What I am here to share, however, is that amid this sea of change, things have never been better for the Big Sky Conference.

When you (or your parent or grandparent) close your eyes and recall what college sports has traditionally looked and felt like, that mental imagery is so much of what you still can expect when you step foot on campus for a contest at Weber State University or the University of Montana or Idaho State University, to name just a few of our member institutions. The passion, pageantry, and esprit de corps experienced at a college football game uniquely galvanize a campus with its alumni and fans, creating a sense of community and belonging that is increasingly critical in today’s ever-divisive world. Plus, the competitors in these competitions — who finally can monetize their name, image, and likeness — continue to be college students, earnestly pursuing a degree.

In 1963, a half-dozen schools with a similar sense of a pioneering spirit decided to start their own conference. More than 62 years later, five of those six charter members of the Big Sky Conference remain, a rather remarkable fact amid all the ongoing realignment.

Over time our league has grown, and a year from now our membership will be comprised of 11 NCAA Division 1 athletic departments plus two football affiliates, all associated with public universities. When the name of your state is part of the name of your institution, as is the case for many of our member schools, what happens on campus resonates not only in that community but also across that entire state. And regionally, the Big Sky’s eight-state geographic footprint essentially encapsulates the western third of the United States.

Around the country — and most prominently in the “Power 4” leagues that, not coincidentally, have signed the most lucrative broadcast agreements — college athletics is rapidly changing to conform to rules being written (and re-written) as they are initially enforced and legally contested. And while the Big Sky continues to modernize with the times, we are also proud to say that, unlike the conferences commanding the most attention from national media, we are not fully professionalized, either.

As someone whose career has had the rare fortune to include significant time at essentially all levels of college athletics — before joining the Big Sky almost seven years ago, I was a Division III men’s basketball student-athlete, a Division II conference commissioner, and a Division I FBS athletic director, among other roles — I can tell you that one of our many strengths is knowing who we are, and staying true to that mission and our values.

Yes, being a college athlete can (and should) be more lucrative than ever, but what also still matters is the opportunity to earn a college degree. This is not lost on our campuses, and I commend our university presidents, athletic directors, coaches, and other campus leaders for continuing to reinforce and respect the importance of attending classes, achieving strong grades, and graduating with a major that is personally meaningful. Most importantly, kudos to our students for pouring into their academic and athletic pursuits.

And yet despite the changes to the national landscape, we will continue to punch above our weight class. Since 2021, our football teams have won 10 games against schools that compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision, which is twice as many as our next-closest fellow league in the Football Championship Subdivision. As the preeminent and deepest FCS conference (with six of our football programs ranked in the 2025 preseason polls, exactly half of our league is in the Top 25), we take our role seriously as a leader at not only our level but also on our campuses, within our communities, and beyond.

Big Sky athlete alumni include some who are the best in the world at their craft. In the last five years, former Eastern Washington wide receiver Cooper Kupp earned Super Bowl MVP honors and Weber State’s Damian Lillard was named a member of the NBA’s distinguished 75th Anniversary Team. We had six NFL Draft picks this spring, and three former Big Sky players were selected in the past two NBA Drafts. Olympic gold medalist and Idaho Vandal Dan O’Brien just headlined our recent Hall of Fame class. Earlier this month, Idaho State’s Jared Allen was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame.

The Big Sky remains a big deal, which is cause for celebration, especially for a league that proudly bills itself as #ExperienceElevated. As we kick off the 2025-26 academic and athletic year, we hope you enjoy cheering on our 3,700-some athletes competing in 16 sports at our member institutions, all while we remain true to who we are.

Tom Wistrcill, who has more than 30 years of experience in college athletics, officially begins his eighth year as Commissioner of the Big Sky Conference in the fall of 2025. He was formerly the Director of Athletics at the University of Akron and previously worked in the athletic departments at both the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin.