I wonder if Bill Bradley still wants the BSC to drop UND

That's a final: UND 35, Sac State 14. We already have our game story posted at SacStateSports.com. Check it out. #BigSkyFB #SacHornetsFB
— SacStateSports (@SacStateSports) September 23, 2012

One of my facebook friends pinged me today and asked me if I had the link to the Sacramento State blog post that Bill Bradley of the Sac State Sports wrote that said that the Big Sky Conference should kick UND out of the Big Sky Conference because of the school's Fighting Sioux Nickname.

This was before UND has finished their transition period where they became an official member of the BSC. Apparently, the said author didn't think UND was worthy of being in the Big Sky Conference based our nickname.

Obviously, getting kicked out of the Big Sky Conference was a concern around the UND athletic department this past spring before the June 12th vote on the measure 4 nickname referendum was voted down.

That being said, it was interesting to re-read what this beat writer from had said.

Bill Bradley, SacStateSports.com Editor --- UND is joining the league next season as part of a Big Sky expansion to 13 teams that includes Southern Utah and UC Davis and Cal Poly in football only. If only it were that easy.

The problem is UND’s entry to the Big Sky hasn’t gone as planned – at all. From its botched entry in the league to its continued controversy over the Fighting Sioux nickname, UND has transitioned into the Big Sky like a child going kicking and screaming.

Which is why the Big Sky Conference needs to say, “No thanks. We made a mistake. Thanks for playing. Go find another conference.” The premier league in the Football Championship Subdivision and a competitive mid-major group in basketball doesn’t need the long road trips and headaches UND will bring.North Dakota was supposed to join with South Dakota as a package deal. It was all set to make the Big Sky a 14-team league, Big Sky Commissioner Doug Fullerton said this fall. However, at the last minute South Dakota got a better offer from a more geographic-friendly league, the Missouri Valley Conference.

After re-reading that article, I guess I am going to enjoy UND's first official Big Sky Conference win in football against Sac State, even a little more. I wonder if the writer of said article would still write his blog post, more specifically I wonder if he still wants to see UND get booted from the Big Sky Conference.

Is the Big Sky and the WAC merging?

This is a story that is beginning to emerge on Big Sky Conference fan message boards and now the newspapers out west are beginning to pick up the story as well. Since UND is now in the Big Sky Conference, this could potentially affect North Dakota sports. The WAC was blown up last summer during conference re-alignment and is left with 4 remaining schools - NMSU, Idaho, Seattle, Denver - Boise State is headed to the Big West.

Jason Groves, Las Cruces Sun News - The Big Sky Conference has emerged as a potential lifeline for the dwindling Western Athletic Conference.

In a radio interview with a Boise radio station, Big Sky commissioner Doug Fullerton said his league is exploring a merger with the Western Athletic Conference that could save the WAC as a non-football league in 2013-14 while keeping two automatic qualifiers for the NCAA basketball tournament in the west.

"There may not be anything but it's something we need to look at before it (the WAC) goes black," Fullerton said.

WAC commissioner Jeff Hurd said on Thursday that a merger between the Big Sky and WAC is realistic, but still extremely preliminary.

"Doug and I led a commissioner's meeting in June in Chicago and it was an idea that originally he brought to my attention well before that," Hurd said. "I re-approached him in June with a different version. We both feel there is some merit to it."

Fullerton said New Mexico State has been slow to join the discussion in hopes of securing Mountain West, Conference USA or Sun Belt membership, whereas Idaho has had in-depth conversations with the Big Sky about merging certain Big Sky teams with the WAC for Olympic sports while Big Sky teams remain under the Big Sky umbrella for football - currently at the FCS level.

NMSU, Idaho, Seattle, Denver and Boise State are the remaining WAC schools for Olympic sports in 2013, but Boise State is expected to join the Big West before school starts in the fall.