The Big Sky Conference (BSC) is a collegiate

athletic conference An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams, playing competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller divisions, with the best teams competing at successively higher levels. Conf ...

affiliated with the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

's Division I with football competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. Member institutions are located in the western United States in the eight states of

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. Four affiliate members each participate in one sport: two from California are football–only participants and two from the

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

participate only in men's golf.

History

Initially conceived for the Big Sky was founded on July 1, 1963, with six members in four of the charter members have been in the league from its founding, and a fifth returned in 2014 after an 18-year absence. The name "Big Sky" came from the popular 1947 western novel by A. B. Guthrie Jr.; it was proposed by Harry Missildine, a sports columnist of the '' Spokesman-Review'' just prior to the founding meetings of the conference in

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...

in February 1963, and was adopted with the announcement of the new conference five days later. Starting in 1968, the conference competed at the highest level (university division) in all sports except football (

college division The NCAA College Division was a historic subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) consisting of member schools competing at a lower level of college sports. The NCAA initially divided schools into a College Division and a ...

). The sole exception was

, in the university division for football through

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...

(except

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Janu ...

). In 1974, half of the Big Sky's ten sports were dropped (baseball, skiing, swimming, golf, and tennis), leaving football, basketball, wrestling, track and cross country. Women's sports were added in 1988, moving from the women's-only

Mountain West Athletic Conference The Mountain West Athletic Conference (MWAC) was a women's college athletic conference in the Western United States, western Launched in the summer of 1982, it existed for six years, until it was merged into the Big Sky Conference in 1988. Foun ...

(1982–88).

Fiftieth anniversary

The 2012–13 season marked the completion of a half century of athletic competition and a quarter century sponsoring women's collegiate athletics. Before the season the league introduced a new logo to celebrate this. The 25th season of women's athletics also marked a first for the league, as Portland State won the league's inaugural softball championship. From 1982 to 1988, women's sports were conducted in the

. The Big Sky sponsors championships in sixteen sports, including men's and women's cross country, golf, indoor and outdoor track and field, basketball, and tennis. There are also championships in football, and in women's volleyball, soccer, and softball. It is the only Division I all-sports conference that does not sponsor baseball.

Member schools

Current members

;Notes:

Affiliate members

;Notes:

Former members

;Notes:

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1963 till:2025 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<# Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports id:FullxF value:rgb(0.551,0.824,0.777) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football id:AssocF value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.5,0.691,0.824) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all (consider identifying in legend or a footnote) id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference where OtherC1 has already been used, to distinguish the two PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:FullxF from:1963 till:1979 text: Gonzaga (1963–1979) bar:1 color:OtherC1 from:1979 till:end text: WCC bar:2 color:Full from:1963 till:1996 text:

(1963–1996) bar:2 color:OtherC1 from:1996 till:2005 text:

Big West The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacifi ...

bar:2 color:OtherC2 from: 2005 till:2014 text: WAC bar:2 color:FullxF from:2014 till:2018 text:(2014–2017) bar:2 shift:(-1) color:Full from:2018 till:end text: _(2018–present) bar:3 color:Full from:1963 till:end text: Idaho State (1963–present) bar:4 color:Full from:1963 till:end text:

(1963–present) bar:5 color:Full from:1963 till:end text: Montana State (1963–present) bar:6 color:Full from:1963 till:end text:

Weber State Weber State University (pronounced ) is a public university in Ogden, Utah. It was founded in 1889 as Weber Stake Academy. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. History Weber State University was founded ...

(1963–present) bar:7 color:Full from:1970 till:1996 text: Boise State (1970–1996) bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:1996 till:2001 text:

bar:7 color:OtherC2 from:2001 till:2011 text: WAC bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:2011 till:end text: MWC bar:8 color:Full from:1970 till:end text:

Northern Arizona Northern Arizona is an unofficial, colloquially-defined region of the U.S. state of Arizona. Generally consisting of Apache, Coconino, Mohave, Navajo, and Gila counties, the region is geographically dominated by the Colorado Plateau, the sout ...

(1970–present) bar:9 color:Full from:1979 till:1992 text:

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

(1979–1992) bar:9 color:OtherC1 from:1992 till:2000 text:

bar:9 color:OtherC2 from:2000 till:2012 text: WAC bar:9 color:OtherC1 from:2012 till:end text: MWC bar:10 color:Full from:1987 till:end text:

Eastern Washington Eastern Washington is the region of the U.S. state of Washington located east of the Cascade Range. It contains the city of Spokane (the second largest city in the state), the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the Hanf ...

