Big Sky is officially out.

They want to play football in spring 2021, they want other FCS conferences to do the same, and they want the NCAA to hold the FCS playoffs in the spring.

Quote:“This is the right decision for our member institutions, even though we realize how disappointing it will be for all who represent and care about Big Sky football,” Commissioner Tom Wistrcill said. “We will now shift our attention to doing everything within our power to provide our football student-athletes and coaches with a conference schedule and a championship opportunity in the spring. We already have begun actively engaging our fellow FCS conferences and the NCAA to join us then for what will be a unique opportunity to return to competition and compete for an FCS championship.”

https://bigskyconf.com/news/2020/8/7/big...pring.aspx

So a spring schedule means a devastating injury costs a player 2 seasons of play. Brilliant.

Just cancel the entire 2020/spring 2021 season and don't count the season against eligibility. Yeah there will be a recruiting log jam for a few years but that can be figured out by each individual program.

For the record they should have kept 2020 as is and just toughed it out (or expanded BSC play to 10 games). No one will ever be 100% safe from the China Virus so doing this in the name of "safety" is absurd and shows a complete lack of leadership.

Biggest question right now is will FCS teams be allowed to play non conference payday games in the fall? I don't see how.

(08-07-2020 12:16 AM)Hammersmith Wrote:  

(08-06-2020 10:43 PM)nickp Wrote:  I’m all for FCS football to move to the Spring just as long as it’s safe

(08-06-2020 10:59 PM)HatterFan Wrote:  Big Sky probably has the fewest logistical hurdles of any Division I conference to do spring football. Nobody has lacrosse, only 2 of them have baseball and I think only 7 or 8 even have softball. In a normal school year, once basketball ends, the BSC is basically in the barn except for golf, tennis and track. So they've got the best shot at making this happen.

coughwintercough

Spring football is better than nothing, but there are an awful lot of northern FCS schools with either no indoor practice facility or no indoor stadium. Sure temps will probably be okay for the later part of any spring season, but the month of pre-season practice and the first couple games could be brutal.

NAU, Idaho and Idaho State play in domes. There will be conflicts with basketball, since they are multi-use, but if no crowds, all three have other courts the basketball teams could play in.

Portland, UC Davis and Sacramento won't have issues other than rain.

Southern Utah and Cal Poly will have nice weather.

That leaves Montana, Montana State, Northern Colorado, Weber and EWU with some issues related to weather.

(08-07-2020 12:02 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  

(08-07-2020 12:16 AM)Hammersmith Wrote:  

(08-06-2020 10:43 PM)nickp Wrote:  I’m all for FCS football to move to the Spring just as long as it’s safe

(08-06-2020 10:59 PM)HatterFan Wrote:  Big Sky probably has the fewest logistical hurdles of any Division I conference to do spring football. Nobody has lacrosse, only 2 of them have baseball and I think only 7 or 8 even have softball. In a normal school year, once basketball ends, the BSC is basically in the barn except for golf, tennis and track. So they've got the best shot at making this happen.

coughwintercough

Spring football is better than nothing, but there are an awful lot of northern FCS schools with either no indoor practice facility or no indoor stadium. Sure temps will probably be okay for the later part of any spring season, but the month of pre-season practice and the first couple games could be brutal.

NAU, Idaho and Idaho State play in domes. There will be conflicts with basketball, since they are multi-use, but if no crowds, all three have other courts the basketball teams could play in.

Portland, UC Davis and Sacramento won't have issues other than rain.

Southern Utah and Cal Poly will have nice weather.

That leaves Montana, Montana State, Northern Colorado, Weber and EWU with some issues related to weather.

We'll have a ton of sports going on in the spring (tail end of hoops, T&F, softball, baseball, beach VB, possibly soccer). We'll (potentially) have staffing issues and logistics around broadcasting all games. It's going to be a mess.

I'm thinking there will be no FB this academic year, and the spring idea getting floated is to just give the admin some cover for their shortsighted decision. If the NCAA says no spring FCS playoff, then poof, all gone.

