reading between the lines...i would bet that the Big Sky is secretly hoping they can get Idaho back

So true. If you're Sac St., and Cal Poly and UC Davis were able to join for football only, then it makes no sense to stay in the Big Sky for other sports. The Big West is already better for basketball, and the Sac St. travel budget would get an instant boost if they had all their other sports in the California conference.

And if the Big Sky added SUU, then everyone is a winner since SUU is close enough to NAU and Weber St.

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We just saw BYU leave the MWC because they got passed over in favor of in-state rival Utah. Idaho is in the same mindset, but lacks the leverage BYU has. I could be wrong since it's speculation...so lets call it a hunch: Idaho will not be downgrading from FBS to FCS. They'd be more willing to help convince Big Sky schools in the region join the WAC then tuck it's tail and downgrade to the Big Sky.

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If Idaho is serious about FBS football then they have to do something about their stadium. BYU would not even give them a home and home in the midst of a mini scheduling crisis...that shows me that there is a BIG problem. Their stadium screams FCS and with the WAC collapsing, what is the point of trying to force something that is just not working, especially when going back to the Big Sky would allow you to play local rivals at a reduced cost.

The Big Sky is waiting to see what the WAC is going to do or else they would have just went ahead and grabbed Southern Utah to get to their 12 football/10 non revenue sports format. If the Big Sky had its way I believe they would take Idaho back as well as snag Utah St.
Utah St. is a longer shot than Idaho though, so I see them holding/hoping that Idaho will eventually take that 12th spot

I think the Big Sky spokesman yesterday said the Big Sky membership committee will meet again sometime in October to look at the next step.

I could even see the following:

San Jose State and Sacramento State going Big West / Big Sky FB (same as UCD & Cal Poly - SLO)
Idaho and SUU becoming full Big Sky members.
Then they'd have 10 / 14 for FB.

If those 4 are out of circulation, the WAC really has no choice but to disband.
This entirely removes the threat of the Big Sky losing teams to the WAC.
And it's a nice regional conference. Someday (two decades from now) they could look into going to FBS en masse, maybe....

Utah State would love to be invited to the MWC. Maybe that's possible, maybe not.
Giving Oklahoma a really tough football game last weekend didn't hurt their respectability !!!

Article out of Idaho with comments from Big Sky Commish regarding how he currently views his league's future.Looks like some moves "may" be made by the end of this year.Link at http://www.idahostatejournal.com/sports ... 002e0.html

Many moons ago, Doug Fullerton offered speculation and, from his angle, hope, that FBS would eventually squeeze schools back to FCS. He was ready to welcome Boise and Idaho and Nevada back, and expected Utah State and Hawaii to drop in. Obviously, Boise and Nevada are long gone, but I know he's waiting for schools to drop.

Idaho has, very strangely, the most motivation to stay up. Boise State is their money game, and Boise's talking about ending their rivalry. That's a lot easier to do if Idaho is FCS. Problem: what leverage?

I could easily see a weirder hybrid. The WAC disbands except for football. Idaho joins the Big Sky for other sports, maybe Utah State joins, too. Montana and Sac and Portland move up? Ack, I'm still fleshing this out.

Article out of Great Falls discussing future Big Sky realignment at http://www.greatfallstribune.com/articl ... or+UM++msu

Salt Lake Trib article discussing future Big Sky realignment at http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/sports/502 ... s.html.csp

FCS MB thread discussing above posted linked article out of Idaho regarding future Big Sky realignment at http://www.championshipsubdivision.com/ ... =4&t=18221

WARNING: I'm going off the stoic realism rail here. The long-timers here know to run for cover.

How about the Big Sky absorbing most of the WAC and, then, sponsoring both an FBS and FCS league for football?

Of course, arguably, the WAC could expand all over the place and do the same thing.

I think part of the trick, for all sports but football, is tight regional in-conference divisions that limit travel, then the conference tournaments flesh everything out.

While not the most realistic idea, I think that with the travel distances out west, I could sell that format to either conference.

Ha, I love the intro line pounder.

Thing is, I think what you posted can actually be looked at as a paradox. It's actually pretty revolutionary to consider a single conference sponsoring 2 football leagues as such, in 2 different divisions. Might be further from logical as you think.

I do think though that the traditional pipeline from Big Sky to the WAC makes sense. There are a few schools in the Big Sky that I think would do fine in the WAC. Really, I think when you look at the level of football left int he WAC with the top 3 programs leaving...outside of Hawaii, you're looking at a level almost on par with the current Big Sky.

So it leads me to believe that the WAC could just bring in 2-3 Big Sky schools, and they've be alright. No exaggeration, Montana would be one of the better programs right away. Others like Weber St., Montana St., Portland St, Sac St., and even NAU really aren't that far behind the likes of NMSU, Utah St., Idaho.

It just makes sense for the Big Sky schools to make the move to the WAC as it is almost the same level as the Big Sky now...just happens to be FBS.

* I expect Hawaii to go independent and join the Big West for other sports.

* And I think that LA Tech will look into the Sunbelt real soon.

As for the WAC, it ain't pretty, but it's pretty balanced if you ended up with even:

Portland St., Sac St., SJSU, Idaho, Montana, Montana St., Utah St., NAU, NMSU

The west region has always been just a few FBS schools ready to have 3 full conferences, all in the same region. A few upgrades and we'd have that.

* Pac-10: always has been, always will be top dog
* MWC: even with recent departures, the conference has regathered into a very nice regional conference in the 2nd tier. SDSU & Fresno as the CA base (the top 2 non-Pac10 CA schools). Both Nevada schools. 2 of the 3 CO schools, Wyoming's only school, the top Idaho program, top NM school, and TCU, which seems on par with Texas Tech as the top Texas programs after Texas & A&M.
* WAC: right now has Hawaii's only school, only remaining Utah school, only remaining CA school, only remaining Idaho school, only remaining NM school and LA Tech (the #2 or #3 LA school after LSU).

Seems like the WAC would be perfect to add what would be the bottom FBS CA schools, Oregon school, Arizona school, Utah school and then Montana/St from that state.

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Your pipeline assertion makes sense, but if Hawaii or La Tech go, if the automatic qualifier is yanked, what's anyone's motivation to stick around?

The WAC will have to look first to support La Tech with Texas schools, probably 4 of them. Since you can't help but have a gap between New Mexico State and points further west and north, then you can talk about two schools to support the west as well, especially two schools that would keep Hawaii interested. Which schools? Eh.

they dropped the 6/5 rule. So I dunno what they will use to replace it.

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