(1987–present) bar:11 color:Full from:1996 till:2001 text:

Cal State Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest u ...

(1996–2001) bar:11 shift:(100) color:OtherC1 from:2001 till:end text:

bar:12 color:Full from:1996 till:end text:

Sacramento State California State University, Sacramento (CSUS, Sacramento State, or informally Sac State) is a public university in Sacramento, California. Founded in 1947 as Sacramento State College, it is the eleventh oldest school in the 23-campus California ...

(1996–present) bar:13 color:Full from:1996 till:end text:

Portland State Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the following two decades ...

(1996–present) bar:14 color:Full from:2006 till:end text:

Northern Colorado Northern Colorado is the name for a region in the state of Colorado and a proposed state in the northeastern portion of Colorado. Region Northern Colorado is a region in the northern portion of Colorado. It borders northwestern Colorado, nort ...

(2006–present) bar:15 color:Full from:2012 till:2018 text:

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, So ...

(2012–2018) bar:15 shift:(40) color:OtherC1 from:2018 till:end text: Summit bar:16 color:Full from:2012 till:2022 text:

Southern Utah Southern Utah University (SUU) is a public university in Cedar City, Utah. Founded in 1897 as a normal school, Southern Utah University now graduates over 1,800 students each year with baccalaureate and graduate degrees from its six colleges. ...

(2012–2022) bar:16 color:OtherC1 from:2022 till:end text: WAC bar:17 color:AssocF from:2012 till:end text: Cal Poly (2012–present) bar:18 color:AssocF from:2012 till:end text:

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

(2012–present) bar:19 color:AssocOS from:2014 till:end text:

Binghamton Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflue ...

(2014–present) bar:20 color:AssocOS from:2014 till:2023 text:

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...

(2014–2023) bar:20 color:OtherC1 from:2023 till:end text: D-III ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1965 TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center) text:^"Big Sky membership history" # > If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following six options (use only the colors that are used in the graphic.) Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space. <#

NCAA championships

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic ...

national championships as of 2021. † Northern Arizona is the only Big Sky program to win D1 team national titles outside of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).

Sports

As of the 2022–23 school year, the Big Sky sponsors championships in seven men's and nine women's NCAA sanctioned sports. Each core member institution is required to participate in all of the 13 core sports. Men's core sports are basketball, cross country, football, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, and tennis. Women's core sports are basketball, cross country, golf, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, tennis, and volleyball. Cal Poly and

participate as football-only affiliates, otherwise participating in the

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...

and, through the 2022–23 season,

are affiliates in men's golf only, with Binghamton otherwise participating in the

America East Conference The America East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I founded in 1979, whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference has nine core members including eight public research ...

and Hartford as a D-I independent before it departs for Division III in July 2023. Before the 2014–15 school year, the latter two schools had participated in men's golf alongside five full Big Sky members in the single-sport America Sky Conference. The return of Idaho brought the number of members participating in men's golf to six, which led to the Big Sky adding men's golf and absorbing the America Sky Conference.

Baseball

The Big Sky is unusual among Division I all-sports conferences in not sponsoring

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

, a distinction that it shares only with the

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose full members are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern and the Mid-Atlantic United States. It participates in the National C ...

, and which it held alone prior to the 2022–23 school year. The conference originally sponsored baseball in 1964, with all members participating. When Boise State and Northern Arizona arrived for the 1971 season, competition was split into two divisions of four teams each, with the winners in a best-of-three championship series. Montana State and Montana soon dropped the sport and by the 1973 season, only six teams remained but the divisions were kept, and Boise State moved over to the North Division for In May 1974, the Big Sky announced its intention to discontinue five of its ten sponsored sports. It retained football, basketball, cross-country, track, and wrestling, and dropped conference competition in baseball, golf, tennis, swimming, and skiing. Of the eleven Big Sky baseball titles, four each went to

and Gonzaga, and three to

. Gonzaga won the final title in 1974 over Idaho State in three games, after losing the first game in Pocatello. Southern division champion Idaho State chose to end its baseball program weeks following the conference's announcement, and Gonzaga, Idaho, and Boise State joined the new Northern Pacific Conference (NorPac) for baseball Boise State and Idaho competed in the NorPac for six seasons, then discontinued baseball after the :*

(4) 1964, 1966, 1967, 1969 :* Gonzaga (4) 1965, 1971, 1973, 1974 :* Weber State (3) 1968, 1970, 1972 In 2016,

announced in April that it was their last baseball season. Since then, only

and

have competed in the sport, both as affiliate members in the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Texas. Due to mos ...

