Big Sky: No Softball

[NWNDBison]

Remember how hyped many of us were to get into the Big Sky Conference?

Remember how disappointed we all were when we were rejected?

In looking over the teams in the regional softball tournament by conference, I noticed the Big Sky had 0 entries. "How could this be?" I thought. So I visited the Big Sky Conference website. Turns out Big Sky doesn't do softball.

Had NDSU been admitted to the Big Sky, this weekend's glory might not have been possible.

What would have been the fate of NDSU softball? Independent schedule? 0% chance of going to regionals?

Maybe NDSU would have joined the Pacific Coast Softball Conference. That's where most of the Big Sky teams have ended up. Portland State represented the PCSC in regionals this year. Ironically, at the NCAA Softball bracket site, PCSC is not listed when you search by conference.

[bisonpride]

Personally the Big Sky was a terrible fit to begin with but so many were looking at only football and not at the athletic department as a whole. The travel budget for the rest of the programs would be unbelievable. Besides that they dont have baseball or softball. It was never a good fit. The geographic center of North America is in Rugby. We would have had to travel over half way across the country the entire conference season to play games. Not quite ideal. We hear how terrible trips to Southern Utah are. That would have been every game. We ended up exactly where we needed to be.

[dbackjon]

Personally the Big Sky was a terrible fit to begin with but so many were looking at only football and not at the athletic department as a whole. The travel budget for the rest of the programs would be unbelievable. Besides that they dont have baseball or softball. It was never a good fit. The geographic center of North America is in Rugby. We would have had to travel over half way across the country the entire conference season to play games. Not quite ideal. We hear how terrible trips to Southern Utah are. That would have been every game. We ended up exactly where we needed to be.

As a Big Sky fan, I agree completely - Statesboro, GA is closer to Fargo than Flagstaff is.

I see the Summit League ending up as a Central US conference - eventually, SUU and Centenary will end up elsewhere, and you will have about as compact a conference as you could hope for at D-I (without the rest of your old NCC mates jumping up).

Summit sports offerings, other than football, fit what the Dakota schools offer better, other than football, and you found a good home in the MVFC for that - again, with less travel than the Big Sky.

[Trampled]

Thank God again for Gene Taylor!!!!!!..He has consistantly outperformed. I look at all the programs and can't believe the coaches he has recruited.