Big Sky Meetings on Cost Cuts Begin Today

The Big Sky Conference's annual spring meeting begins today, and the conference will consider a long list of potential cost-savings ideas in several sports. We've discussed these in previous blogs, but it appears I misread a note from Jon Kasper, the Big Sky Conference spokesman, about the status of a couple of key proposals -- reducing the number of teams that are eligible for the men's and women's basketball tournaments from 6 to 4. I took Jon's comment that both were "tabled for spring" to mean they were off the table, but that's not true, according to a story in today's Missoulian.

Also under consideration at the Big Sky gathering, which runs through Wednesday, are proposals to:

• Withdraw from the basketball Game of the Week contract with Altitude;
• Make Idaho State the permanent host site for the indoor track and field championships.
• The Missoulian also reports (http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2009/05/18/sports/zsports03.txt that the proposal to play men's and women's conference basketball games on Friday-Saturday nights, rather than the current Thursday-Saturday format, is still on the table.

Already approved by the conference were motions to reduce the volleyball and tennis conference championships from 6 to 4 teams; suspending the RPI requirements for basketball scheduling; and doing away with the annual Big Sky Conference football summer kick-off meetings in Park City, Utah.

We'll keep you posted as we hear more from the Big Sky meetings this week.

Speaking of Budgets:

Boise State announced last week that is cutting $750,000 from its athletic department budget, largely by eliminating three positions and not filling other open slots. The cuts are less than 3 percent of BSU's over-$29 million athletic department budget.

Here's a link to the Idaho Statesman story on the cuts: http://www.idahostatesman.com/sports/story/772169.html

--Brad B.

And thanks for being a Bengal fan -- it aint' always easy, but it's always fun. l