Northern Colorado joins Big Sky

The Big Sky Conference presidents voted unanimously to expand Tuesday, adding Northern Colorado to form a nine-team league.

Northern Colorado will officially join the conference on July 1, 2006 and begin play the following August.

"The Big Sky presidents are pleased to welcome the University of Northern Colorado," Big Sky Presidents Counsel chair Ann Milder said during a conference call from Portland, Ore.

The Bears moved up from Division II at the start of the 2004-05 academic year and competed in the Great West Football Conference and as an independent.

"It's one of the greatest things that can happen to this athletic department," UNC athletic director Jay Hinrichs said. "We've got a great partner in all of the Big Sky institutions."

Northern Colorado's membership is contingent on the Bears fully funding 63 football scholarships and add men's and women's indoor track and men's cross country. UNC will compete in a full conference schedule for the 2006-07 year, but does face restrictions from sport to sport competing in Big Sky championships where an automatic bid to an NCAA tournament is fully eligible, according to a statement released by the conference.

"We want them to be playing right at the top of I-AA football, so there are some scholarship requirements," conference commissioner Doug Fullerton said. "We're anticipating full eligibility in 2009."

Several universities petitioned the Big Sky for membership over the last couple of years, but only Northern Colorado made it to a vote of the Presidents Counsel. A committee visited the Greeley campus in February for a final evaluation.

"I don't think there was any one factor," Millner said. "We were looking for a match. Certainly geography and travel was a component, but it really included all the factors.

"We think that after further review, the report that came back that it was solid institution with solid support throughout the UNC community," the Weber State president said. "It is a very good fit for our conference."

The expansion is the first since adding Sacramento State, Portland State and Cal State Northridge in 1996. Northridge left the conference in 2001, and adding Northern Colorado returns the Big Sky to nine teams, which can create scheduling snafus in basketball and volleyball, but balances the schedule for football.

"We've been at nine teams before," Fullerton said. "It's not completely foreign. We'll use a model similar to what's been used in the past.

"As far as football you actually gain a balanced schedule. You play four on the road, four at home."

The Presidents Counsel did not discuss further expansion.

"I don't think the presidents see nine as the limit," Fullerton said. "As the world changes in athletics, we'll need to revisit (the number).

"We're not out there trying to grab any school that comes along."

For Northern Colorado, joining the Big Sky is part of an overall plan to increase the university's visibility and prestige.

"We have just completed a strategic planning process for the entire university," UNC president Kay Norton said. "One of the priorities in that process was advancement of the university's public image. It's a process of investment in things that make us a better university.

"The value of student investment in his or her degree is enhanced by the general reputation of the university and how visible it is. Having a high-quality athletic program enhances that value. It simply makes it a place to go, a place to be proud of that other people know about. It's placing our athletics on a plane that matches our academics."

Northern Colorado was founded in 1889 as the State Normal School and has an enrollment of 11,855.