Big Sky commissioner on FCS playoffs, NCAA antitrust settlement

SPOKANE — The NCAA antitrust settlement, FCS playoffs and conference realignment were among the topics covered at the July 22 State of the Conference address by Big Sky Commissioner Tom Wistrcill.

Oh, and the conference’s new deal with ESPN, which begins in 2025. 

“They gave us a very nice increase in the dollars, and our schools have done a great job in embracing ESPN in the production part,” Wistrcill said. “Making every game look like a high-quality TV production, and we’ve shown them that we can draw quite an audience whether it’s part of our ESPN+ package or it’s late-night Saturday night football.” 

The new deal will run through 2030, Wistrcill announced. The previous agreement, signed in 2021, saw two Big Sky football games, one regular season men’s basketball game and both the men’s and women’s basketball championships be televised on ESPN2 and ESPNU. The new agreement will also increase the number of televised football games to four per season. 

The Big Sky will also add football games Friday night, Wistrcill said. 

“That provides incredible exposure for our teams,” he said. “8 p.m. here might sound late, but for anybody on the east coast of the Midwest that’s home or at the bar that's watching football, they’re watching Big Sky football.” 

The FCS playoff format will also be slightly different this winter; rather than the top eight teams being seeded, that number has expanded to the top 16. 

“Seeding 16 teams is going to help us where we won’t have matchups like last year when North Dakota State played Montana State in the second round,” Wistrcill said. “You had two of the six best teams in the country, (and) one of them wasn’t getting very far. It spreads out the strength throughout the country.” 

Also changing is the FCS Championship Game, which has been moved to Monday, Jan. 6. Last year’s championship game between Montana and South Dakota State was held on a Sunday, competing with the NFL for viewers. 

The opportunity to move the game to Monday night presented itself with the College Football Playoff on the FBS level being expanded from four teams to 12 teams this upcoming season. 

“For us to be the only football game on in the world that night, that’s a really big deal,” Wistrcill said. “We’ve been working really hard on that — the timing worked out. ESPN noticed that draws an audience, so they were excited to do it as well.” 

Wistrcill also spoke on incoming financial penalties stemming from the NCAA antitrust settlement, which addresses three cases —  House v. NCAA, Hubbard v. NCAA and Carter v. NCAA — in regard to back damages for student-athletes dating back to 2016.  

Big Sky member instructions will have to pay anywhere from $180,000 to $350,000 over the next decade as a result of the settlement. 

“I use the line that Weber State’s money is going to go into Joe Burrow and Zion Williamson’s pocket, because that’s exactly what’s going to happen,” Wistrcill said. “We didn’t have any say in this, we were just pulled along by the NCAA when they made the decision, ‘Here’s how we’re paying the damages.’” 

Wistrcill said Big Sky member institutions haven’t had to cut any athletic programs to make room for these financial penalties, but discussions have been had. To account for the penalties, schools will have to make “tough decisions” about travel and staffing. 

“If you have a $17 million budget and all of a sudden, you’re out $300,000, that’s a heavy penalty,” Wistrcill said. 

Conference realignment remains a hot topic in collegiate athletics, however mainly at the Power 5 level. Wistrcill noted that the Big Sky keeps an eye on potential movements around the country but doesn’t see those changes coming to the conference – mostly due to the financial impact. 

“If somebody's going to make the move from FCS to FBS, they’ve got to pay $5 million upfront just to do it,” Wistrcill said. “Then they’ve got to invest anywhere $8-10 million per year to be at that level, at the average level of the Mountain West. For our schools, that extra $8-10 million, I don’t know where they get that from.”