FARMINGTON, Utah (May 31, 2023) – As part of its continued partnership with ESPN, the Big Sky Conference announced today a pair of regular-season football games that will be televised on ESPN2 in October.
The two matchups selected by ESPN will feature Montana at Idaho on Saturday, Oct. 14 and Montana State at Sacramento State the following week on Saturday, Oct. 21. Both ESPN2 games will have 7:30 p.m. PT kickoffs.
The Kibbie Dome will get its much-deserved national spotlight on Saturday, Oct. 14, as the 89th meeting between the Idaho Vandals and Montana Grizzlies will be televised on ESPN2. Last year's meeting saw the Vandals escape Missoula with a 30-23 victory to reclaim the Little Brown Stein for the first time since 1999.
The second conference clash to be aired on ESPN2 will feature last season's Big Sky Co-Champions in Montana State and Sacramento State. MSU travels to Hornet Stadium for the first time since 2016, as the Hornets look to sting the Bobcats for the third-straight meeting.
The four Big Sky teams selected for nationally-televised games in 2023 were also all FCS playoff participants in 2022, as the conference earned five teams in the playoffs to match its league high set in 2021. As far as 2023 preseason rankings go,
Athlon Sports had Montana State (No. 3), Idaho (No. 7), Montana (No. 10) and Sacramento State (No. 15) all in its Top 15 earlier this month.
The news on Wednesday is another unprecedented achievement for the league, as it will mark the first time the Big Sky will have two regular-season conference football games on ESPN2 in the same year. That is a change from the past two seasons, which featured one regular-season football game on ESPN2 and one on ESPNU each year since the league signed its deal with the network in the summer of 2021.
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Big Sky Football Regular-Season ESPN Linear Games
10/2/21: Montana at Eastern Washington (ESPN2)*
10/15/21: Montana State at Weber State (ESPNU)
10/1/22: UC Davis at Montana State (ESPNU)
10/22/22: Montana at Sacramento State (ESPN2)
10/14/23: Montana at Idaho (ESPN2)
10/21/23: Montana State at Sacramento State (ESPN2)
* - Originally scheduled for ESPNU but was later bumped up to ESPN2