The Big Sky Conference was expected to announce its spring football schedule sometime in October. Thursday, Sacramento State became the first of the league’s 13 football-playing members to opt out of the spring in favor of waiting to play football again next fall.
On Friday, Big Sky commissioner Tom Wistricil tweeted “Committee and our AD’s are working on a six-game conference-only schedule with 12 teams participating. Release of the schedule should happen in early November. Big Sky football is going to be fantastic!”
Montana State fifth-year head coach Jeff Choate and Montana third-year head coach Bobby Hauck have talked consistently in recent months about how their teams will be ready to play whenever the next game is available, regardless of if that means playing in February or waiting until next September.
[restrict paid=”true”]
The validity of a spring season and an accompanying FCS Playoff — the NCAA Division I Council approved a 16-team playoff that is set to run from April 18 to May 15 — will depend on how many teams opt in and how many teams opt out, both in the Big Sky and around the FCS.
“With the rest of the Big Sky, who is doing what? Where do the California schools fall in? What is Southern Utah doing? There are so many wrinkles thrown in,” said Choate, who has led the Bobcats to the FCS playoffs each of the last two seasons. “I think we can and should play some football in the spring. What exactly does it look like? I don’t know.”
If less than 50 percent of the 111 playoff-eligible FCS teams opt to not play until next fall, the playoff will not move forward. Under that scenario, it remains to be seen if conference-only play would continue.
“What our plans are for the fall of 2021 depends on if we have a spring season,” Hauck said. “If we have a spring season, we are going to do our best to be our best then.
“I don’t know if that’s attainable in the current state of affairs. Things have to change for that to happen. We are starting to run out of time to maximize that but it’s still attainable. We will see but if we play a spring season, we will try to win.”
Because of the unpredictable nature of the last eight months around the globe, Montana State and Montana are not on similar timelines as one another or as teams around the FCS when it comes to practice time and general operation.
North Dakota State, winners of eight of the last nine FCS national titles, elected to play a single game on October 3. That allowed the Bison to spend some of August and all of September operating like they were playing within a regular season. It extended NDSU’s allotted practice, meeting times and essentially gave the team a fall camp schedule to prepare for their lone game against Central Arkansas, which the Bison won 39-28.
NDSU has only lost eight games since 2011 and currently ride a 38-game winning streak. The Bison have ousted Choate’s Bobcats from the playoffs each of the last two seasons, ripping MSU 52-10 in the second round of the 2018 playoffs and rolling to a 49-14 victory in the semifinals of the 2020 playoffs.
“It’s absolutely an advantage that NDSU is playing this game and that’s what is so frustrating about what we’ve done here is it’s been every man for himself,” Choate said in an interview with ESPN Missoula on September 2. “Not only for North Dakota State, but for Central Arkansas, Jacksonville State, Austin Peay, some of these other programs that are playing…what I really wanted us to do was to move in unison at the FCS level. We are all either going to play or not going to play.
“That really frustrated me to be honest with the Big Sky presidents was that we couldn’t play non-conference games. There are places like Montana and Montana State where we would’ve liked to do that and we can do it even if we have to go travel somewhere to do it. It’s kind of absurd the way we are going about doing this, everybody do whatever you want.
“But hey, North Dakota State getting a month and a half of practice? That’s not good. We didn’t get spring ball. We got four practices in August before we shut it down. It’s not equitable and it makes no sense to me. Either we all are playing by the same set of rules or we are not.
“The presidents got together and said, ‘No, we are all going to be playing by the same set of rules in the Big Sky Conference, nobody is going to play so nobody gets a competitive advantage over one another,’ yet here we are having the Missouri Valley, the Southland, the Ohio Valley that are actually doing that. It’s going to be difficult for us to get back on track. I don’t know how you do it.”
Montana State did not complete any spring practices. The Bobcats had an intentionally late start to spring drills planned to avoid cancellations due to winter weather that plagued MSU in previous springs under Choate.
Hauck’s Grizzlies got in half a dozen of the allowed 15 spring practices acceptable by NCAA rules. Still, not getting a chance to build on the momentum of last season’s 10-win campaign combined with the lost opportunities to develop his players over the last eight months has Hauck frustrated, too.
“We are not in optimum condition and we are not in optimum playing shape,” Hauck said. ”We look like a team that haven’t been on the field since March. That’s what we look like.”
Although neither MSU or UM were able to enter “in-season” mode like NDSU or Central Arkansas — the Bears are in the midst of playing a nine-game schedule, most in the FCS — the Bobcats, Griz and other teams in states with governor clearance have been granted the opportunity to practice this fall with limits identical to what spring ball usually is.
The last month or so has seen Covid-19 impact the University of Montana athletic department as a whole. The entire UM cross-country team (23 members) was quarantined for 14 days. Multiple sections of the football and men’s basketball teams have been quarantined for either infection or contact tracing in recent months.
Because of those quarantines, the Griz football team did not start its fall slate of practices until this month. Hauck said he expects his team to wrap up the 15-practice allotment before the weather turns.
“It’s great to be back out there,” Hauck said. “I think the guys are excited to get back out on the field and work a little football. It’s been a long time since we’ve been out there.
“Like any spring practice or schedule like this, you want to get out there and play and you want to develop your young guys. Everybody has improvements to make. We are a little late getting started here but we will get them in. We need to get better. If we are going to win to the degree we want to, we have to get better.”
Hauck has said multiple times in recent months that his team will be ready to compete against an opponent whenever that time comes. He also said that UM plans to have a scrimmage to cap fall ball. And if the spring season falls apart, the Griz will shift their focus.
“I don’t know what the backup plan would be,” Hauck said. “The next time they let us play, we will play. You either have a game or you don’t.”
Covid-19 hit the Bobcats during the summer, causing Choate to shift all of his team activities to be conducted exclusively outside. Choate is the first to admit that his team has lost a few crucial training blocks in the weight room. But last week, Montana State also was the first and only Big Sky Conference team thus far to complete its 15 fall ball practices capped by a scrimmage on October 11.
“I think getting this time in will play a big factor,” MSU redshirt freshman running back Jaharie Martin said. “I think we are the only team in the Big Sky that ended up finishing something like this. This was something we couldn’t really build in the summer because we had guys out quarantining and stuff, so we couldn’t do a regular fall camp. But this brought us together even more and will definitely give us a leg up against our competition.”
Senior two-way star Troy Andersen and junior All-Big Sky running back Isaiah Ifanse had already chosen to redshirt the upcoming season, whether the Bobcats next took the field this fall, next spring, or in the fall of 2021. It remains to be seen if navigating a spring season is realistic for the Bobcats or anyone else in the Big Sky. Choate said he is pleased so far with the way his program has navigated the chaos of the last several months already.
“ I like the approach we’ve had. I really like our kids’ energy. I think it’s been a good experience for them and for us as coaches because this is what we do: we’ve provided some rhythm and normalcy for them during an awkward time. I think they’ve enjoyed it,” Choate said. “
“I am proud of our guys and my staff. We have accomplished a lot. In fact, I think we have accomplished more at this point than any other Big Sky Conference program in talking to some of the other coaches. I don’t think anyone else has completed a fall practice schedule. I’m proud of that.”
[/restrict]
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
