Editor's note: This is the third story in a three-part series from of a wide-ranging interview between MTN Sports' Greg Rachac and Big Sky Conference commissioner Tom Wistrcill that took place March 9 at the league's postseason basketball tournament in Boise, Idaho.
BILLINGS — North Dakota State's jump to the Football Bowl Subdivision seemed imminent for a number of years, and the Bison officially took that plunge when the Mountain West announced in February it will add NDSU as a football-only member beginning with the 2026 season.
It was another blow for the FCS, which had already lost a slew of its best teams and championship contenders to the top tier of NCAA Division I football over a 15-year stretch: Georgia Southern, Appalachian State, James Madison, Sam Houston, Delaware ... the list continues.
Tom Wistrcill interview series: Part 1 | Part 2
That's why a question still hovers. Are more FCS programs bound to make the leap? Could Montana and Montana State, provided they get the statewide support and funding they'd need, follow suit?
Big Sky Conference commissioner Tom Wistrcill doesn't have a crystal ball and can't predict the future to a precise degree, but he foresees a scenario of the biggest schools and conferences breaking off into further autonomy and leaving the rest of Division I, i.e. the Group of 6 and the FCS, behind.
"Those at the top are running so far ahead of the others, there's going to be something that happens within that (Power 4) group at some point," predicted Wistrcill, who saw one of the Big Sky's own, Sacramento State, also jump to the FBS after last season. "I don't know if that's two years away, five years away, 10 years away — but it's coming.
"When that happens it's going to provide an opportunity where all of us that play Division I football have to say, 'OK, what's best for us?' Is it best for us to say we're going to form our own NCAA Division I championship, and pretty soon the Mountain West and the Big Sky and The (Missouri) Valley and Conference USA are all going to be playing for one national football championship?
"I think there's a higher likelihood of that happening than that group of $300 million budgets to $40 million budgets staying together."
NDSU's departure has left the FCS with an even-more-obvious parity problem. Let's not sugarcoat it; the Big Sky Conference and Missouri Valley Football Conference are clearly the power leagues, with the top two or maybe three programs in each being viable championship contenders.
Only once in the past 19 seasons have both the Big Sky and the Missouri Valley been shut out of the national title game — when Appalachian State beat Delaware in 2007. Only three times in that same span has a Big Sky or Valley team not won the championship, most recently when Sam Houston topped South Dakota State in the out-of-whack spring COVID season, which crowned the 2020 champion in May 2021.
And yet the Valley has clearly been the most dominant — the Big Sky went 15 years between titles after Eastern Washington won it in the 2010 season and when Montana State captured its first since 1984 this past year. North Dakota State, naturally, made a mockery of the subdivision by winning 10 national championships before finally being invited to move up.
None of this is necessarily "bad" for the FCS, but what the subdivision was at its competitive peak versus what it is now are clearly not the same. Wistrcill can visualize a day when that changes, if the Power 4 does indeed break away further.
"That's where I think we'll have an opportunity," Wistrcill said. "And so I see our role as continuing to push the top of FCS to be great, the best it can be, knowing that someday — who knows if I'm the commissioner of the Big Sky then or what it looks like — but someday the schools that are struggling to maintain their FBS status are going to be like, 'Wow. Rather than trying to chase six wins and play in a bowl game, boy, it'd be great to play for a national championship.'
"And I hope that when those schools see what Montana State experienced this past year ... to think about what that could do for some of the schools in the Mountain West. The (College Football Playoff) is not a realistic opportunity for most of them. They're happy to get a check from the CFP, but they're not actually playing in the CFP.
"I'd say the opportunity that is provided at the FCS level to host those playoff games and play for a trophy is every bit if not more meaningful than that. So, you know, my crystal ball is not really clear on this thing, but I know a good thing when I see it. And like I said, the top of FCS, we do it the right way and it's really good. Really good."
Wistrcill has a lot of experience dealing with the gap between the haves, the have-somes and the have-nots. He was once the athletic director at Akron in the Mid-American Conference, a Group of 6 league that has long chased D-I relevance, especially in football. So this is not entirely unfamiliar territory.
But as all of this relates to the Big Sky, Wistrcill said the objective is to chase national championships where it's realistic — especially football. And that will be the case until the next tectonic shift, whenever that may be.
"I'm fortunate to be part of a league that believes in our mission," he said. "We're not trying to be something we're not going to be. We're very secure in who we are. The good news is there's still 125, 130 schools in FCS. So we've still got a big number. I do believe that there still is a strong future in FCS.
"What's kind of shifted in what's happening is if you look back 10 or 15 years, we've always been a strong football conference, but we weren't always looked at as the dominant football conference. I would say what's happened recently (i.e. NDSU's move) has even further shifted to the Big Sky being the dominant conference now.
"So we have a responsibility there. Our responsibility is not to help other leagues become dominant. Our job is to win national titles and continue to do it."
