MISSOULA — When the Big Sky Conference announced a new five-year media rights contract with ESPN earlier this week, league commissioner Tom Wistrcill emphasized that the deal helped place the Big Sky among the top tier of FCS conferences.
“We’ve been fortunate to be partners with ESPN for a long, long time. It’s really taken off as we’ve gotten more aggressive in trying to pursue our goal, which is to be the most dominant FCS conference in the country,” Wistrcill said.
In the small media scrum, which took place at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, the afternoon of the FCS championship game between Montana State of the Big Sky and North Dakota State of the Missouri Valley Football Conference, Wistrcill went on to say he hoped the Big Sky’s dominance would get “solidified tonight with the championship.”
Therein lies the Big Sky’s big problem.
For all the success and progress and achievement the conference has made under Wistrcill’s watch since 2018 — and the accomplishments are many — two things continue to elude it: an FCS championship and a win in the NCAA men’s or women’s basketball tournament.
The Big Sky hasn’t had a team win the FCS title since the 2010 season when Eastern Washington knocked off Delaware. That was the first championship game in Frisco.
Since then, the Missouri Valley has won 12 titles, 10 of them coming from North Dakota State. The Big Sky has lost four times — Eastern Washington in 2018, Montana State in 2021, Montana in 2023 and Montana State again in 2024 with Monday’s 35-32 loss to NDSU.
This year had an “if not now, then when?” sense to it for the Bobcats, who put together a historic season and won a program-record 15 games. If a team quarterbacked by Tommy Mellott can’t overcome NDSU, which one will be able to?
The same can be asked in men’s basketball. If last year’s Bobcats couldn’t win a game in the big tournament, which team will?
While football finances drive many decisions in collegiate athletics, March Madness is still the NCAA’s cash cow. It means big bucks for a team and its conference to win a game in the bracket, and a Big Sky team hasn’t done so since a 12th-seeded Montana upended No. 5 Nevada in 2006.
Since then, the Big Sky representative has never been seeded better than 13th. They’ve been a No. 14, 15 or 16 seed every tournament since 2016, with Montana State playing fellow 16 seed Grambling State in the First Four last year. The Bobcats built a 14-point lead in the second half only to lose 88-81 in overtime.
On the women’s side, the tournament-win drought goes back even further to 1995.
Wistrcill and the Big Sky office have done a good job of putting the league on the national map. The conference basketball tournaments get national exposure on ESPN’s linear channels.
The football teams have gotten airtime on ESPN, as well, and will get more going forward.
“From a football standpoint, we’re going from two national TV games (per regular season) to four national TV games,” Wistrcill said. “Some could be on Friday night, so that’s new for us there. ... It could be up to two games Friday night, two games Saturday or all four could be on Saturday, so we’ll see how that plays out.
“But we want to continue to have the most national games in FCS. That’s important to us, and we’ve shown we can draw great ratings out west.”
Of the four games each season, at least one will not include a Montana school.
This year’s national schedule included Montana State’s win over Idaho in Bozeman on Oct. 12 and UC Davis’ win over Montana in Missoula on Nov. 9. In 2023, the nationally televised games were Montana at Idaho and Montana State at Sacramento State.
The 2022 season included UC Davis at Montana State and Montana at Sacramento State, and the 2021 season featured Montana at Eastern Washington and Montana State at Weber State.
“It’s certainly an increase in money, and that’s important,” Wistrcill said of the new deal with ESPN. “Our football games need to happen on the weekend. We’re never in our conference going to play Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. It just doesn’t happen because our crowds travel from so far away.
“I was happy that our presidents and (athletic directors) were open to some Friday night games, and I think that will help us from an exposure standpoint. But mainly it’s about that national exposure and continuing to push forward our platform as the leader in FCS.”
The Big Sky office has done its part to elevate the league’s profile.
Now it’s time for its teams to follow suit.
