Big Sky pushes conference season to spring

OGDEN - A conference football season in which Big Sky powers Montana, Montana State and Weber State were slated to visit Eastern Washington University's newly-turfed Roos Field will have to wait until 2021.

On Aug. 6 Big Sky athletics directors unanimously elected to move an eight-game conference schedule to next spring, according to a release from EWU. The Big Sky President's Council then approved the decision Aug. 7.

EWU athletic director Lynn Hickey said "the handwriting was on the wall" when it became apparent that a delay was imminent.

"We had been meeting on this for weeks and spent many, many hours looking at every scenario," Hickey said. "For us to have a really meaningful conference season where everyone can participate, we needed to make a move to the spring."

She added that the athletics directors gauged state health recommendations, safety guidelines, testing capabilities and regional virus outlook when making a decision.

Nonconference games are still "under review," for the league per the release, but Hickey said EWU won't be participating.

"It's not something we will look at," Hickey said. "We will just play the eight games in the spring."

EWU was slated to play Florida, Western Illinois and Northern Arizona in the nonconference schedule, but the Florida game was called after the Southeastern Conference elected for a league-only season.

The decision causes the latest postponement in a slew of athletic facets affected by the pandemic. The Big Sky becomes the seventh Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) conference to postpone or cancel fall football season, which likely means the FCS postseason will be postponed or canceled.

The NCAA recently said that if "50 percent or more of eligible teams in a particular sport in a division cancel their fall season, there will be no fall NCAA championship in that sport in that division." There are 14 FCS conferences, so the Big Sky's postponement brings the division to that 50 percent figure.

The Big Sky is hoping that its decision will encourage other leagues at the FCS level to make the same move to spring, according to Hickey. The goal of that is for the NCAA to move the FCS postseason to May so schools not participating in the fall will still have a chance to play for a national championship.

The NCAA has to make a decision on fall championships by Aug. 21.

Division II and Division III fall sports championships have already been called. Thus far, the Mid-American Conference, Mountain West Conference and Big-10 Conference are the only FBS leagues to opt out of the 2020 season.

Hickey noted that EWU hopes that a traditional spring football schedule of sorts could instead be held in the spring, pending NCAA approval. Practices for the spring season could start in mid-January, with the season starting in late February or early March.

The NFL Draft is traditionally held in late April, but Hickey doesn't foresee that being much of an issue for the league.

"I don't know the number of kids that that might affect...but a lot of our kids need another year of preparation to be ready for that next jump, so I am not anticipating a large number of students because of the draft situation," Hickey said.

Provided the public health situation allows for it, EWU and the Big Sky are planning to return to a fall football schedule in 2021 despite the shortened offseason a spring season will create.

"I think it's doable, but there will probably have to be some adjustments made by how you start your practice later that summer," Hickey said.

Other fall sports, including soccer, volleyball and cross country, have been delayed until further notice at EWU, the school announced Monday.

Drew Lawson can be reached at [email protected].