Montana State tops Big Sky football preseason polls
Aggies are third in both the coaches and media polls
The chairs on the deck may have been rearranged a bit, but those at the front of the line remain the same as the Big Sky Conference released its preseason football polls of both the league’s coaches and the media members who cover this far-flung 13-team conference.
The coaches and media, who sometimes don’t agree on anything, marched to the same tune when it comes to which teams will finish 1-2-3 when all is said and done.
Defending Big Sky and FCS national champion Montana State tops both polls, followed by Montana and UC Davis.
That just happens to be the order in which those three finished last year, with Montana State going 8-0, Montana 7-1 and the Aggies 6-2.
The Big Sky grew from 12 teams to 13 on July 1.
Longtime member Sacramento State moved up to the FBS as a member of the MAC, but the Big Sky quickly added former member Southern Utah along with Utah Tech. The Aggies will play both schools in 2026.
Additionally, each conference school will now play nine league games instead of eight, with three non-conference battles on tap as well.
While media members could vote for whichever teams they pleased, coaches were restricted from voting for their own team to finish first.
The obvious reason for this prohibition is that every coach would feel duty-bound to list his team first as a show of confidence to the team when the results were made public.
Otherwise, team members would rightly wonder why the coach voted for someone else.
It should be noted that the overall final results are public even if the ballots themselves are secret.
Montana State received 11 first-place votes from the coaches, while UCD received the other two.
Among the 38 media members voting, Montana State was listed 35 times at No. 1, with two votes for the Aggies and one for Montana.
Northern Arizona was fourth in the coaches poll, followed by Idaho State, Southern Utah, Idaho, Eastern Washington, Weber State, Northern Colorado, Cal Poly, Portland State and Utah Tech.
Idaho State was fourth in the media poll, followed by Northern Arizona, Idaho, Southern Utah, Eastern Washington, Cal Poly, Weber State, Northern Colorado, Portland State and Utah Tech.
Idaho State struggled to a 2-6 mark out of the gate last season, but won its last four games to finish 6-6 under former Aggie assistant Cody Hawkins.
As a result, optimism is high in Pocatello.
UCD went 9-4 overall last fall, opening the FCS playoff with a 47-26 win over Rhode Island before suffering a disappointing 42-31 quarterfinal loss to Illinois State.
With such a large league, a round-robin schedule is not possible, as each team fails to play three league members each season.
This fall the Aggies will miss Montana State, Northern Arizona and Idaho State.
UCD opens the regular season with three road games, traveling to Portland State Aug. 29, University of San Diego Sept. 5 and SMU Sept. 12.
The season home opener and final non-conference game is against Stetson University of DeLand, Florida.
Other home games at UC Davis Health Stadium include Montana, Eastern Washington, Northern Colorado, Utah Tech and Cal Poly.
The Eastern Washington night game will be nationally televised by ESPN2.
(My ballot: 1. UC Davis 2. Montana State 3. Montana 4. Idaho 5. Northern Arizona 6. Idaho State 7. Eastern Washington 8. Weber State 9. Southern Utah 10. Cal Poly 11. Portland State 12. Utah Tech 13. Northern Colorado).
Interesting how the Aggies face only one of the top four other schools in the preseason poll, and that game is at home. Could UCD sweep the Big Sky and finish 11-1? I suppose we can dream. Alas, I have no doubt Montana State is the better overall team.
I wonder which state has the most division 1 football programs on a per capita basis. It might be Utah.