Big Sky opponents nothing new for Cal Poly

Cal Poly isn’t a member of the Big Sky Conference, it just seems that way.

Mixed in with the Mustangs’ five Great West Football Conference games are five non-counters against Big Sky schools, including Eastern Washington this weekend at Mustang Stadium.

It’s a pretty impressive slate, with five of the Mustangs’ 10 I-AA opponents ranked in the Top 25 this week and a sixth making an earlier appearance.

Cal Poly, which is in San Luis Obispo, has already thumped visiting Montana State and became another victim at Montana. The Mustangs have also whipped Sacramento State and close the season against Idaho State.

“It’s bad,” Cal Poly coach Rich Ellerson said with a hearty laugh, “it’s way bad.”

It’s also necessary.

“Out West we play who we can,” the fourth-year coach said. “It’s hard to come up with a schedule. There aren’t enough of us I-AA programs out West.”

Cal Poly, a member of the Big West Conference for all other sports, moved up to Division I in 1994 and played football as an independent until the six-team Great West was put together last season.

Bunched with relative D-I newcomers UC Davis, North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Northern Colorado and Southern Utah, the Great West was one of the strongest I-AA football leagues in the country last year.

It also meant finding six more games to go with the five league contests.

Though not quite as strong top-to-bottom this year, the league is still tough with the Mustangs, once as high as No. 3, ranked 19th, Davis at No. 21 and NDSU, once close to the top 10, at No. 25.

Which is why Ellerson could only laugh when three of his Big Sky opponents, No. 4 Montana, No. 11 EWU and No. 12 MSU, have been ranked all year and ISU made a brief appearance early.

“From year to year you don’t know who’s going to be up or down,” Ellerson said. “We’re all in the same boat, that’s who you can play.”

After the eight Big Sky and six Great West teams, Texas and Illinois are the next closest trips.

Big Sky teams only have to chase four games – three after factoring in the I-A money game – which is why Great West teams almost seem like BSC members. Davis, which closes the season at EWU, and Southern Utah play three Sky teams. South Dakota State and North Dakota State each play two teams.

It gets easier for the Sky and harder for the Great West next year when Northern Colorado switches to the Big Sky.

“Next year we’re still short two games and I’m not so sure it won’t be three,” Ellerson said. “There are just not a lot of takers out there without having to go to Bangladesh to get a game.”

It’s one thing to seek just three games, another to have to find seven, especially with a quality team.

“If you’re playing well and people don’t have to play you they won’t, so the people you get on your schedule are teams others don’t want to play,” Ellerson said. “That means you’re going to be playing the best folks.”

Eastern coach Paul Wulff doesn’t disagree with that.

“They’re a very good team,” he said. “(Next year) we have eight league games so we only get three non-conference games, so they’re not as enticing. You want to play a I-A game and a Division II game.”

The I-A game means money, which is Idaho for the Eagles next year. The D-II game should be a win that allows young players to play more and gives D-II schools their chance to play up.

Wulff said the remaining game should benefit his program and playing a team like Cal Poly doesn’t necessarily do that.

The first negative for the Mustangs is they’re good; the second is they play a little different style than most Big Sky teams with a flex defense and option offense.

“It depends on the style,” Wulff said. “I think we should position ourselves against teams that benefit us. Cal Poly does do some unusual things so it’s a challenge.

“We have enough battles in our own league,” he added. “To use one of the three opportunities to do that doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Meyer offensive player of week

Eastern Washington quarterback Erik Meyer was named the Big Sky Conference offensive football player of the week, while Montana State linebacker Mac Mollohan won the defensive honor and Montana’s Tuff Harris took the special-teams honor.

Meyer, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound senior, was 28 of 33 in passing for a career-high 470 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions as Eastern Washington beat Sacramento State 45-17 Saturday.

Meyer completed his first eight passes and closed by hitting 15 of his last 16 before giving way to his backups in the fourth quarter. His 470 yards was the second-highest total in EWU history. It was the 15th 300-yard game of his career.