Big Sky preseason polls: Montana State picked to repeat, Idaho voted fourth by media
The majority of both the Big Sky coaches and media chose Montana State to repeat as the conference champion in football, as reflected in the polls released on Thursday.
Idaho was picked to finish fifth by the coaches and fourth by the media, with one member giving the Vandals a first-place vote.
Eastern Washington is ninth in the coaches poll and eighth in the media poll.
In the coaches poll, Montana State is followed by UC Davis, Montana and Northern Arizona. Those four teams joined Idaho in the FCS playoffs last season.
The media poll has the same top five, but in a different order: Montana State, Montana, UC Davis, Idaho and Northern Arizona .
Sacramento State is sixth in both polls and received one first-place vote in each. The Hornets are in their final year of membership in the Big Sky, electing to join the Big West in all sports besides football in 2026-27, when it plans to strike out as an independent member of the FBS.
The Hornets are also predicted to make the largest improvement over their placement last year, when Sacramento State finished last among the conference’s 12 teams.
Idaho State is seventh in both polls, followed in the coaches poll by Weber State, EWU, Portland State, Cal Poly and Northern Colorado. The media poll is the same, except for a flip of Weber State and EWU.
Last year’s preseason polls ended up largely correct, ranking four of the eventual five playoff teams in the top-four slots. The biggest surprise was Northern Arizona, which was predicted seventh by the coaches and ninth by the media but ended up fourth with a 6-2 Big Sky record.
Eastern was slotted similarly in the polls last year (eighth and sixth) and finished in a four-way tie for sixth place with a 3-5 Big Sky record. Idaho (Thomas Ford Jr.) and Sacramento State (Brennan Marion) are the only two Big Sky teams with new head coaches this year.
All of the Big Sky’s 12 head coaches – plus two players from each team – will be in the Spokane area this weekend for the Big Sky Football Kickoff weekend hosted by Northern Quest Resort & Casino in Airway Heights.
The weekend’s events include the Big Sky Hall of Fame Gala on Saturday night, when the conference will induct 10 new members, including Idaho’s Doug Nussmeier (football) and Dan O’Brien (men’s track and field). Tickets are $85 and can be purchased at BigSkyConf.com/HOF.
Earlier Saturday, the conference will host its annual free youth clinic from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at North Central High School. Athletes from the conference’s 12 teams will help run the clinic, which is limited to the first 100 to register at BigSkyConf.com/YouthClinic.