BOZEMAN — A presentation at the Big Sky Football Kickoff over the summer illustrated the sizable strata within the conference. Big Sky commissioner Tom Wistrcill met with his league’s 12 head football coaches on July 21 in Spokane, Washington. At one point, the topic of nonconference scheduling came up.
Wistrcill showed a list of programs over the last decade that Big Sky schools had paid to host, according to Northern Colorado coach Ed Lamb. “The vast majority of them were to Montana and Montana State,” Lamb told 406 MT Sports on July 22. Nonconference play in college football is filled with “guarantee games” (aka “buy games”, “money games” and “blood games”) in which the host school gives a six- or seven-figure check to opponent.
It’s one of the few ways to satisfy both sides — the host gets a winnable home game, while the visitor gets to challenge itself and receives enough money to pay for travel and other expenses. Schools in the Football Championship Subdivision drink from much smaller revenue streams than the top-tier Football Bowl Subdivision, so many FCS programs are almost required to schedule road guarantee games. There are exceptions, notably two that reside in the Treasure State.
While Montana and Montana State have advantages compared to their Big Sky peers, nonconference scheduling isn’t always easier. In fact, the traits other schools envy sometimes pose problems for the Grizzlies and Bobcats. “Scheduling’s hard,” Griz coach.