BILLINGS — Tom Wistrcill took over as commissioner of the Big Sky Conference in December 2018.
Since then, Wistrcill has overseen the league's growth in media exposure, a successful move of its men's and women's basketball tournaments to Boise, Idaho, the creation of a long-needed hall of fame, and the strengthening of its reputation as a predominant FCS conference.
But as college athletics continue to undergo seismic changes, challenges persist.
A series of class action lawsuits — in particular House v. NCAA and Johnson v. NCAA — could have a direct effect on the Big Sky, and not in what Wistrcill would say is a positive manner.
The House case, an antitrust lawsuit seeking compensation for former student-athletes whose careers took place prior to a 2021 NCAA decision that allowed for current student-athletes to benefit financially from their name, image and likeness, was settled for nearly $2.8 billion.
Due to this, Big Sky institutions and other low- and mid-level NCAA schools will be on the hook to pay into the settlement even though, they argue, their former student-athletes would have never benefited monetarily in the same way as those at the highest level of college sports.
The Johnson case, meanwhile, is a lawsuit arguing that student-athletes should be classified as employees of their respective schools per the Fair Labor Standards Act.
At the Big Sky Kickoff media event in Spokane, Wash., in July, Wistrcill spoke about these challenges, as well as other topics germane to the conference, as it enters the 2024-25 athletic calendar, such as 12-game football seasons for this year and next, ongoing realignment issues, the new seeding format for the FCS playoffs, and more.
Following is a look at Wistrcill's answers during his Q&A session with media in attendance:
On the 12-game regular-season football schedules for 2024 and 2025 ...
"Every few years, because of the way the calendar works around Christmastime and the playoffs, you get 12 games within FCS. So the next two years are actually 12-game seasons.
"So we think it's great. That allows some of our teams to get up to seven home games, and opportunities from a nonconference perspective to prove ourselves more. I'm a big fan of 12-week seasons, but like I said they probably only happen once or twice every five years."
On the FCS championship game being moved from Sunday to Monday night ...
"We worked really hard on getting that game moved away from the NFL. There were a lot of us that were really pushing hard for Friday night for years in that same weekend. Then all of a sudden the CFP (College Football Playoff) went to the Friday/Saturday. So then we were very fortunate as soon as they went to 12 teams in the (CFP) tournament, they had to move their tournament back a week. So that opened up that Monday night.
"So now for the next five years, we're set for that Monday night, which was the CFP championship game, (it) will now be the FCS championship game. And so for us to be the only football game on in the world that night, that's a really big deal. So we've been working really hard to push that and the timing worked out. ESPN has noticed that that draws an audience, that game does, and so they were excited to do it as well. So it's a really good thing for us."
On the small-school impact of the House vs. NCAA settlement ...
"There's two parts to the House settlement. There's the back damages paid to the student-athletes, and then there's the money forward that the Power 4 will pay to the student-athletes. When they did the back damages, they essentially assigned those to all 360 schools. I get it that we should all feel the pain. Unfortunately, what I don't like is that money that's being taken from the Big Sky, which on average is around $180,000 to about $350,000 per year for the next 10 years, is the penalty that our schools have to pay. And then that money goes to former Power 5 football and basketball players.
"I use the line that Weber State's money is going to go into Joe Burrow and Zion Williamson's pocket. That's exactly what's going to happen. And we didn't have any say in this, we just got pulled along by the NCAA and they made a decision (of) here's how we're paying the damages. So within the last month our schools all learned, when all of the their budgets are booked for next year, that now here's this penalty. It's really unfair. Again, there's not much we can do about it, but it's just kind of disappointing that none of our student-athletes are going to get this money, and yet we're all being taxed for it."
"It can hurt a lot. I think people are having to make really difficult decisions about where to take that money from. It's not like the schools are just going to give over money to the athletic departments. So they're having to make difficult decisions about travel, about staffing. At this point I don't think any of our schools are going to have to drop a sport. But I can tell you that's been discussed. Because all of a sudden, if you have a $17 million budget and all of a sudden you're out $300,000, well, that's a heavy penalty."
On the potential of student-athletes being classified as employees re: Johnson v. NCAA ...
"When I talk to our student-athletes, they like getting paid. We all do, right? They're like, 'Yeah, I spend a lot of time on this, if I can get some money, great.' That's what NIL is set up for. They way the money is not supposed to work is you show up and I give you a check. And oh by the way you're going to get taxed for it and we're going to track your hours. And all of a sudden the student-athletes are like, 'No, I don't really want that.'
"I think we're heading to a point in time where there's enough money in the system globally that certain schools ... I could see employee status coming to the Power 2/Power 4 level someday. I don't know how they settle their market without it. But there's not quite enough money within our systems to be saying we're going to pay every student-athlete 10 grand or 20 grand just for participation in college athletics. Right now, it's not right for us to do that.
"But I can see it coming to college athletics. The bifurcation of the haves and the have-nots has never been bigger, and it's only growing. And the money is going to continue to grow at such a fast rate that it just pulls (the Power 2/Power 4) further away from the rest of us. And that's fine, because they're going to have a different model than we have. We're still going to have true college athletics in the Big Sky and have a balance between money and academics."
On future realignment / Big Sky schools potentially joining the FBS ...
"I guess you can never predict the future. You know, we talk about expansion at every President's meeting, about should we be doing something? Who's making things happen around the country and should we be, you know, really looking hard and making some changes, and are our schools interested in that as well? My role is to make sure that they all know exactly what they would be getting into.
"If somebody's going to make the move now from FCS to FBS, they've got to pay $5 million dollars right up front just to do it. And then all of a sudden they've probably got to invest anywhere from $8 to $10 million per year to be at that level, at the average level of, let's say, the Mountain West. And for our schools that extra $8 to $10 million ... I don't know where they get that from. I don't think the states are going to give them the money.
"So moving up would be a real challenge for our schools. And it doesn't mean that someday some of them might not aspire to be that. But like I said, my job is to educate them on the pros and the cons. So my crystal ball is not really clear on what this looks like in five years, but I do know that we've got a really good home for our programs, and there's a lot of schools out there across the country that look like ours."
On seeding 16 teams for the FCS playoffs ...
"I think it's a wonderful thing for the Big Sky. Seeding 16 teams is going to help us where we won't have matchups like last year when North Dakota State played Montana State in the second round. Quite frankly we had two of the six best teams in the country (and) one of them wasn't getting very far.
"So it spreads out the strength around the country. And that's going to help us get more home games, win more games and get our teams deeper into the tournament. So it's a really big thing. About four or five of us have worked really hard over the last few years to get that done. It doesn't eliminate the regionality issues, but it certainly weakens them. And so I think that's a great opportunity for our teams."
