Big Sky media day could turn into a daze
What the SEC plans to drag out over four days this week with one less team, the Big Sky Conference will attempt to accomplish in just one day.
The Big Sky football media day comes to Spokane for the first time on Monday, with the head coach and two players from each team scheduled to address the media at the DoubleTree by Hilton downtown, an event scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. and span more than five hours.
The SEC offers Nick Saban, Jimbo Fisher and Paul Finebaum in Atlanta.
The Big Sky counters with Dan Hawkins (“it’s Division I football!”), Jeff Choate and the return of Bobby Hauck.
The Big Sky football media day was previously held in Park City, Utah. The league moved it to Spokane this year and next, citing the potential for more media exposure, with the likes of Idaho, Eastern Washington, Montana, Montana State, Idaho State and others relatively close.
Relatively.
Whatever, it’s a lot closer for the Idaho Vandals, who return to the league in football for the first time since 1995.
Idaho’s last media day was in New Orleans, some 2,400 miles from Moscow — and roughly a similar distance from its media.
MOST COACHES figure to stick to the script, telling us the strengths and weaknesses of their respective offenses, defenses and kicking games.
That’s nice for starters, but ...
Here’s some other questions we hope get asked of the coaches and players at Big Sky media day:
- Without writing them down, name all 13 football-playing teams in the Big Sky.
Answer: UC Davis, Northern Arizona, Cal Poly, Sacramento State, Portland State, Southern Utah, Northern Colorado, Montana State, Idaho State, Weber State, Montana, Idaho and Eastern Washington.
(Full disclosure — to speed things up, we cheated by listing the schools in the order that their head coaches will address the media on Monday)
- Where did Idaho play its football last season (multiple choice)?
a) mostly somewhere far, far away
b) on ESPN3
c) the Sun Belt Conference
d) in the shadow of Boise State, again
- Did you know that if your team plays the University of North Dakota this season (the Fighting Sioux left the big Sky after last season, but will play a Big Sky schedule in 2018 and ’19 as they transition to the Missouri Valley Conference in football, and the Summit League in basketball and most other sports), it will count as a conference game for you, even though it doesn’t count for UND, obviously?
Idaho plays host to North Dakota this fall. UND is also scheduled to play Idaho State, Northern Colorado, Montana, Sacramento State, Weber State, Portland State and Northern Arizona this season.
SOME OTHER potential storylines in Big Sky football this season:
- How will Idaho fit in with its new/old league?
The Vandals have played three Big Sky teams since 2012, all at home — losing 20-3 to Eastern Washington in 2012, beating Montana State 20-17 in 2016 and beating Sacramento State 28-6 last fall.
That might be too small a sample size to judge. I would think, given the strides they made in the Sun Belt during their four-year stay, the Vandals should be competitive in their new league, at least finish in the upper half, possibly challenge for the conference title.
Most of the Vandals’ experience returns on defense. Idaho will be inexperienced at quarterback after its four-year starter graduation, and that would be an issue whether the Vandals played in the Sun Belt, the Big Sky or even the 5A Inland Empire League.
- Can EWU return to the top of the league?
In their first-year post-Beau Baldwin, the Eags “slipped” to a tie for third in the league at 6-2, and were 7-4 overall. This after EWU won or shared the league title five times in the previous seven years.
- The return of Bobby Hauck to Montana.
The Griz used to dominate the Big Sky, but Montana missed the playoffs the last two years.
Worse, Montana has lost the last two Cat-Griz games to Choate and Montana State.
During his previous stint in Missoula (2003-09), Hauck led the Griz to the I-AA playoffs each of those seven seasons, including three trips to the national title game. Montana won or shared the Big Sky title each year he was there, and the Griz went 80-17.
- Will Idaho vs. Eastern Washington develop into a football rivalry?
The teams squared off in the Big Sky from 1985-95, and met a few times since, most recently in that 2012 tilt. But Vandal fans would say their conference rival is Montana — of course, so would Eagle fans.
Since all Big Sky teams obviously can’t play each other each season, the conference chose two schools as “rivals” that each school would be guaranteed to play each year.
For Idaho, it was EWU and Montana. For EWU, it’s Idaho and Portland State. For Montana, it’s Idaho and Montana State.
The questions start Monday.
Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.