The Big Sky Conference saw its second week of conference competition and teams continue to separate themselves as the Homecoming and spirit based games start arriving on the schedule. A few straggler out of conference games remain, but the most exciting of them happened this past Sunday in Gainesville, Florida. Thankfully, the two teams were […]
The first week of in-conference games started to shape the race to the Big Sky Conference title and eventual playoff hopes. Dog fights, statement wins, and lucky stars all aligned on this week as conference opponents took a step ahead of others while Sacramento State absolutely embarrassed FBS Colorado State. All of the conference leaders […]
The majority of the Big Sky’s non-conference slate has been played and we can now form some pretty potent opinions about what the teams may offer in conference play.
Weber State absolutely dominated FBS Utah State and picked up the Wildcats first FBS win since 1993.
Week 2 Schedule – September 10th, 2022 Date Away Home Time Location Links Saturday 9/10/2022 Morehead State Montana State 1:30 p.m. MT Bozeman, Mont. TV: ABC Montana/SWX in Billings (503 on cable, 8.2 over air)/ESPN+ streaming Radio: Bobcat Radio Network Saturday 9/10/2022 South Dakota Montana 1:30 p.m. MT Missoula, Mont. TV: ABC/Fox TV Stats Radio: […]
Week 1 Schedule Thursday, September 1, 2022 The Wildcats kickoff their 2022 campaign with a substitute opponent after James Madison opted to play a full FBS slate right off the bat. Weber State found the trustworthy Division II Western Oregon Wolves to fill in for the Dukes for an inevitable shellacking. There might be looming […]
The off-season is finally in a normal format, but college football feels anything but normal. The FBS Power Conferences are in an unprecedented arms-race, Name-Image-Likeness (NIL) deals and rules continue to be controversial, and three household names of the FCS are on the rise to the FBS (Sam Houston State, Jacksonville State, and James Madison […]
These two teams were actually conference members of the now defunct Great West Football Conference until SDSU left that league after the 2007 season. UC Davis left the league after the 2011 season. Both moved to their current leagues of the Missouri Valley Football Conference for SDSU and the Big Sky Conference for UC Davis.
FCS realignment talk simply won’t go away, as there seems to be a lot of maneuvering with the Big South, Southland, Missouri Valley, OVC, Atlantic Sun, and WAC. What’s up with all of this? What is the future of all of these conferences?
The Big Sky Conference showed up for a fight against the FBS competition.
ith a strong Spring resume and a good culture that Hawkins has established in Davis, CA the Aggies have a great chance to make another good run towards the top of the Big Sky.
This fall will be a chance to revamp the entire resume of the Big Sky as the craziness of opt-outs and forfeits should be behind us.
The FCS Playoff bracket was announced this past Sunday at the conclusion of the historic spring football season. After the euphoria of realizing that the FCS actually made it to the finish line, despite lots of uncertainty, CSJ then proceeded to do what they do best – enter a spirited discussion on who really should have been in, out, seeded, or not.
Another close week made waves across the Big Sky as Weber State holds on late in the fourth quarter, Eastern Washington improves their resume for an at-large playoff spot, and Idaho crumbles in the Battle of the Domes. How long can we make excuses for Weber State’s close games? EWU took another step towards playoffs, […]
This week was full of surprises and highlights in the Big Sky, including a Sports Center Top Play of Weber State winning by a 50-yard Hail Mary throw to Justin Malone. In a week that should have been “blowout week” all but one contest was way closer than it should have been. In fact, those […]
Below are the Top 25 rankings based on the Sagarin rankings for the week ending March 28th. These rankings are amongst the now 91 schools participating in the spring schedule. NOTE: the Ivy League and Mid-Eastern (MEAC) conferences are not participating in the 2021 spring schedule. The Big Sky Conference was the big winner […]
We’re about at about the midpoint of the spring season, and the writers at CSJ get together to take stock of the season so far.
