FARMINGTON, Utah (Oct. 12, 2022) – As the Big Sky Conference celebrates the 60th anniversary of its founding, the league’s membership has unveiled a new strategic plan that will continually elevate the experience provided to its student-athletes, coaches, and fans during this ever-changing era of college athletics, Commissioner Tom Wistrcill announced today.
To read the full plan, click here.
This five-year plan, which replaces the Conference’s initial version adopted in 2016, outlines priorities, goals, and action items along with timelines to complete those tasks ranging from effective immediately through the 2026-27 academic year. This strategic planning process began prior to COVID-19, intensified during the summer of 2021, and concluded last month with unanimous approval from the Big Sky’s Presidents’ Council during an in-person meeting at league headquarters.
“On behalf of our membership, we are proud to reaffirm the timeless and worthwhile mission that embraces the Big Sky’s legacy and sets a new bold and student-centric vision for our future success,” Presidents’ Council chair and Weber State University president Brad Mortensen said. “Intercollegiate athletics offers so many intrinsic and unique benefits to not only its participants but also the campuses and surrounding communities it engages, and this plan demonstrates a shared commitment to enhance that experience for all involved.”
The plan features six pillars – Academics, Athletics, Empowerment, Inclusion, Leadership, and Revenue, Marketing & Media – that create an overall framework, as well as sport-specific goals for all 16 Big Sky-sponsored sports. Each pillar had its own committee of a cross section of Conference personnel, and each head coaches’ group was tasked with drafting its sport’s future, all of which funneled to the overall strategic planning committee chaired by Mortensen. Student-athletes were represented on each committee, and current and former athletes were surveyed as a means to seek additional broad-based feedback.
“The efforts and voices of literally hundreds if not thousands of Big Sky constituents shaped a clear picture of what’s meaningful to our schools and how we can continue to impact them,” Wistrcill said. “As a result, the focus of this plan is squarely on our 3,300 student-athletes, as our membership is committing to an unprecedented investment in resources for mental health, nutrition, direct benefits to student-athletes, and name, image, and likeness education.”
About the Big Sky Conference: The Big Sky Conference enters its 60th year overall and 35th year of women’s competition during the 2022-23 academic year.
The Conference was established in 1963 by six charter members – Idaho, Idaho State, Gonzaga, Montana, Montana State and Weber State. The name originated in a novel written by A.B. Guthrie of Great Falls, MT, titled “The Big Sky”. The six presidents of the charter members adopted the name “Big Sky” for their new conference on February 25, 1963.
The Big Sky is one of three conferences in the western United States playing Division I football and is a national leader in the Football Championship Subdivision. Big Sky teams have won seven national titles in football dating back to 1976, including most recently by Eastern Washington in 2010. In 2016, Northern Arizona won the NCAA Division I Men’s Cross Country National Championship, making them the first conference team to win a national championship in a sport other than football. The Lumberjacks followed with national championships in 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021.
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