OGDEN, Utah – The Big Sky Conference will add two more conference games to the schedule for each team in the upcoming season. The league made the announcement on Tuesday.
The Big Sky Conference will move to a 20-game schedule for men's and women's basketball beginning in 2018-19, as approved by the league's athletic administrators and Presidents' Council. A complete conference schedule will be released at a later date. #BigSkyConf pic.twitter.com/EdJiH8yZ4w
— Big Sky Conference (@BigSkyConf) May 29, 2018
Over the past several years, Big Sky teams played 18 league games. With a 12-team conference, that meant each team had four opponents it met only once in league play. With North Dakota leaving the conference this summer, the move to 20 league games will allow each team to now play each Big Sky opponent twice.
Montana Lady Grizzlies head coach Shannon Schweyen supports the move.
“I feel it’s much more of a fair representation of the true conference champion and the overall placing in the league,” she said. “Before when you didn’t play everyone twice, depending on the schedule it certainly was favorable for certain teams.”
Montana men’s head coach Travis DeCuire chose to withhold his opinion on the decision for now. He wants to get a look at the finalized schedule before commenting. The Big Sky is still working on the slate for next season.
The Big Sky did play a 20-game conference schedule for two seasons from 2012-2014, the last time the league had 11 teams. They changed to the 18-game schedule when Idaho joined the league before the 2014-15 season.