(WAC) until Northern Colorado baseball moved to the

Summit League The Summit League, or The Summit, is an NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic conference with its membership mostly located in the Midwestern United States from Illinois on the East of the Mississippi River to the Dakotas and Nebraska on the W ...

after the 2021 season.

Wrestling

Through the 1987 season, the conference sponsored wrestling. Boise State and Idaho State dominated in most years, winning ten and eight conference titles, respectively. BSU won seven consecutive from 1974 to 1980. Montana State and Weber State also had some good years; Montana won their only conference title in the last year Big Sky sponsored the sport. :* Montana State (3) 1964, 1965, 1966 :* Idaho State (8) 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1984 :* Boise State (10) 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1986 :*Weber State (2) 1981, 1983 :*

(1) 1987 Boise State continued its wrestling program as an affiliate member of the

Pac-10 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division ...

Men's sponsored sports by school

Men's varsity sports not sponsored by the Big Sky Conference which are played by Big Sky schools:

Women's sponsored sports by school

Women's varsity sports not sponsored by the Big Sky Conference which are played by Big Sky schools:

Facilities

Basketball

Current NBA players

Damian Lillard Damian Lamonte Ollie Lillard Sr. (born July 15, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Weber State Wildcats and earned ...

, Weber State

Conference rivalries

and Idaho State *

and

* Idaho State and

and Montana State *

and

Non-conference rivalries

and Utah State/

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

Utah Valley Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

and Gonzaga *

and

Washington State Cougars The Washington State Cougars (known informally as the Cougs) are the athletic teams that represent Washington State University. Located in Pullman, Washington, WSU is a member of the Pac-12 Conference in NCAA Division I. The athletic program com ...

Battle of the Palouse The Battle of the Palouse refers to an athletic rivalry in the northwest United States, between the Vandals of the University of Idaho and Cougars of Washington State University. The two land-grant universities are less than apart on the ...

and Boise State * Idaho State and

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

and

* Montana State and

and

and Portland *

and Colorado State *

and

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

2021-22 Home Game Attendance Averages

Rivalries

Protected football rivalries

As of July 2022, these rivalries are protected.

Conference

Non-conference

Commissioners

Jack Friel John Bryan Friel (August 26, 1898 – December 12, 1995) was an American college basketball coach, the head coach of the Washington State Cougars for 30 seasons, from 1928 He holds the school record for victories by a men's basketball coach with ...

(1963–71) * John Roning (1971–77) * Steve Belko (1977–81) * Ron Stephenson (1981–95) * Doug Fullerton (1995–2016) * Andrea Williams (2016–2018) ** Ron Loghry (interim, 2018) * Tom Wistrcill (2018–present)

Headquarters

* Pullman, Washington (1963–1971) *

Boise, Idaho Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown ar ...

(1971–1995) * Ogden, Utah (1995–2019) *

Farmington, Utah Farmington is a city in Davis County, Utah, United States. The population was 24,531 at the 2020 census. The Lagoon Amusement Park and Station Park transit-oriented retail center (which includes a FrontRunner train station) are located in Far ...

(2019–present)

Big Sky championships

Men's basketball

* Prior to 1976, each NCAA regional had a

third place In sociology, the third place refers to the social surroundings that are separate from the two usual social environments of home ("first place") and the workplace ("second place"). Examples of third places include churches, cafes, clubs, public ...

game (won 1969; lost 1972, 1975) * The only Big Sky team to reach the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament was Idaho State in

* The only Big Sky team to earn a bye in the NCAA tournament was

in 1982 * Through 2022, the Big Sky has yet to have an at-large team in the NCAA tournament

Championships (by school)

NCAA tournament

Since

, the Big Sky champion has received a berth in the NCAA tournament; the conference tournament winner has been the representative since its introduction in

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 ...

. The best finish by a Big Sky team came in

, when the

Idaho State Bengals The Idaho State Bengals are the varsity intercollegiate athletic teams representing Idaho State University, located in Pocatello, Idaho. The university sponsors thirteen teams including men and women's basketball, cross country, tennis, and trac ...

