The Big Sky Conference has finalized its 2022-2024 conference football schedules, the league announced Saturday.
The future 2022-24 slates will still consist of eight league games that include two annual opponents and six rotating opponents. The league stated in the release that this format was selected in part based on feedback from the league membership about wanting to make sure teams did not go a long time during the three-year period without playing a fellow conference opponent.
“The Big Sky’s new football scheduling model preserves so many of our most historic annual rivalries while ensuring a balanced rotation of playing each conference opponent,” Commissioner Tom Wistrcill said. “For this three-year scheduling block that begins in 2022, our 12 football programs and their supporters will enjoy knowing that each school will play every other Big Sky school at least twice – once at home and once on the road – so each player will have the opportunity to compete in every stadium and each local fanbase will have the chance to see every conference team come to their town.”
The league balanced the travel among the non-California member institutions, making sure those schools will play once each season at either Cal Poly, Sacramento State, or UC Davis, and will host one of those three schools per year between 2022 and 2024.
Some of the league schools took advantage of the opportunity to announce their full schedules for the three-year period. Montana released its slate shortly after the league’s announcement.
The Big Sky will conduct its annual Media Day event today from the Davenport Grand Hotel in Spokane, Wash. Coverage of the event begins at noon (Eastern) on ESPN+. Prior to the event, the league announced Oct. 2’s Montana-Eastern Washington contest would air over ESPNU, along with Oct. 15’s Montana State at Weber State outing. Four league games will also air over ROOT Sports.