing board, and the fall 2021 schedule is the only one left in place.
Well, I’m one of those college football fans who don’t like co-championships. I want a clear winner at the top of the table.
I also believe that when college football teams start conference games, there should be a level playing field, which means everyone is playing on the same schedule.
Unfortunately, the Big Sky Conference, in which UC Davis only participates in football, still has so many members that it’s impossible for everyone to play against everyone in the same season. Unless you have played 11 league games and no games without a conference.
With 12 members, each team will play eight league games, which means you will miss three teams in total in any given year. Depending on who these three are, the success of a team can make all the difference.
In addition, each team has two so-called “rivals” who will all compete on their eight-game schedule every year.
In the Aggies rivals are Cal Poly and Sac State. This system guarantees inequality because your rivals are not the same as any other team’s rivals.
The schedule changes every year, so you won’t play the same eight teams every season, with the exception of your two rivals. All of this corresponds to a top-secret formula hidden in a vault at the base of a mountain near the conference headquarters in Utah.
In comparison, the Aggie basketball team competes in the Big West Conference. Each team in the Big West plays each other team twice; once with you and once with them. That’s about as fair as it can be. It would be unthinkable to play some league teams and not others.
The lack of so many teams in each season has resulted in a large number of co-championships as there is no guarantee that the best teams at the conference will even play against each other.
In 2018, the Aggies shared the Big Sky championship with Weber State and Eastern Washington. The 2019 season featured a two-way championship between Weber State and Sac State.
A few years ago, North Dakota and east Washington shared the crown, both with 8-0 records, proving how pointless the current system is.
If you go undefeated, you should be the undisputed champion for my money. Unfortunately, North Dakota was not on East Washington’s schedule.
In 2019, the Aggies pulled the sharp end of the stick and played against each of Big Sky’s FCS playoff teams in Weber State, Sacramento State, Montana and Montana State. These are not sour grapes, it’s just a fact.
Another year they’ll shuffle the deck and you could be playing against four bottom residents and not a single top team.
This fall, the Aggies are playing street games in Weber State, Idaho State, Cal Poly, and Northern Arizona. Home games welcome Idaho, Northern Colorado, Eastern Washington, and Sac State.
It’s not that the current formula intentionally favors or disapproves of certain teams, it’s just that it guarantees an inequality of planning every single season.
Some of the league’s coaches spoke out on the matter some time ago in an article by Bozeman Chronicle sports editor Colton Pool.
“It has to be repaired,” said Montana head coach Bobby Hauck.
“Everyone has to play against everyone somehow. The idea that not everyone plays everyone against everyone, we don’t really have a conference champion. It’s a mythical conference champion. “
Montana State head coach at the time, Jeff Choate, said, “I think we need to look carefully at the benefits of having a large conference in a playoff division. My personal feeling, and I’ll probably get in trouble if I say it, I don’t think it’s wise. “
Weber State Head Coach Jay Hill, whose team has shared or won the last four titles, added, “There are 13 teams (for now) and they’re all really great and deserve to be here, but the reality is me dislikes that We don’t play against everyone every year. It is difficult. I hate that. “
Trust me, Coach Hill, there are a number of Big Sky teams that are happy not to have to face Weber State every year.
Solutions are not easy.
I suppose the league could expand to 14 teams and split into two divisions, with a championship playoff between the two division winners.
That wouldn’t guarantee you would play against everyone in the entire league, but at least you would play against everyone in your division.
Of course you would have to start the season a week earlier so that the championship game doesn’t conflict with the start of the FCS playoffs. You may also need an NCAA waiver to start earlier and allow the two division winners an extra game.
The current system is frustrating for fans and participants alike. And it’s absolutely unfair to the teams involved.
It has to be changed.
– Reach Bob Dunning at [email protected].
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