The Big Sky Conference (BSC) is expected to change its format for the Fall 2020 season and championships after a vote by the BSC President’s Council according to a press release Monday evening.
The vote moves the conference’s schedule to save costs and accommodate the NCAA’s policy change to allow student-athletes to resume sport participation.
The projected amount of saved money is not said, but there will be “additional adjustments to other operational expenses,” the email said.
The upcoming changes will be announced after the annual spring meetings held in the first week of June, being done remotely.
The changes are only for the 2020-2021 academic year. The changes are:
Volleyball
Each team will play a 16-match regular season. Schools will play eight opponents, with meetings being played one location over consecutive days.
The top four teams in the conference will play in a postseason tournament at the University of Northern Colorado, the reigning regular-season champions.
Women’s Soccer
The conference schedule length of nine-games is unchanged with no official word from the NCAA or BSC on the length of the non-conference schedule.
Rather than having a postseason tournament, the team at the top of the standings at the end of the regular season will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament as the BSC representative.
Track & Field
The BSC Indoor Championships will be held at Idaho State University for the second consecutive season. The BSC said the decision was made to allow more schools to travel by bus to the site.
Weber State University, the original location for the upcoming season, will have host in 2021.
Men’s and Women’s Tennis
The conference will be broken up to two divisions. The top two programs from each division will advance to a four-team championship at a single location yet to be determined.
Softball
Schools with softball programs will have an 18-game regular season and hold a four-team championship at Weber State. Weber State remains the reigning conference champion, winning in 2019, after the cancelation of the 2020 season.
Football Kickoff Event
It has been held in Spokane over the last two years but will be held remotely this summer. More information regarding the event is said to be released in the future.
This story was updated to correct that the women’s soccer non-conference season length has not yet been addressed by the conference or the NCAA.
Vandal Nation will continue to update the story as more information come available.
Zack Kellogg can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @kellogg_zack.