Jim Killingsworth James Austin Killingsworth (June 19, 1923 – June 10, 2007) was an American college basketball coach. He was best known for his tenures at Idaho State University and Texas Christian University (TCU). Born in Checotah, Oklahoma, Killingsworth pla ...

advanced to the

Elite Eight In the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship or the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship, the "Elite Eight" comprises the final eight teams, representing the regional finals, or national quarterfinals. In Division I and Divis ...

, with a one-point upset of

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

in the Sweet Sixteen in Provo, Utah. Two days later, the Bengals led

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes th ...

by a point at halftime, but lost by seventeen and finished at Seeding was introduced in

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...

when it expanded to forty teams, and the highest seed granted a Big Sky team was in 1982: ranked eighth in the final polls with a record, the

Idaho Vandals The Idaho Vandals are the intercollegiate athletic teams representing the University of Idaho, located in Moscow. The Vandals compete at the NCAA Division I level as a member of the Big Sky Conference. The football team was an independent for th ...

under

Don Monson Donald Lloyd Monson (born April 11, 1933) is a former college basketball head coach and the father of head coach Dan Monson. He was a high school head coach for 18 seasons and college head coach for 14 seasons: five at Idaho and nine at Oregon. ...

were seeded third in the West regional. After a first round bye, they beat

Lute Olson Robert Luther "Lute" Olson (September 22, 1934 – August 27, 2020) was an American basketball coach, who was inducted into both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. He was the head c ...

's Iowa Hawkeyes in nearby Pullman in overtime, but lost to second-seeded (and fourth-ranked)

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

in the regional semifinals (Sweet Sixteen), also played in Provo. (Idaho had defeated OSU by 22 points in December in the Far West Classic at Portland.) Other Big Sky teams that advanced to regional semifinals (Sweet Sixteen) include the Weber State Wildcats in

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

and

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

, when the total field was 25 teams, and the

Montana Grizzlies The Montana Grizzlies and Lady Griz are the nicknames given to the athletic teams of the University of Montana, located in Missoula. The university is a member of the Big Sky Conference and competes in NCAA Division I, fielding six men's teams ( ...

under

Jud Heathcote George Melvin "Jud" Heathcote (May 27, 1927 – August 28, 2017) was an American basketball player and coach. He was a college basketball head coach for 24 seasons: five at the University of Montana and nineteen at Michigan State University H ...

in the 32-team field in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

. The Griz fell to

by just three points, who went on to win another title in John Wooden's final year as head coach. (A year later, Heathcote was hired at

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...

with Monson as an assistant for the first two years; in his third season, the Spartans won the national title in

.) Since 1982, only three teams from the Big Sky have advanced within the NCAA tournament, and none past the round of 32. Weber State won in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

and

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

, coached by Ron Abegglen, and Montana in 2006, led by alumnus

Larry Krystkowiak Larry Brett Krystkowiak ( ; born September 23, 1964) is a retired American professional basketball player, and former head coach of the Utah Utes men's basketball team. Early life He was born in Missoula, Montana, to Bernard and Helen Krystkowia ...

. Prior to Idaho in 1982, the Big Sky had been seeded seventh (Weber State, 1979 & 1980; and

, 1981); the highest seed for the conference since 1982 is ninth (Weber State,

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

), and the highest since expanding to 64 teams in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

is twelfth (Weber State in 2003; Montana in 2006). Through 2022, the Big Sky has yet to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. The first NIT appearance for the conference was

; two Big Sky teams advanced to the NIT's round of 16: Weber State (

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

) and Boise State (

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

Women's basketball

(MWAC) through 1988 season

Football titles

Bold = National Champions

Football championships (by school)

All-time school records by wins for current teams

This list goes through the 2020 season. This list includes former member North Dakota and excludes current member Idaho. Records do not match NCAA record book.

Overall Big Sky Conference champions

References

External links

* {{NCAA Division I FCS conference navbox Sports in the Western United States Ogden, Utah Sports organizations established in 1963

History

Fiftieth anniversary

Member schools

Current members

Affiliate members

Former members

Membership timeline

NCAA championships

Sports

Baseball

Wrestling

Men's sponsored sports by school

Women's sponsored sports by school

Facilities

Basketball

Current NBA players

Conference rivalries

Non-conference rivalries

2021-22 Home Game Attendance Averages

Rivalries

Protected football rivalries

Conference

Non-conference

Commissioners

Headquarters

Big Sky championships

Men's basketball

Championships (by school)

NCAA tournament

Women's basketball

Football titles

Football championships (by school)

All-time school records by wins for current teams

Overall Big Sky Conference champions

See also

References

External links