The BEST Conference at the FCS Level... (The History of the Big Sky Football Conference)

Idaho Montana Montana State and Sacramento State have all played on ESPN this year two of those four teams have upset FBS opponents and all four are expected to make the FCS playoffs they are also all ranked within the FCS Top 10 rankings while North Dakota State and South Dakota State have dominated the national title scene coming from the SCS version of the SEC and the Missouri Valley Conference the other major conference AKA The Big 10 of the FCS has to be the Big Sky which could see one of their teams in the national title game this year the four schools I mentioned at the beginning of this video all come from the Big Sky this is the history of the Big Sky Conference this is the story of one of the best conferences at the FCS level but before we get into this if you enjoy college football content like this make sure to leave a like And subscribe I am planning to release multiple videos a week this season also let me know who your favorite FCS team is in the comments section below the Big Sky first became a conference on July 1st 1963 serving as a basketball conference with six members across four states the original charter members were Idaho Idaho State Gonzaga Montana Montana State and Weber State the name big sky comes from Ab guth's novel The Big Sky with Guthrie being from Great Falls Montana near Missoula where the University of Montana is located AKA one of my favorite places in the world the six presidents of the charter schools chose to adopt the name on February 25th 1963 today the conference has 151 different teams from 14 different schools spanning 16 different sports the conference has 10 full members in Eastern Washington University the University of Idaho Idaho State University the University of Montana Montana State University Northern Arizona University the University of Northern Colorado Portland State University California State University Sacramento and weer State University across eight different states mainly in the Pacific Northwest and two football only Affiliated members in California poly Technic State University and the University of California Davis the conference has won seven and CAA national titles in football by five different members and looks to be the strongest conference at the FCS level today but it wasn't always that way when the Big Sky began playing football it started at the division 2 level and saw both Idaho and Montana take a step down in level of play after being members of the old Pacific Coast Conference which was where the roots of the Pack 12 began Idaho was a PCC member from 1922 to 1959 9 and even claimed a share of the 1927 football crown with Stanford and USC Montana was a PCC member from 1924 through 1950 the original schools playing football at the time were Idaho Idaho State Montana Montana State and Weber State and it would stay that way until 1970 when they saw the arrival of Boise State and Northern Arizona Nevada would join the Big Sky in 1979 when the conference chose to move up to the new division 1aa level the Wolfpack found a lot of success early winning two of their first four national titles held at the level Eastern Washington would join the conference in 1987 and everything looked to be going great that was until 1993 when Nevada chose to move up to the division 1 a level a few years later Boise State and founding member Idaho would choose to do the same as well with the conference losing three members over such a short period they worried the conference May crumble and swiftly added Sacramento State Cal State Northridge and Portland State in 1996 Northridge would only be a member for a short period of time as they would depart the conference in 2001 Northern Colorado joined in 2006 with Davis calply Southern Utah and North Dakota coming aboard in 2012 in 2013 Idaho chose to drop back down to the FCS level after years of struggling at the FBS and the Big Sky saw a charter member return as well as the Beloved Kibby Dome North Dakota chose to leave the Big Sky in 2016 to join the Missouri Valley Conference where Rivals North Dakota State South Dakota State and South Dakota all played many debate whether the Big Sky or Missouri Valley Conference is the toughest at the FCS level Big Sky schools won three of the first seven FCS national titles and have won three more itself Big Sky teams are known for upsetting FBI s teams like Idaho over Nevada earlier this year as well as Sacramento State over Stanford a week later last year Sacramento State beat Colorado State while Weber State beat Utah State while in 2021 Montana went on the road to upset number 20 Washington Northern Arizona beat Arizona UC Davis beat Tulsa and Eastern Washington beat UNLV the Missouri Valley on the other hand has North Dakota State Youngstown State and South Dakota state which have combined for 10 na national championships and 13 title game appearances 14 when you include Illinois State going back to 2011 the Big Sky on the other hand only has Montana State in Eastern Washington who have appeared in the title game over the same period this year though the Big Sky is stacked with teams that can all compete for the national title especially with North Dakota State not looking like their usual jugrnaut self according to the coaches pool at the time of recording Montana state is number two Montana is number five Sacramento state is number seven and Idaho is eight they're expected to have at least four teams make it to the SCS playoffs with the possibility of five or six teams and every week is a battle they have had multiple games on ESPN this year including Montana State versus Sacramento State and Idaho versus Montana have been so much fun to watch they also have the best rivalry game at the FCS level to close out the season this year which could be for the conference title on November 18th at one of the best stadiums at the FCS level Washington Grizzly Stadium when Montana plays Montana State in Missoula Montana the Big Sky is one of my favorite conferences in all of college football and I can't wait to see what happens in the closing weeks of the Season what do you think which FCS team or conference is your favorite let me know in the comment section below if you enjoyed this video make sure to check out one of my other videos YouTube thinks you will love right here don't forget to leave a like and to subscribe for more college football content thank you so much for watching and as always remember to embrace the [Music] grind