Big Sky in the Fall

[acbearkat]

What does everyone think about the Big Sky in the fall? Obviously Eastern Washington will be one of the favorites, along with Montana. Montana State will be an interesting team to watch since their head coach Jeff Choate left Bozeman to become the inside linebackers coach at the University of Texas in Steve Sarkisian's first season at UT. If I'm correct, Choate coached with new Texas defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski at the University of Washington. I'll also be interested to see how Idaho and Idaho State look, as well as Weber State. The Big Sky starts off the season with the defending FCS national champions (it feels good typing that as an SHSU alum) heading to Flagstaff to take on Northern Arizona on Thursday, September 2.

In my first year at Sam, we played Montana State at Bowers in the quarterfinals, and the next week, we beat Montana in a packed Bowers Stadium, 31-28, on a Friday night to make it to the school's first national championship game.

[acbearkat]

Sam had a home and home with Eastern Washington in 2014 and 2015, losing the first one in Cheney and being called for 17 penalties, and I believe Eastern Washington was called for just one penalty, and winning the second one in Huntsville. The Bearkats also defeated Eastern Washington in Cheney in 2012 to make back to back trips to the national championship game.


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[Professor]

Anyone have insight on this Eastern Washington recommendation today

[acbearkat]

Anyone have insight on this Eastern Washington recommendation today

The interim president recommended the Eagles stay in the Big Sky and keep football.


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[caribbeanhen]

What was the point of the red turf if they wanted to shut down the football program?

don’t they realize that E Washington is oblivious without football?

[Libertine]

What was the point of the red turf if they wanted to shut down the football program?

don’t they realize that E Washington is oblivious without football?

That turf went red over a decade ago.

[wapiti]

The interim president recommended the Eagles stay in the Big Sky and keep football.


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So what prompted this announcement??

Was EWU being pursued by WAC and a potential move to FBS? or was EWU considering a move to Div 2 or dropping football???

or was something happening internally?

[ST_Lawson]

or was EWU considering a move to Div 2 or dropping football???

Pretty sure this was the case. Sounds like they're really struggling financially, plus had some bad decisions by administration.
They're not moving "up" anywhere, that's for sure.

[Anthony215]

So what prompted this announcement??

Was EWU being pursued by WAC and a potential move to FBS? or was EWU considering a move to Div 2 or dropping football???

or was something happening internally?

EWU is struggling financially this was more about how to cut cost and stop the bleeding. They would either drop to Division 2 or drop football all together no way they could afford a move up to FBS, that would require an influx of cash to get scholarships up to 85, renovate their stadium to get it from 5k to at least 15k to meet the attendance requirement. Staying at FCS is probably not going to work long term with out an influx of cash and support from alumni to sustain the university.

[acbearkat]

EWU is struggling financially this was more about how to cut cost and stop the bleeding. They would either drop to Division 2 or drop football all together no way they could afford a move up to FBS, that would require an influx of cash to get scholarships up to 85, renovate their stadium to get it from 5k to at least 15k to meet the attendance requirement. Staying at FCS is probably not going to work long term with out an influx of cash and support from alumni to sustain the university.

They have games scheduled with Washington coming up in 2026 and 2029, which would probably get them somewhere in the neighborhood of $600,000 to $1 million for each game. They're playing UNLV in the fall, which will get them probably around $300,000 to $400,000. I wonder if they have any games scheduled with Washington State soon. That would get them more money.

[Libertine]

EWU is struggling financially this was more about how to cut cost and stop the bleeding. They would either drop to Division 2 or drop football all together no way they could afford a move up to FBS, that would require an influx of cash to get scholarships up to 85, renovate their stadium to get it from 5k to at least 15k to meet the attendance requirement. Staying at FCS is probably not going to work long term with out an influx of cash and support from alumni to sustain the university.

Which is probably what this statement from the president is really about, a little healthy manipulation of the alumni now to, hopefully, head off a much more painful decision down the road.

[ursus arctos horribilis]

They have games scheduled with Washington coming up in 2026 and 2029, which would probably get them somewhere in the neighborhood of $600,000 to $1 million for each game. They're playing UNLV in the fall, which will get them probably around $300,000 to $400,000. I wonder if they have any games scheduled with Washington State soon. That would get them more money.

They have had plenty of payday games over the last decade and certainly more than listed here and it has not been enough apparently so I don't think those few games or even having one every year is going to be their answer. I don't know what their answer is for sure either because they have not done poorly at attendance over the last decade but hopefully they get someone in and they can make this all work out for the program.

[Catbooster]

What does everyone think about the Big Sky in the fall? Obviously Eastern Washington will be one of the favorites, along with Montana. Montana State will be an interesting team to watch since their head coach Jeff Choate left Bozeman to become the inside linebackers coach at the University of Texas in Steve Sarkisian's first season at UT. If I'm correct, Choate coached with new Texas defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski at the University of Washington. I'll also be interested to see how Idaho and Idaho State look, as well as Weber State. The Big Sky starts off the season with the defending FCS national champions (it feels good typing that as an SHSU alum) heading to Flagstaff to take on Northern Arizona on Thursday, September 2.

In my first year at Sam, we played Montana State at Bowers in the quarterfinals, and the next week, we beat Montana in a packed Bowers Stadium, 31-28, on a Friday night to make it to the school's first national championship game.

You are correct - Choate worked under Pete Kwiatkowski at both Boise and Washington.

Brent Vigen seems to be the polar opposite of Choate in style (also coming from the offensive rather than the defensive side of the game). It will be interesting to see how it goes this fall. Lots of changes.

I would have liked to see us play a couple games, primarily for the added practice time but also for some game reps. But the coaching change happened only a few weeks before the spring season was supposed to start, and that time of year is not very conducive to good practices around here. They would not have been ready for the spring season. I think that UM made a good decision to skip the season but play a couple games, but they weren't dealing with a coaching change etc. so maybe both schools made the right decision for their situations. xdontknowx

Edit to add: Congrats on the National Championship. I haven't been on the site much this last year since my team wasn't playing, so I suppose I'm kinda late with my congratulations. I hope you guys are able to capitalize on it more than Eastern Washington has been able to.