Big Sky Returns to Boise
By Danny Waldo
Following a three-year trial run in Reno, NV, the home of former Big Sky Conference member Nevada-Reno, the Big Sky Conference men’s and women’s league championship is shifting to another former member’s hometown in Boise, Idaho.
CenturyLink Arena in downtown Boise, home to the Idaho Steelhead’s hockey team, seats 5,000 fans, and has hosted basketball, arena football, indoor soccer, Motocross and gymnastic events in its past. The Big Sky Conference is hoping that it will be a popular draw for the men’s and women’s conference basketball tournaments too following dismal attendance numbers in Reno over the past three years.
The conference shifted to a new tournament format following the 2015-16 season, one in which all members qualified for the league tournament at a pre-determined site to ease travel difficulties for a conference that spanned as far east as North Dakota, and as far south as Arizona. But Reno proved a difficult travel location, one that not many fans were willing to get to.
With the loss of North Dakota from the Big Sky Conference, Boise is a more centrally located venue for the remaining league members, and CenturyLink Arena will provide a more intimate experience compared to the cavernous convention center in Reno where the tournament was played the last three years.
The conference tournament officially kicks off in Boise on Monday, March 11th, when the bottom six seeds on the women’s side open tournament play. The women’s quarterfinal matchups will be played on Tuesday, March 12th. The Montana State women open play on March 12th at 2:30 versus Portland State.
The men’s tournament doesn’t begin until Wednesday, March 13th, when the bottom six seeds go head to head. The Montana State men will take on the University of Idaho in a first round matchup on March 13th beginning at approximately 2:30 p.m.
Semi-final matchups for the women are on Wednesday, March 13th, with the final slated for Friday, the 15th, while the men’s semi-finals are set for Friday, the 15th with the championship set for Saturday the 16th at 6:00 p.m.
You can catch all of the tournament action live by logging onto www.bigskyconf.com and selecting ‘Watch Big Sky’.