The MVFC is going to announce today they are cancelling the season, "try to play in Spring" which we know wont happen.

https://247sports.com/college/north-dako...149974405/

OVC is supposedly also about to fold shop.

James Madison bows out. Now 75 of 127 have cancelled.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...ait-spring

"...The Big South, Missouri Valley, Ohio Valley, Southern and Southland conferences are still determining their direction...."

With FCS moving to spring I doubt they'll be able to play any fall FBS games.

There are schools like Idaho and some in the MVFC that want to play their revenue games against FBS schools in the fall.

You know player safety first.

Same with the MVC. Missouri St. was talking about playing OU regardless of whether there was a season or not.

Despite all the reports about the presidents' vote, I still haven't seen anything official on the MVC. Nothing on the website, no news other than "there is a report."

FCS teams have to be concerned about this happening, though it seems inevitable.

Mo Valley also wants to play in the spring.

NO!

MO Valley, Big Sky, and CAA are the "Power 3" of the FCS, if they go to spring or cancel it's just a matter of time before the rest fall.

(08-08-2020 07:58 AM)EigenEagle Wrote:  MO Valley, Big Sky, and CAA are the "Power 3" of the FCS, if they go to spring or cancel it's just a matter of time before the rest fall.

They're the followers now. Only ones left are OVC, Southland, Big South and Southern. It was the Pioneer that pushed it one school from 50%. Big Sky just gave in to inevitable.

And someone said OVC is close to cancelling fall football.

This article is a really good rant by an FCS head coach, Jeff Choate of Montana State, about the lack of legitimate leadership in college football.

If you have a subscription to The Athletic, go read the whole thing.

https://theathletic.com/1982034/2020/08/...t-in-flux/

Quote:“It’s heartbreaking for our sport,” Choate told The Athletic. “Football only matters if you have money. The Power 5 commissioners and presidents backed the NCAA into a corner. The real tragedy here is we could not operate together in the best interest of our kids. It’s not whether we’re playing or not. The spirit of amateurism, which has been a fallacy for a long time, is totally gone now because we’re saying if you can afford to test your players at this level or provide for them at this level, then you can participate at this great game we call football. But if you can’t, then you’re less than. We’ve created a different caste system here.”

Choate also has watched in the past week as many student-athletes in the Pac-12, including several at Washington, where he coached at before coming to Montana State, proposed a player boycott if their demands are not met. Several of those pertained to greater safety measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic. “All of the kids in the Pac-12 talking about opting out, this is a consequence of these kids being disenfranchised,” Choate said. “They keep getting jerked around.

“I feel like we’ve been supported by MSU — our president has been awesome — but at the 30,000-foot level with the NCAA, it’s unbelievably unfair how these kids have been treated. The decision whether to play or not to play should’ve been made a long time ago. Our kids aren’t summer-stipend kids. They don’t have cooked-to-order breakfasts that overlook Lake Washington, like we did at the University of Washington. Our kids don’t have that stuff. They work summer jobs. They sacrifice to be here and train with their teammates. The NCAA’s inaction cost them all of that — sitting here on pins and needles — sometimes not being able to work because maybe they were contact-tracing because of somebody else and so they had to sit in their apartment for 14 days. And it’s all because the NCAA refused to act and they were being bullied by the Power 5. That’s what this amounts to.”

Think he misses the point about football mattering if you have money.

If not for the money, it wouldn't be played. It probably shouldn't be played.

The NCAA is not a strong leader program. The P5 stripped most of the power from them. Not that it was ever that strong.

The naked attempt of Missouri State, Idaho and Robert Morris to play revenue games in the fall lays naked their money first policies. But I think that will be for nought [1]. The MAC is shutting down, and probably all of FBS will follow in the next week or so. Still the attempt to play money games only is horrid.



Note:
[1] nought is probably a word that should die. It just means not or nothing.

(08-08-2020 01:19 PM)bullet Wrote:  Think he misses the point about football mattering if you have money.

If not for the money, it wouldn't be played. It probably shouldn't be played.

Choate says that farther down in the article. He says the season would have been canceled by everyone in July if not for P5 teams wanting to preserve as much of their revenue as possible.