THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Reading between the lines of the latest Big Sky invites

The announcement earlier this past week that Southern Utah was rejoining the Big Sky Conference, and Utah Tech is joining the league, both effective in 2026, made sense geographically. 

At least. 

Southern and Tech are in southern Utah, located 52 miles apart, south of Weber State (Ogden) and north of Northern Arizona (Flagstaff).  

Utah Tech, located in St. George, is roughly 270 miles from Flagstaff and 340 from Ogden. 

Southern Utah, in Cedar City, is right in the middle — some 290 miles from Flagstaff and 290 from Ogden.  

The Big Sky said adding Southern Utah and Utah Tech will bolster the Olympic sports the conference offers. 

That may be true, and that’s nice, but unless this is a heck of an exception, conferences adding teams is almost always driven by football and men’s basketball. 

And the Big Sky already has enough teams in those two sports. 

When Southern Utah and Utah Tech join the Big Sky one year from now and Sacramento State departs, the Big Sky will have 13 members in football and 11 in men’s basketball. 

WE TALKED last week about the problem such a big league posed in football.

In 2026, Big Sky teams will play eight league games in football, which means they will not play four of the other league teams in football. 

League titles and FCS playoff berths can be influenced by who you play and who you don’t, and who your rival plays or doesn’t play. 

Of course, maybe that’s just not a big deal anymore.  

Not all the teams in the big-boy leagues (SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC) play each other anymore either. And the (original) Pac-12 didn’t either, but at least it was nine teams out of 11. 

Right now, Idaho and Eastern Washington aren’t guaranteed to play Montana and/or Montana State each year. Adding a total of one more team to the mix next year increases that possibility.   

Then again, could adding Southern Utah and Utah Tech be a hedge against a bigger league poaching a couple of the more successful Big Sky schools, as has been suggested? 

If an imbalanced football schedule isn’t a big deal to the Big Sky, might as well grab as many western schools as you can, before somebody else does. 

Or in case they grab yours.

I remember when the old Western Athletic Conference (with Utah and BYU) had 16 members in the late 1990s, before splintering off into the Mountain West and WAC. 

Now we’ll see what happens to what’s left of the Mountain West (which includes New Mexico and former Idaho football coach Jason Eck). 

MEANWHILE, HOPEFULLY Texas State brings something to the Pac-12 other than just being in Texas. 

That seems to be a big selling point — “Hey, we have presence in Texas now, and that will help recruiting,” they say. 

Which may be true, though teams like Boise State have already been able to recruit players out of Texas, without no conference team being in that state. 

What do you think about Texas State in the Pac-12? The school is a bit of an unknown, but at least sounds excited to join. 

As opposed to ... 

UNLV, which would have made more sense in the Pac-12, but it appears the Rebels are thinking bigger. 

Good luck with that. 

In any event, the merry-go-round continues. 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.