Below are the Top 25 rankings based on the Sagarin rankings for the week ending March 21st. These rankings are amongst the now 91 schools (Illinois State just announced it will forgo the rest of its spring schedule) participating in the spring schedule. NOTE: the Ivy League and Mid-Eastern (MEAC) conferences are not participating in […]
In one of the more normal weeks of college football the Big Sky saw a trio of close contests at four, five, and ten point differences. Weber State outlasted a gutsy performance from UC Davis. Southern Utah pulled far enough away from Cal Poly before they started to awaken. And Eastern Washington stormed back from […]
Compared to the chaos of the final week of February, where we saw half the top 25 lose, the results of the first week in March could instead be called “March Mildness”.
This weekend saw the best-ever spring weekend of FCS football in history, with a near-full slate of thrilling Missouri Valley conference action, a back-and-forth affair in the OVC, the start of SoCon play, and even a good old-fashioned FCS over FBS upset. It’s like a typical FCS football weekend. Except it’s February 22nd.
The CSJ writing staff answer the questions many of us have about the beginning of this unprecedented FCS season.
The Big Sky plans for a six-game conference-only schedule with two open weeks (March 20th & April 17th). In the time leading up to that, there has been a lot of changes in staff and players, with plenty of time for more chaos.
In the Dakotas, there is one fall Saturday every year when each of the states stands still to watch one football game.
The two rivalries garnering this attention, the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux versus the North Dakota State University Bison, and the University of South Dakota Coyotes versus the South Dakota State University Jackrabbits, are partially gone at least for the 2004 season and could be for the foreseeable future.
The Big Sky has been a game of boggle lately as each time you shake it something big changes. Montana and Sacramento State will duke it out for the drivers seat this weekend. Another notable match will be to see if NAU can play spoiler or Weber State will continue to establish their top ten […]
The Big Sky is a pendulum of normal games to chaotic endings many would not have suspected. What will we get Saturday? Despite the Northern Colorado betting line being the highest at 12.5 underdog, I think every team this week has a legitimate shot of winning their perspective game.
Without question the top FCS game of the week was the battle of FCS powerhouses in the Fargodome.Returning home after 47-22 victory the week before against Delaware, the heavily-favored Bison had a very tough battle against visiting UC Davis, ultimately winning 27-16 after scoring a late touchdown to finally put the game in the win column for North Dakota State.
Week 4 is upon us and the last of the intriguing non-conference play will be wrapping up for the majority this week. The Big Sky – Missouri Valley games will see several games this week of varying degrees of competitiveness to be observed. Missouri Valley fans will likely be harassing Big Sky fans after this week as the matchups are lopsided even when seemingly close. Despite the spreads, this week will feature two marquee matchups, even if the Big Sky is favored in neither.
Marquee: Jacksonville State def. Eastern Washington 49-45 A tidal wave of shock was sent across the FCS landscape as Jacksonville State pulled off a momentous upset. After the first quarter it seemed as if the fate of the game was going to be easily determined with a 28-7 EWU lead. Things would even out much […]
UC Davis QB Jake Maier had a tremendous evening in the Aggies’ home opener in UC Davis Health Stadium, going 38-for-49 passing for 389 yards in a 41-13 win over Lehigh Saturday Evening in front of 9.908 fans. Maier threw for four touchdown passes, all coming off of long drives of more than 50 yards. […]
The non-conference gauntlet continues in Week 3 with PAC 12 and Mountain West FBS matches, long distance FCS games, and one D-II game. Weber State has the best chance to make a “Fear the FCS” moment, but all of the FBS games this week have the potential to be ugly. Looking ahead at the FCS games is a different story, as Big Sky teams have the talent to win big. NAU versus Western New Mexico will be an obvious win barring a strong Lumberjack performance.
The Lehigh Mountain Hawks (0-2) make a trip to Davis, California to take on the UC Davis Aggies (1-1). It’s a game that promises to be an interesting clash of East Coast vs. West Coast in UC Davis Health Stadium – a Big Sky vs. Patriot League matchup, which is a rarity during the regular season.
