BILLINGS – Tom Wistrcill took over as head coach of the Big Sky Conference in December 2018.
Since then, Wistrcill has overseen the league’s increase in media exposure, the successful relocation of the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments to Boise, Idaho, the creation of a long-needed Hall of Fame and the strengthening of its reputation as a premier FCS conference.
But while college sports continue to undergo tremendous change, challenges remain.
A number of class action lawsuits – notably House v. NCAA and Johnson v. NCAA – could directly impact Big Sky, and not in what Wistrcill would say is a positive way.
The House case, an antitrust lawsuit seeking compensation for former student-athletes whose careers preceded a 2021 NCAA ruling that allowed current student-athletes to profit financially from their name, image and likeness, was settled for nearly $2.8 billion.
For this reason, Big Sky institutions and other lower- and mid-level NCAA schools must pay the settlement contribution, even though they believe their former student-athletes never benefited financially in the same way as athletes at the highest collegiate level.
The Johnson case involves a lawsuit arguing that student-athletes should be classified as employees of their respective schools under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
At the Big Sky Kickoff media event in July in Spokane, Washington, Wistrcill discussed those challenges as well as other issues of concern to the conference as it looks to begin the 2024-25 sports calendar, such as the 12-game football season for this year and next year, ongoing realignment issues, the new seeding format for the FCS playoffs and more.
Below you can see Wistrcill’s answers during his question and answer session with media representatives in attendance:
The 12-game regular season schedules for 2024 and 2025…
“Every few years, due to the calendar scheduling around Christmas and the playoffs, there are 12 games within the FCS. So the next two years are actually 12-game seasons.
“We think it’s great. It gives some of our teams up to seven home games and the opportunity to play outside of the conference. I’m a big fan of 12-week seasons, but like I said, they probably only come around once or twice every five years.”
On the postponement of the FCS championship game from Sunday to Monday evening…
“We worked really hard to get this game moved from the NFL. A lot of us fought hard for years to have it on Friday night that same weekend. Then all of a sudden the CFP (College Football Playoff) got moved to Friday/Saturday. So we were very fortunate that the tournament had to be moved a week when there were only 12 teams left in the (CFP) tournament. So it became possible on Monday night.
“So for the next five years, we’re set for that Monday night, which was the CFP championship game, now it’s going to be the FCS championship game. And for us to be the only football game in the world that’s being broadcast that night is a really big deal. So we’ve been working really hard to push that, and the timing was right. ESPN noticed that that draws an audience, that game does that, and that’s why they were excited to do it, too. So it’s a really good thing for us.”
On the impact of the agreement between the House of Representatives and the NCAA on small schools…
“The House settlement has two parts. There is the damages that will be paid to student-athletes after the fact, and then there is the money that the Power 4 will pay to student-athletes up front. When they set the damages after the fact, they essentially allocated it to all 360 schools. I understand that we should all feel the pain. Unfortunately, what I don’t like is that the money that is being taken away from Big Sky, on average about $180,000 to $350,000 a year for the next 10 years, is the penalty that our schools have to pay. And then that money goes to former Power 5 football and basketball players.
“I always say that Weber State’s money is going into the pockets of Joe Burrow and Zion Williamson. And that’s exactly what’s going to happen. And we had no say in the matter, we were just dragged along by the NCAA and they decided how we were going to pay the damages. So last month our schools found out that there’s this penalty if all of their budgets are booked for next year. It’s really unfair. There’s not much we can do about it, but it’s just disappointing that none of our student-athletes are getting this money and yet we all have to pay taxes on it.”
“That can be very painful. I think people have to make really difficult decisions about where the money comes from. It’s not like schools are just giving money to athletic departments. So they have to make difficult decisions about travel and personnel. At this point, I don’t think any of our schools will have to cut a sport. But I can tell you that it has been discussed. Because when you suddenly have a $17 million budget and suddenly you’re $300,000 less, that’s a severe penalty.”
On the possibility of classifying student-athletes as employees in Johnson v. NCAA …
“When I talk to our student-athletes, they like getting paid. We all do, right? They say, ‘Yeah, I spend a lot of time doing this, if I get some money for it, great.’ That’s what NIL is for. The money isn’t supposed to work in a way where you show up and I’ll give you a check. And by the way, you’re going to pay taxes on it and we’re going to track your hours. And suddenly the student-athletes are saying, ‘No, I really don’t want that.’
“I think we’re heading to a time where there’s enough money in the system globally that certain schools … I could imagine employee status reaching the Power 2/Power 4 level one day. I don’t know how they manage their market without that. But there’s not enough money in our systems to say we’re going to pay every student-athlete $10,000 or $20,000 just to participate in college athletics. Right now, that’s not right for us.”
“But I imagine it will be the same in college sports. The gap between the haves and the have-nots has never been bigger, and it’s only getting bigger. And the money will continue to grow so fast that it will pull (the Power 2/Power 4) further and further away from the rest of us. And that’s OK, because they’ll have a different model than we do. We’ll still have real college sports in the Big Sky and have a balance between money and academics.”
On future realignment / possible accession of Big Sky schools to the FBS …
“I guess you can never predict the future. You know, we talk about expansion at every presidential meeting, about whether we should do something? Who’s making a difference across the country and whether we should really take a hard look and make some changes and whether our schools are interested in doing that too? My role is to make sure they all know exactly what they’re getting into.
“Now if somebody wants to move from FCS to FBS, they have to pay $5 million up front just to do that. And then all of a sudden they have to invest probably between $8 million and $10 million a year to get to that level, to the average level of, say, the Mountain West. And for our schools that extra $8 million to $10 million … I don’t know where they’re getting that from. I don’t think the states are going to give them the money.
“So moving up would be a real challenge for our schools. And that’s not to say that some of them might not aspire to it one day. But like I said, it’s my job to educate them on the pros and cons. So my crystal ball can’t tell me exactly what that’s going to look like in five years, but I know we’ve found a really good home for our programs and there are a lot of schools similar to ours across the country.”
To seed the 16 teams for the FCS playoffs…
“I think this is a wonderful thing for Big Sky. The 16-team seeding will help us because we won’t have any matchups like last year when North Dakota State played Montana State in the second round. Honestly, we had two of the top six teams in the country (and) one of them didn’t get very far.
“So the power is spread out across the country. And that’s going to help us have more home games, win more games and get our teams further into the tournament. So that’s a really big deal. About four or five of us have worked really hard over the last few years to get that done. That doesn’t eliminate the regionality issues, but it certainly mitigates them. And so I think that’s a great opportunity for our teams.”
