For years, the Big Sky has claimed that it is the best FCS football conference in America.

And there is a lot of truth to that statement, especially over the past few seasons, given the depth of talent on the teams, the overall quality from top to bottom, the number of schools invited to the postseason tournament and the fact that many of the Big Sky teams found success in it.

But this year, something was a little different, and because of some poor performances last Saturday, when the selection committee released the 24 teams invited to play for the national crown Sunday morning, only three Big Sky teams got the good news.

Usually, the league has been getting four, sometimes five teams selected, but not this time.

Montana State, which beat Montana Saturday to win the regular season league title, the aforementioned Montana and UC Davis will be continuing their seasons.

All three of those teams were among the top eight seeds, all will be hosting second-round games and all three will get byes and not have to play until Dec. 6.

Montana State (10-2) is the No. 2 overall seed in the tournament. The Bobcats will play the winner of this Saturday’s game between Yale and Youngstown State in Bozeman at 2 p.m.

Montana (11-1) is the No. 3 seed. The Grizzlies will play the winner of New Hampshire and South Dakota State in Missoula, also at 2 p.m. UNH and South Dakota State play Saturday.

UC Davis (8-3) earned the No. 8 seed. The Aggies got the last first-round bye and will take on the winner of the game this Saturday between Central Connecticut State and Rhode Island. They host the winner at 3 p.m. on Dec. 6 in Davis, California.

Two other Big Sky schools found themselves on the outside looking in because of losses Saturday.

Sacramento State lost to UC Davis 31-27 Saturday. The Hornets ended the year at 7-5, as did Northern Arizona, which saw its chances for a playoff bid go out the window with a stunning upset loss to poor Weber State team, 48-28.

Had either of those teams, or both, won Saturday, they would have received a bid.

North Dakota State is the overall No. 1 seed, checking in with a perfect 12-0 mark on the year.

With both Montana schools in the same bracket, it’s possible those two could have a rematch in the national semifinals on Dec. 20.

The championship game is slated for Nashville, Tennessee, at FirstBank Stadium, the home of the {span data-olk-copy-source=”MessageBody”}Vanderbilt Commodores{/span}{!--EndFragment--}s, on Jan. 5 at 5:30 p.m. CT.