Marquee: Montana State def. SEMO 38-17 The Redhawks gave their best effort, but the Bobcats prevailed dominant. A close halftime score did not define the game as Montana State went on a 28-7 run to win. Casey Bauman performed adequately, while the running game established itself as a deciding factor. Bauman passed for 136 yards […]
Most years, it’s FCS teams stunning FBS teams, but this week, it was non-scholarship FCS and sub-Division-I teams stunning FCS squads instead. In their home opener, non-scholarship Dayton (1-0) stunned Indiana State (0-2) 42-35. Flyer QB Jack Cook accounted for four touchdowns, two rushing and two passing, while RB Sean Prophit scored on a 13-yard […]
The Big Sky schedule in general switches from an uphill FBS heavy schedule to a now D2 and interesting FCS matches week. With the schedule almost evenly in thirds of D2 (or lower), FCS, and FBS games will show variety of strengths and weaknesses of the Big Sky teams. Considering the hodgepodge of games available the game of the week is centered on SEMO vs. Montana State. Both are last year playoff teams and have a strong depth of players. This could be hard hitting and high-intensity game that gets decided in the fourth quarter.
A Dalton Sneed-led Montana team went on the offensive and never looked back. It took a Coyote field goal in the second quarter for the Grizzlies to jump back from hibernation. That South Dakota field goal would be the only led Austin Simmons and company would enjoy all game long.
The Big Sky Conference is one of the Power 3 conferences in FCS football and will continue that tradition this year too. In our College Sports Journal Top 25 four Big Sky teams placed in the top ten, including Eastern Washington and UC Davis within the top five. A strong year is in store for […]
Dan Hawkins has brought the team from cellar to stellar. UC Davis is now a competitor not only in the Big Sky, but also in the FCS nationally last season – three losses on the season to a high-ranked Stanford team and two of those losses to Eastern Washington.
Big Sky Predicted Order of Finish, Big Conference Games To Watch, And Ten Players to watch.
Trailing 21-14, Eastern Washington scored twice within a less than three minute span to pull ahead and ultimately prevail 34-29 over Big Sky conferencemate UC Davis in a frenzied fourth quarter of FCS Playoff action.
A rematch between Big Sky Conference teams will take place this Saturday when the Eastern Washington University football team hosts UC Davis in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs.
DAVIS, Calif.—UC Davis quarterback Jake Maier threw for 310 yards while wide receiver Keelan Doss hauled in nine catches for 137 yards, helping the sixth playoff seeded UC Davis t to a 23-16 win over Northern Iowa in a Division I FCS second-round contest at Aggie Stadium with 8,306 in attendance. It was the first Division I playoff win […]
Northern Iowa at (6) UC Davis When: Saturday, December 1, 4:00 PM PST Where: Aggie Stadium, Davis, Calif. TV/Streaming: ESPN College Extra, ESPN3 Northern Iowa Panthers (7-5) Cedar Falls, Iowa Missouri Valley Football Conference Enrollment: 10,005 FCS Sagarin Rating: 97 (7 in FCS) How They Got Here: The Panthers won its opening round playoff game at home to Lamar narrowly […]
UC Davis at Eastern Washington When: Saturday, November 10th, 1:05 PM PST Where: Roos Field, Cheney, Wash. TV/Streaming: SWX (Spokane)/ watchbigsky.com, Pluto TV UC Davis Aggies (8-1, 6-0 Big Sky) UC Davis sits in first place in the Big Sky with Eastern Washington, Weber State, and Idaho State all one game behind. An Aggies win on the […]
Furman QB Harris Roberts, UC Davis WR Keelan Doss, Southern QB Ladarius Skelton, McNeese State DE Chris Livings, and James Madison S/RS D’Angelo Amos have been selected as the College Sports Journal FCS Football Players of the week ending October 15th 2018. The honorees are listed here with their achievements and their school, position, class, […]
