Big Sky council to meet today

By Jeff Kolpack

October 04, 2005 at 11:00 PM

The Big Sky Conference Presidents Council will meet this morning at a Salt Lake City hotel. If expansion is addressed, it will probably be between sips of coffee.

It's a far cry from last year's annual meeting, when North Dakota State was hoping to get an invitation to join the league. NDSU, South Dakota State, Northern Colorado and Southern Utah were considered the frontrunners for membership. Only UNC received the nod.

This time, Big Sky commissioner Doug Fullerton said he may bring up the possibility of increasing the league to 12 teams that will be split into two divisions. The best-case scenario for NDSU is if the Presidents Council gives some type of approval for further study.

"It would be a model they'll have to really work through," said NDSU athletic director Gene Taylor. "Even if they bring it up to discuss it, there are still a lot of other issues on the table."

Fullerton said last week that increasing the league to 12 teams could fit NDSU into the Big Sky's geographical footprint. Otherwise, the Bison will be hard-pressed for membership.

With the addition of UNC next year, the Big Sky will be a nine-team league. While good for football, it's a scheduling nightmare for other sports - especially basketball.

Still, Taylor points out that Northern Colorado is just a one hour, 40 minute flight from Fargo. He said if Sacramento State (Calif.) and Northern Arizona make sense as travel partners, "why not Northern Colorado and North Dakota State? Everybody can get into Denver. It could be South Dakota State for that matter."

Sacramento to Flagstaff, Ariz., is 160 more miles than Fargo to Greeley. But teams also can't fly directly into Flagstaff. With the exception of an occasional charter, most fly to Phoenix and bus up to Flagstaff.

Taylor said NDSU's national presence in football in the last two seasons will probably not help the school with any type of expansion talks.

"I don't know how much presidents really weigh that when it comes to making their decision," he said. "We're good academically, we have the research dollars and we're a land grant institution. I think the presidents look at that."

Readers can reach Forum reporter

Jeff Kolpack at (701) 241-5546

By Jeff Kolpack

Jeff would like to dispel the notion he was around when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he is on his third decade of reporting with Forum Communications. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, Jeff has worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he's covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU's Division I FCS national football titles and has written three books: "Horns Up," "North Dakota Tough" and "Covid Kids." He is the radio host of "The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack" April through August.