The Big Sky announced on Monday that Southern Utah and North Dakota, a pair of NCAA Division II schools in the process of transitioning to Football Championship Subdivision status, have accepted invitations to join the Big Sky Conference.

I've included links to related stories below. South Dakota has also been offered an invitation and according to BSC commish Doug Fullerton, is likely to accept,  which would bring the league to 14 football-playing schools and, according to Fullerton, force the Sky to break into two sub divisions.

Fullerton also said one might be able to figure out the likely 7-team division breakdowns by lookiing at a map and checking flight services into and out of the cities involved.  I did, and I have my thoughts on how a North-South divisional setup might play out.

But I think we should all help out the Fullerton and the BSC athletic directors by leaving our own opinions on how a North-South split should shake down. So go ahead and weigh in here with your suggestions.

North teams?  South teams?

 

 

Okay, here are the 14 teams that are expected to still be playing football in the Big Sky in 2012:

Eastern Washington--Montana--Montana State--Weber State--Northern Arizona--Idaho State--Sacramento State--Northern Colorado--Portland State--UC Davis--South Dakota--Cal Poly--North Dakota--Southern Utah.

Go ahead and make up your dream divisions.

In addition, you can read the expansion story that will appear in Tuesday morning's S-R here; check out the story that was posted by the Big Sky office here, and listen to the queston-and-answer teleconference session Doug Fullerton held with the media here.

 

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