All the way back in February, I wrote about how there could be a new conference rising to the top of the FCS in 2018. I mentioned the CAA, which wasn't too much of a hot take. But many people, most notably in the Dakotas, scoffed when the Big Sky was brought up.
Even throughout this regular season when Eastern Washington, Weber State and UC Davis were ranked nationally in the Top 5, the overall opinion was "no way three of the best five teams in the FCS come from the Big Sky." [divider]
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Well, the conference has a chance to prove its strength in the playoffs. It makes up 25 percent of the remaining field with four teams, the most of any FCS league. Three of those teams are seeds (No. 2 Weber, No. 3 EWU and No. 6 UC Davis) while Montana State plays No. 1 North Dakota State.
If games go chalk, that means the Big Sky would have three teams in the quarterfinals, two teams in the semifinals and one team in Frisco. It doesn't always work out that way, but this conference needs to avoid upsets to earn back some national respect.
Just look at the CAA. The Colonial was given a ton of respect by getting an unprecedented six teams into the bracket. That lost its steam quickly when the conference went 1-4 in the first round with the lone win coming in a CAA vs. CAA game.
Even during the regular season, very few bought into the national polls and didn't give the Big Sky much credit.
Yes, it is the biggest conference in the FCS. That means unbalanced schedules, which results in some teams having a much better record on paper than maybe the product on the field. This is a league that's top heavy and still probably doesn't have the strength from the top to bottom as the CAA or even the MVFC.
But what the Big Sky can prove is its top teams are better than the top teams in any other conference. And really, that's all that matters at this point in the season.
The Big Sky needs to take care of business Saturday to not only prove three seeds were warranted but that it's back to being a factor at the national level.
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