SPOKANE, Washington — A season ago, several crucial early wins by Missouri Valley Conference teams over opponents from the Big Sky helped fortify the league’s national reputation, in turn keeping the only FCS league in the Mountain and Pacific time zones fighting for national respect.
This season marks the first campaign including the Big Sky Conference-Missouri Valley Football Conference challenge, an eight-game slate that pits teams from two FCS power leagues against one another. Last year, the Missouri Valley put a record five teams in the FCS playoff field based at least partially on beating the Big Sky in four of the league’s six crossover matchups.
Weber State, Southern Utah and Northern Arizona each made the FCS playoffs. Eastern Washington went 7-4 and finished the season ranked in the Top 20 but did not earn a postseason bid. Sac State tied a program record with seven wins but did not make the playoffs. The Montana Grizzlies went 7-4 and did not make the playoffs for a second straight season.
“You look at the competitiveness of our league and it’s inevitable that some teams are going to cannibalize playoff candidates and when you have a great conference, that’s invariably what happens,” NAU 21st-year head coach Jerome Souers said. “Then if you don’t win a game or two in the non-conference and you don’t win six league games, you might not make it.
“We are not built to put four or five teams in (the playoffs) every year because we beat each other. We are built to be competitive with each other. I don’t know if there’s anyway around it.”
The challenge this season begins with Western Illinois at Montana State on Thursday night. Cal Poly plays at No. 1 North Dakota State on Saturday afternoon a few hours before No. 24 Montana hosts No. 13 Northern Iowa Saturday night.
MSU plays at No. 4 South Dakota State on September 8 while Northern Arizona plays at Missouri State on September 15. That same day, Montana plays at WIU and that night, South Dakota plays at No. 8 Weber State.
Strong performances in the crossover could set the foundation for the Big Sky pushing to get as many teams in the playoff bracket as the Missouri Valley. NDSU (10-1), SDSU (9-2), Western Illinois (8-3), UNI (7-4) and South Dakota (7-4) are each chasing repeat playoff berths.
“It’s a good league, a tough league and this year, a bunch of us Big Sky schools get a shot,” Montana State defensive coordinator Ty Gregorak, a 15-year veteran of the league including his 12 seasons at Montana, said last week. “We will have our work cut out for us.
“In the old days when I was in Missoula, it was the (Colonial Athletic Association) that was very strong, sending four teams every year. You always thought, ‘Ok, should that fourth team really be in the playoffs?” The Big Sky was getting two back then. Sometimes, you look at the Missouri and you think, ‘Do four or five teams from one conference really make a playoff?” But that just shows how good the conference is, how much respect and how they have taken care of business against us.”
Last season, regardless of how many playoff berths the MVFC deserved, the league certainly earned the right to have more teams playing after Thanksgiving than the Big Sky.
Southern Utah’s win over UNI marked the only marquee victory by a Big Sky team over a Missouri Valley team in 2017. North Dakota beat cellar-dwelling Missouri State 34-0 for the other BSC over MVFC result. When the playoff bracket came out, Big Sky co-champion SUU earned a bye as the No. 8 seed largely behind wins over Weber State and UNI. NDSU earned the No. 2 seed, SDSU earned the No. 5 seed and Northern Iowa earned a first-round home game.
“When we are on the top, the league doesn’t get as much respect,” SUU third-year head coach Demario Warren said. “In 2016, we got four teams in and that was the year we weren’t at the top. When we win it, everyone assumes the Big Sky is down. We’ve got to find a way to fix that problem”
Perennial power Montana made the playoffs 17 years in a row and 21 out of 24 seasons between 1993 and 2015. But UM has not officially won the league since 2009 and has missed the playoffs two years in a row. Montana State has not made the playoffs for three straight years after making the tournament four times in five seasons and six times since 2002. SUU meanwhile has made the playoffs three times since 2014, sharing the Big Sky title in 2015 and 2017.
“We win, we are a good team. It’s not because we got lucky,” Warren said. “It’s not because we have a soft schedule. It’s because we are the best team in the Big Sky. We need the country to know that.”
Cal Poly and Montana State pushed Northern Iowa and South Dakota State, respectively before each losing, both part of down seasons for consistently competitive programs.
Playing at Northern Iowa, Cal Poly running back Kyle Lewis hauled in a 53-yard touchdown pass with five seconds to play in regulation to pull the Mustangs even, 38-38, at Northern Iowa. The visitors would lose 45-38 in overtime to the 21st-ranked Panthers. The heartbreaker was the third of eight straight losses for the Mustangs during a 1-10 campaign defined by devastating injuries and narrow defeats. The following week, UNI lost to Southern Utah.
“We played Northern Iowa and we took them to overtime. And we were 1-10,” Cal Poly head coach Tim Walsh said. “Does that get any notice or any credit? We had like 350 (305) yards rushing against them. We are a 1-10 team, a 1-7 team in the Big Sky yet we took you to the brink and you went to the playoffs.
“I think the Missouri Valley is a great conference, don’t get me wrong. But I think top to bottom, 13 teams in this conference, you better be ready every single week. We don’t have a game on our schedule this year I know we are going to win.”
If not for two missed field goals by the Bobcats and a 31-yard touchdown on a fake field goal by South Dakota State kicker Chase Vinatieri, Montana State would’ve upset No. 4 South Dakota State in Week 2 last fall. MSU went on to win five Big Sky Conference games last season but finished 5-6, the third straight losing season for the program.
Northern Arizona rallied for six straight wins following a 38-20 home loss to No. 22 Western Illinois. That defeat stamped an 0-2 start for NAU and caused former athletic director Lisa Campos to announce 2017 would mark Souers’ 20th and final season at the helm. Six league victories and seven wins overall got the Lumberjacks into the playoffs and saved Souers’ job after Campos’ departure to UTSA. But the early loss to the Leathernecks put a dark cloud over most of the season.
Eastern Washington, the marquee Big Sky team of this decade, looked completely overmatched in a 40-13 loss to No. 2 North Dakota State. The Eagles improved in Aaron Best’s first season, finishing with seven wins in their final nine. But the resume lacked a marquee victory. The 2016 FCS semifinalists were left out of the 24-team playoff field.
Consecutive Missouri Valley opponents could boost the Bobcats
Since the Big Sky expanded to 13 teams in 2012, the stated goal broadly has been to get four teams into the playoff bracket. Last season, Southern Utah’s bye resulted in a rematch against their in-state rivals after Weber dropped WIU 21-19.
The Wildcats won at Southern Utah 30-13 to advance to the FCS final eight, exacting revenge for the 32-16 home loss to SUU that served as Weber’s lone league loss last season.
“We sit in a hard position because we are out West and no one gets a chance to see us,” Hill said. “It’s not right that the Big Sky doesn’t get four teams every year because of the caliber of play and the history that the conference has had in winning national championships. Somebody goes deep every year in the conference.
“The dilemma we had last year was when we played Southern Utah, I really believe that Southern Utah and us could’ve advanced to the last eight teams had we played somebody else. They were a dang good football team and I thought we were playing good and we were hitting our stride. We were one play away from going to the semis. Southern Utah, Eastern, NAU, we had a bunch of teams at that same caliber last year.”
NAU limped into the playoffs with a 48-20 loss at SUU to end the regular season, then had no business being on the same field in a 41-10 shellacking at the hands of non-scholarship San Diego in Flagstaff in the first round of the playoffs.
Many argued that EWU deserved the third bid at 7-4 instead of NAU. Others thought Sac State, the top scoring team and top pass rushing squad, deserved its first playoff bid. Regardless, three Big Sky teams fell just short and the league ended 2017 with two cumulative playoff wins, both by Weber State.
“Eastern Washington should’ve been in, Sac State might’ve should’ve been in,” Warren said. “We could’ve gotten five teams in last year. If it was Montana or Eastern that won it, I think we do get five teams. We sneak in 2013 because we were the bottom of the four and Eastern won it.
“I think the teams that are not the powerhouses need to get a little more respect. I don’t know how that happens but if that starts to happen, then I think we will get four teams in every year.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
