THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Big Sky commish on winning FCS titles, gambling and other stuff

Big Sky Conference commissioner Tom Wistrcill said he congratulated Montana State's Brent Vigen on winning the FCS national championship so much at July's Big Sky Football Kickoff that the Bobcats' football coach probably got tired of hearing it. 

But Montana State's overtime victory over Illinois State last January in Nashville marked the Big Sky's first FCS title under Wistrcill, who was named commissioner in November 2018. 

"What it does for the conference is, it verifies what I've been saying for eight years," Wistrcill told reporters at the Big Sky media day in July in Airway Heights. "You can talk about being the best conference, but at some point you have to win the big game. And we've been the deepest conference, we've had the most teams in the playoffs before, but it's been a while since we've won the national championship." 

Prior to last year, the last Big Sky team to win a national title was Eastern Washington in 2010. 

As for an encore ... 

Montana State was tied for the conference lead entering Saturday, along with upstart Northern Arizona. And the other Big Sky teams have been beating up on each other, which will make things interesting when the 24-team FCS playoff bracket is announced in a couple of weeks. 

Wistrcill said the Big Sky should have four to five teams in the playoffs every year. 

"We've encouraged our schools to keep scheduling nonconference as tough a schedule as we can, especially the upper half of our league. We need to win those games, those FCS games. The bottom half of our league, we just need to win games. We're always going to have a high strength of schedule, so we're always going to have teams near the top, just on the metrics alone, but when I look at the depth of our conference, we should get four or five in ... we should have an opportunity to play for a national title every year. That has to be our goal; that's who we are. So, we'll see how it plays out."

WISTRCILL, ON other topics ... 

ON SPORTS GAMBLING AMONG COLLEGE ATHLETES 

"Very concerned about it," he said. "$170 million was bet on Big Sky football last year. I don't have my head in the sand that student-athletes are not betting on NBA games; I pray that they're not doing it for Big Sky, and their own sport. If they are, we have ways, we will catch them, and they won't be playing anymore. We have to be cognizant of the fact that it's happening, and not just say it's not. But we have to rely on them to make good decisions too. We can only educate so much ... so yeah, it is a concern, but it is a concern across the country." 

ON NASHVILLE AS AN FCS CHAMPIONSHIP SITE 

The FCS title game was held in Frisco, Texas, for 15 seasons (2010-24). Primarily due to renovations at 20,500-seat Toyota Stadium in Frisco, the title game was moved to Nashville for the 2025 and '26 seasons, where is being played at 35,000-seat FirstBank Stadium on the campus of Vanderbilt University.  

The NCAA will decide on a future site for the game in the near future. 

"Probably the thing that surprised me the most," Wistrcill said of Nashville, "I was wondering if Vanderbilt and their staff was going to embrace it, or if we they going to be, 'I can't believe I don't have this day off; I have to put on another event.' And their staff was awesome; they worked their tails off to make sure out teams, players, coaches, staff, feel like it was really special. And I think that just added to the environment. And the other thing that was wonderful was, 75 percent of that stadium was Bobcat fans. It felt like I was in Bozeman at times. So that was pretty special." 

Wistrcill said there were 8-10 cities bidding on hosting the game, starting next season. He said location will be a factor, as far as fans being able to get to the game. 

"It won't be just a money decision," Wistrcill said. 

ON NORTH DAKOTA STATE, WINNER OF 10 FCS CHAMPIONSHIPS, MAKING THE JUMP TO FBS 

"Happy for North Dakota State," Wistrcill said. "Matt Larson, their AD is a good friend, good for them. I think they'll be a good football team in the Mountain West this year (the Bison, on a bye this week, are already bowl-eligible at 7-2, 4-2 in the Mountain West)."

At the Big Sky level, Montana and Montana State have been mentioned as schools who might be tempted to move up to FBS.

"It's something (North Dakota State has) wanted to do for a long time, and I think they felt a lot of pressure to get there," Wistrcill said. "They got their invitation, and they went. They were the bell cow for years; we were chasing them ... there's other really good FCS programs outside the Big Sky too, so we wish them well, and we're going to focus on what we're trying to do, which is get as many teams in the playoffs and win another national championship." 

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.