Jul. 23—Among the preseason honors doled out at the Big Sky Conference’s Football Kickoff last weekend in Spokane came a couple bits of news.
The league, except for a program to be named later, will play a nine-game conference schedule beginning in 2026. And quarterbacks will have signals sent in via radio in 2025.
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Both “advancements” got responses ranging from lukewarm all the way to tepid, depending on which in-state coach you talked to.
“I don’t think it’s anything earth-shattering,” Montana State coach Brent Vigen said of plays being communicated via radio. “It’s a different way to communicate, and probably a better way to communicate. You still need to make some plays and I think if you try to coach too much you can hurt some guys, too.”
The NCAA approved coach-to-play communication for college football; it’s one-way, from coach to player, and cuts off with 15 seconds left on the play clock — or when the ball is snapped, whichever comes first.
“I’ve never been a fan of adding technology,” Montana’s Bobby Hauck said. “I think it should be about the player making plays and the coaches planning.”
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Then he added: “Who cares what I think. What is, is, right? I didn’t like the willy-nilly transferring with no penalty, either, but it doesn’t matter.”
Hauck, in his second tenure as the Grizzlies’ head coach, notes the days of sign-stealing accusations could be over. Unless, of course, teams still send in formations and calls via sideline signal.
“I’m interested to see how many people. … just stop signaling,” he said. “In the NFL, they huddle. It’ll be interesting to see how many people huddle. If they’re not huddling (read: playing the up-tempo offenses prevalent in college football), then somebody’s signaling.”
That said, he can see it helping a lot of teams.
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“Era we live in, I guess,” Hauck said. “It is beneficial. It will streamline some things for the quarterback.”
Nine-game schedule
The Big Sky is a big player in the Football Championship Subdivision, and the FCS has permanently gone to a 12-game regular season.
Given its relative remoteness and giant footprint, Big Sky commissioner Tom Wistrcill said a nine-game league schedule will be in place for 2026.
One problem: Southern Utah and Utah Tech, coming into the Big Sky while Sacramento State exits, will give the league 13 teams. That odd number means giving everyone exactly nine league games is impossible. One of the newcomers will get eight.
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It’s the best-case scenario, Wistrcill said Monday. It’s one less game to find for each league AD.
“We have, as you all know, trouble getting teams to come out and play our programs,” he said. “Our ADs and coaches will do a home and home with pretty much anyone, and teams love to have home games. And I think what they have found over time is when they come to our venues, they don’t win often.”
Hauck, in a first tenure (2003-09) full of deep playoff runs, occasionally waxed poetic about the one-and-one bowl system enjoyed by most FBS teams. Now there’s the ever-expanding College Football Playoff while the FCS plays its title game in January. So…
“We’re adding games,” Hauck said. “Next year Week Zero is going to be Week 1. Are we going to add a new Week Zero and start practice on the Fourth of July?
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“We’re not adding scholarships, (but) we’re adding games. This is a war of attrition sometimes. You look at which teams are having success, it’s those teams that are lucky from a health standpoint and have developed some depth. And you’ve got to have a good portion of luck there as well.”
Like everything else, you adapt or die.
“I know scheduling in itself is a challenge,” Vigen said. “Picking up that extra game, plus a team going forward next year, it probably made sense to fill those schedules out. I think the athletic directors figured out a good balance from what they showed us yesterday.
“I think it was probably a necessary adjustment.”
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Some programs will have to drop or rearrange future non-league games to work around the expanded league schedule.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how we blend that in,” Wistrcill said. “It’s not completely finished yet, but we’re laser focused on making sure that’s ready for 2026.”
