Big Sky Conference Women's Basketball Standings. Plus an ocelot

It's January 10th, and boy oh boy was it an eventful day. Caesar crosses the Rubicon, Napoleon annuls his marriage to Josephine, and John Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil. Oh and funnily enough, the League of Nations holds its first session and ratifies the Treaty of Versailles...on the same day, 26 years later, the United Nations hold ITS first ever session.

But that's kid stuff in the face of the awe-inspiring might that is Big Sky Women's Basketball and the Race for Wooden Trophy Glory! Portland State continues to roll, Eastern Washington is a surprising 9-6 (3-0), Idaho State keeps to the sacred and divinely-inspired tenets of bludgeoning teams to death and sacrificing the survivors, and Montana under Darth Selvig is struggling in the wake of losing Mandy Morales and Sonya Rogers (only 2-2 so far, 7-9 overall). As for the rest, here are the standings!

Eastern Washington (3-0) 9-6 W3

Portland State (3-0) 9-7 W3

Idaho State (3-1) 8-9 W2

Montana (2-2) 7-9 L2

Northern Colorado (1-2) 8-8 L2

Northern Arizona (1-2) 3-13 W1

Montana State (1-3) 8-9 L3

Weber State (1-3) 7-10 L1

Sacramento State (0-2) 4-10 W1

So here we have the Eagles in the lead, having beaten Montana, MSU, and Sacramento State. Portland State, the other unbeaten, has defeated those same schools with that Vince Young impersonator, Claire Faucher (pronounced Fo-shay for those not familiar with Les Langue Francaise). Idaho State is in 3rd, having played 4 Conference games with 3 wins (over NAU, Northern Colorado and Montana State in overtime) and the lone loss to Montana (only account of a late run by a freshman on UM's roster. I forget her name, and am too lazy to look it up). Montana, the dominating force of the conference since the Fall of Numenor and the founding of the Kingdoms in Exile, has struggled mightily this year. Mandy Morales, the warrior from hell, has moved on to basketball in Greece (appropriately enough) and Sonya Rogers has also graduated. Darth Selvig is going to be entering a rebuilding year in conference play; they finished non-conference with a 7-9 record. It was only a few seasons ago they cracked the Top 25 in the country. Norther Colorado is next at 5th in conference and hopes to regain some composure after their defeat at Idaho State. UNC is sporting a 1-2 record in conference play with the win coming against NAU. Speaking of which, they are tied for 5th (6th in the official standings) with an identical 1-2 record. The lone victory was against a faltering Weber State. NAU finished non-conference with a 3-13 record, which was painful to say the least. Montana State comes in at 7th, with a 1-3 record and a 20-point win over Weber State. Weber State comes in at 8th, with a 1-3 record and their only win vs Northern Colorado. On a sidenote, they beat BYU in 2 overtimes, which is awesome (because BYU=Sauron). And bringing up the wagon train is Sacramento State, who has no wins as of yet (and it hopefully won't be ISU).

So far the conference race has been fun to watch and it will get even better as the season rolls on. And hopefully it will end with ISU clutching the Wooden Trophy after beating opponents senseless by bludgeoning and pounding them to a pulp and earning the praise and blessing of the Big Sky Trophy God! Go Bengals! For Defense and the Munger Way!


OCELOTS! AWWWAAAHHH!

By the way, have a random picture of an ocelot. They're cute. It's like the unofficial mascot of my blog. Cute, mysterious and totally random.

On the Move Up for Montana and FCS Football all dramatic like

The silent ruins of a once proud FCS program, forgotten by time

Urban Meyer once said, "If you're staying where you're at, you're regressing, not progressing."

There has been a lot of talk on whether Montana should move up when the NCAA removes the moratorium on teams moving up in 2011. It's a subject that has been beaten, brutalized, and savagely ripped up into tiny tiny pieces over the years. However, this year is special. With the failing of several FCS programs and their imminent axing, along with several programs like Idaho State and Northern Arizona who are running the risks of going the same way, plus several of the FCS' best programs planning on moving up immediately after the moratorim has been lifted and others planning on moving up in the very near future, the debate on the move for Montana has gotten bigger and has taken on more meaning.

Egriz has a thread debating where Montana would be in 5 years. Many have said that the Griz will likely be competing for bowl games in FBS play, and while expressing distaste for the idea, it seems some of Griz Nation is accepting its inevitibility. And they, sadly, are correct in my opinion and from what I'm seeing.

FCS football is a losing proposition, a fading realm reminiscient of older times of a more informal, freer society of ragtag regional powers scrapping happily amongst each other in a quest of establishing dominance that used to characterize FBS football before the rise of the 24/7 News Era. Programs that cannot bring in the gold are becoming mere pages in a dusty history book long since forgotten. Hofstra and Northeastern have dropped their programs entirely and after the firing of Jerry Glanville, Portland State said in a press release that "if we don't get this hire right, it may be the last football hire we ever make." My very own Idaho State football team is on the edge of being axed. Northern Arizona is wondering if they should also cut football due to the chronic budget shortfalls plaguing Arizona. Sacramento State is also pondering the move to ax their program as well, due to the major fail that is the California economy. Meanwhile, the best and most recognizable programs of the FCS, Appalachian State, Texas State, Montana and James Madison and a few others are looking at the 2011 date with an ever bulging eye. Major stadium upgrades are being looked at and being constructed, and other details being mulled over as well. Not that they will for sure move up but it is a distinct possibility. These teams along with a few others constitute the top, very elite half of the FCS. The rest of the FCS is losing money; in most cases many programs are bleeding money out of a major wound.

Montana finds itself in a unique situation, and that's not necessarily a good thing. Missoula is a grand football citadel in a state that's sparsley populated, with few population centers that barely match up to dynamic Boise or Salt Lake City. This isolation will make it a hard sell for the Griz to get into a conference; indeed if the FCS will last long enough for the Griz to get settled. Adding to this is that Montana is in a conference that is slowly fading and withering to nothing; their empty stadiums an echo of what once was. Outside of the state of Montana, there is no interest in any of the Big Sky schools save for a small minority of diehards who will go down with those ships. And unlike their bretheren east of the Mississippi, who compromise a good 90% of the FCS' best teams, Montana is the one and only top program in the FCS West. There will be no competition for the Grizzlies whatsoever, no matter how many teams are brought up from Division II football.

Although Montana enjoys playing for national championships in a playoff system, in the long run Montana will be doomed to a long, empty decline to irrelevance and eventual fading away if they stay in the FCS. There simply is no future with the decline and fading away of the FCS, never mind the dying of the Big Sky Conference.

Elrond Half-Elven elaborates on this (paraphrased and worked around to fit this thing):



"If Montana remains in the FCS after this moratorium is lifted, you will still be a winning program. If your enemies in the CAA have moved on or have been defeated and you are crowned champions and all that you hope for comes true you will still have to taste the bitterness of the inevitability of collapse. Whether by the swords of the few remaining programs east of the Mississippi River or the slow decay of time, your program will die. And there will be no comfort for you, no comfort to ease the pain of its passing. Montana will come to death an image of the splendor of the Lords of Big Sky programs and FCS teams in glory undimmed before the breaking of the FCS. But you, Montana...you will linger on in darkness and in doubt as nightfall in winter that comes without a star. Here you will dwell bound to your grief and Montana State under the fading ruins of FCS stadiums until all the world is changed and the long years of your life are utterly spent."