RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesJul. 30—The Big Sky Conference made official its additions of Southern Utah and Utah Tech this month, in time for the two universities' football programs to take part in the league's annual football kickoff weekend at Northern Quest Resort and Casino in Airway Heights.
Coaches at both programs articulated the various benefits that the Thunderbirds and Trailblazers expect to reap, while coaches and officials from across the Big Sky described the move as a fortification of the league's status as the best in the FCS.
Having 13 teams isn't new to the Big Sky; it carried that many from 2012 to 2021, albeit not these same 13 teams. And Eastern Washington and Idaho are minimally impacted by the specific addition of Southern Utah and Utah Tech.
But by swelling to 13, the Big Sky has swallowed up every remaining scholarship FCS program within its geographic footprint, and the effect of that will ripple through its other, more tenured 11 programs.
"I thought it would be a great move for our entire athletic department, and it has been," Utah Tech head football coach Lance Anderson said. "... I just think this is a much better geographic fit for us."
Utah Tech, known until 2022 as Dixie State, has only been playing Division I college football since 2020. It played that season, in the spring of 2021, as an independent program and then joined the Western Athletic Conference in 2021. That league merged with the United Athletic Conference in 2023.
But the teams from the UAC didn't do much for the Utah Tech fanbase, Anderson said.
"We're going to be playing Southern Utah and Weber State every year. (There is also) Idaho State, the Montana schools," Anderson said. "I think a lot of our fanbase can relate to a lot of the schools in the Big Sky, maybe more so than they could a West Georgia, or an Austin Peay or a Central Arkansas."
Utah Tech — which will host Eastern Washington on Nov. 14 — wasn't particularly competitive in either of its previous conferences. Its best year came in 2022 in the WAC, when Utah Tech went 4-7 overall and 2-2 in league play. It went 2-10 last year, 1-7 in the UAC.
"I understand we've got a lot of work to do to get caught up with some of the programs in the league," Anderson said, "but this is really the standard for FCS football, the Big Sky."
Southern Utah has a history of success not just at the FCS level but as a Big Sky member from 2012 to 2021. It won the league in 2017 and 2015, and it reached the playoffs in 2013.
Ed Lamb, now Northern Colorado's head coach, was Southern Utah's head coach in two of those playoff seasons during his eight-year run with the Thunderbirds from 2008 to 2015. He said he still has a home in Cedar City.
"I think it's huge for the conference," Lamb said on Monday. "Both of those schools have a long runway and a lot of upside. Southern Utah has established themselves at this level of football and have shown to be a strong program. They're in the hunt for the playoffs every year. Utah Tech is brand new to the game, so they're building, but I think they've got a lot of potential."
Southern Utah finished 7-5 overall last year and 6-2 in the UAC, but after a third-place finish in that conference, it wasn't selected for the 32-team FCS playoff field.
The third-place team in the Big Sky, on the other hand, has reached the playoffs in every non-COVID season since 2011.
Not only is the league's pedigree a boost to Southern Utah's postseason chances, the move is financially advantageous, Thunderbirds head coach DeLane Fitzgerald said.
"Here's a big difference for us: We were only able to drive to Utah Tech the last several years," Fitzgerald said. "Now we can drive to Northern Arizona, drive to Weber (State), drive to Idaho State. So the teams did get a lot closer, and it's going to be a little more cost effective for us."
'Some oddity' in the math
Adding two teams to replace one — Sacramento State, which left to join the FBS Mid-American Conference — does get tricky, though, in scheduling.
After only allowing FCS teams to play 12-game schedules in certain years where the weekends fell right within the calendar, approximately twice in every seven seasons, the NCAA is now allowing 12-game schedules every season. The Big Sky's response to that was to add a ninth conference game and to play that game in what's called "Week 0" on Aug. 28 or 29.
Back when it previously had 13 teams, the Big Sky played only eight conference games, which made ties atop the standings — such as in 2016 when Eastern Washington and North Dakota both finished 8-0 — mathematically more likely. Playing nine conference games makes ties less so. It also makes it so that Big Sky teams need to schedule three nonconference games, just as they did in an 11-game schedule.
But playing an odd number of games between an odd number of teams is impossible to do equally, so Utah Tech and Southern Utah's membership in the Big Sky comes with a caveat: Each season, one of the two will only play eight league games.
"Naturally, that's going to create some oddity," said Big Sky Deputy Commissioner Dan Satter, who is in charge of the league's scheduling.
Another challenge Satter faced was that Utah Tech and Southern Utah had close to 40 games already scheduled, as nonconference games, against Big Sky schools.
One advantage of those programs previously not being in the Big Sky was that they were easy candidates for nonleague games. Utah Tech, for example, played three Big Sky teams each of the last four seasons.
So, while the new Utah schools make for more bus rides on the schedules of Weber State and Northern Arizona, now those teams will need to look farther afield for nonleague games.
"It's a little bit of a double-edged sword," NAU head coach ...
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