Big Sky expansion

[Bobcat4Ever]

I’m happy to see the Big Sky return to Cedar City and add St. George because they are just 38 and 94 miles respectively from my home. Roads to St. George are snow-free and only intermittently snowy for a few days to Cedar City.

Here are some comparisons.

Elevation: Utah Tech 2,760. Southern Utah 5,846.
City populations: St. George 110,270. Cedar City 41,400.
County populations: Washington 202,452. Iron 66,044.
Time zones: Both in Mountain (MST, MDT).

Elevation advantage goes to Southern Utah as they will be second-highest to N. Arizona (officially 6,909), and the only school in the 5,000s. Weber, Montana State, Idaho State and No. Colorado occupy the 4,000s.

The St. George populations (city and metro) are both about triple that of Cedar City. Both areas are growing tremendously quickly with the outmigration from California (ref: Rick Rund). For Montana city comparisons, think Billings and Helena, although the metro population of St. George is more compact.

Both cities are along I-15. St. George owns the air with their relatively new airport just southeast of town. It has multiple, daily, non-stop flights to Salt Lake City via Delta and Denver via United, serviced by 70-passenger regional jets. It’s been great for us, as a closer, easier, less-crowded alternative to Las Vegas. Team charters may still use Las Vegas, but for fans, it’s an easy trip now to St. George. If you want to do a basketball or volleyball double-header, fly into SGU and rent a car — but check the driving conditions to Cedar City first.

I attended the MSU @ UTech football game last August 31. The game had an 8 p.m. start since it was still summer. Temperature at kickoff was 96° and 85° at the end. Limited humidity, no bugs, light breeze. It was the most comfortable I’ve ever been at a football game, just right for shorts and a Bobcat T-shirt. The stadium is that of a large high school quality and size, very well-maintained, nice video board. It was only half full with sideline tickets outside the 25s for $5.00. They are really, really going to have to ramp up ticket sales and prices to keep up. If Big Sky football catches on there they have the city size and infrastructure to be a real contributor to the conference.

I’ve only attended an MSU Bobcats women’s basketball game at Southern Utah. Very nice facility, parking was a bit limited. I will say that the fans there were the nicest we’ve ever encountered on the road anywhere. We had a great time watching our Oliana Squires / Fallyn Freije led team down the T-Birds by 16 points. Nice trip. Then came Covid, then they left the league. A pretty small city but they did pretty well before.

Give UTech a few years to get up and running. Neither of these teams will be another N. Colorado. Already nicer facilities, campuses, places to attend a game. Family-oriented atmospheres. Welcome 2026.

Nice write up. I'm an I-15 fan, so adding two more teams to the route is great. I count Bozeman as I-15 because I take about 30 miles of it to go to Bozeman usually. But Pocatello, Odgen, Cedar City and St. George is a great core for the league. I think that's about a 400-mile stretch. It's very cool for those teams being so close together. It really helps Weber St.

Thanks, Tom. It’s 464 miles from Pokey to St. George. Less and less snow all the way.

When we moved, we were happy with the idea of watching Bobcat teams at SUU, and then that fell apart. Having football, basketball, and volleyball especially vs. the UTech Trailblazers at St. George is something I didn’t really consider — very exciting prospect! For anyone who hasn’t been to St. George lately, prepare to be surprised. It’s one of the very few places, or maybe the only one, whose growth explosion has exceeded Bozeman’s. Happy they are joining the Big Sky.

Hope we can get some ‘Blazer fans to join Bobcat Nation.

[damnyoutuesday]

The more I think about it, the more I love the Utah Tech addition to the Big Sky. Rapidly growing city, growing university, AD that has shown a commitment to investing in athletics. I see really do think they'll be decent at football soon, especially now that they're in a real conference.

Southern Utah on the other hand is incredibly lucky that Sac State is being extremely annoying on the way out so we forget about the Thunderbirds previous exit. Not excited about having a school with a stadium marginally better than Portland State's in the conference (shoutout to Utah Tech for actually having large permanent stands on both sides)

[imacat]

The thing I appreciate about this expansion is that it makes geographic sense. So many conferences have become so spread out that they have lost all regional identities.

[grizzh8r]

The more I think about it, the more I love the Utah Tech addition to the Big Sky. Rapidly growing city, growing university, AD that has shown a commitment to investing in athletics. I see really do think they'll be decent at football soon, especially now that they're in a real conference.

Southern Utah on the other hand is incredibly lucky that Sac State is being extremely annoying on the way out so we forget about the Thunderbirds previous exit. Not excited about having a school with a stadium marginally better than Portland State's in the conference (shoutout to Utah Tech for actually having large permanent stands on both sides)

Say what you will about SUU's facilities, but at least they were competitive in a variety of sports during their time in the BSC. They won 2 BSC football championships in their previous 9 year stint in the conference. In nearly 30 years, Portland St. has a goose egg, with only one playoff appearance as an at- large bid. The SUU WBB team won the WAC conference championship in 2023, and their MBB team was usually a tough out.

And as someone else pointed out, both UT schools are far more "directionally correct" than any of the Cali schools (UCD and CPSLO, who were never going to be full members anyways) for conference stability. And far better additions than the huge commuter type schools (PSU, CSUS) whose students could generally care less about the athletic teams. I like these additions! PSU and EWU's sports programs are on life support, so if they disappear due to lack of funding, UT and SUU really help fill that void.

[The Butcher]

Talking about facilities. This is a high school football stadium that is opening up for the 2025 season. They have a better stadium than most of the Big Sky schools!
https://www.usatodayhss.com/story/sport ... 809079007/

[MSUBobcat04]

Mediocre move for football, but it helps save Big Sky autobids in sports such as soccer and softball

Utah Tech and Northern Colorado can duke it out for worst team in the conference every year

Only softball, which would drop to 5 with Suck State's departure. Soccer would be at 8 still, well above the auto-bid requirement. Golf fell below the auto bid requirement but was already going to be back to 6 this year with EWU restarting its program and adding Francis Marion as an affiliate.

What does it mean being added as an affiliate. So ewu has not had golf but now will add it? Does that require ewu to add women’s golf? More funds required…

EWU moved men's tennis to club status. Presumably, they are similar scholarship counts so no effect on Title IX.