PARK CITY, Utah – The Big Sky preseason media and coaches’ polls were released Tuesday morning as part of the conference’s Football Kickoff event and Idaho State was picked to finish 12th and 11th respectively. The Bengals were placed into the 12 spot by the media, second to the bottom with only Northern Colorado below them. ISU defeated the Bears 50-20 last season. The coaches put Idaho State at No. 11 ahead of UC Davis and Northern Colorado.

ISU head coach Mike Kramer understands that his team has plenty of work to do to work its way closer to the top of the heap. “We want to win,” Kramer said. “One thing I think a good head coach does in a program that needs leadership is that you want your players to mimic how important that opportunity is. We try to make sure that when we’re on the practice field or when we’re in game day, we’re paying attention to what we’re doing.”

The Bengals’ head man added that this year’s squad will show marked improvement from the one that took the field last season. “We’re smarter. We’re smarter and we care more,” he said. “The disaffection that we felt last year from about the middle of October on was palpable, was present in everything that we did. It was just a bummer and a downer.”

“The one thing I feel about this group of kids and the way they’re going to play is that they care more about each other and about how the outcome represents who they are. So I think this team will take a lot more ownership in the season and their own individual play and it should make us a lot better.”

Montana State was selected to finish at the top in both polls as the Bobcats received 30 first place votes from the media and seven from the coaches. In fact, both lists were identical through the top five teams.

Eastern Washington was second with three first place votes from the media and four from the coaches. Montana (five media, one coaches’) was third, Portland State fourth and Cal Poly fifth.

North Dakota was sixth in the media poll and 10th in the coaches’ while Weber State took the seventh spot with the media and sixth with the coaches. Southern Utah came in at the eight spot and curiously garnered one first place vote with the coaches even though the team was picked to finish eighth overall.

Northern Arizona slid into the ninth spot with the media and seventh with the coaches while Sacramento State was 10th and ninth respectively. UC Davis was ahead of Idaho State in the media poll, taking the 11th spot.

The Bengals and the Aggies will face off at Holt Arena on Oct. 13. UC Davis head coach Bob Biggs, now in his 35th year with the school, says his team has never played Idaho State.

“I don’t know what to expect because I haven’t been there,” Biggs said.

“I know it’s an indoor arena and Northern Arizona is another indoor arena. We’ve played in other indoor arenas, but I imagine it’s a little bit more like the University of Idaho, who we have played. But I think it’s just exciting to play in front of new Big Sky fans and play the different venues and just try to get established in the conference.”

That excitement seemed to be evident with all 13 Big Sky coaches as one of the most formidable FCS conferences increased its strength.

“It’s probably the best FCS conference in the United States,” said Cal

Poly head coach Tim Walsh, who previously coached Portland State for 14 years. “They’ve added four quality football teams so a strong conference just got stronger. I think from that standpoint that obviously it’s great to be in a conference that’s going to get the national recognition that the Big Sky is going to get.”

“We expect to be playing the very top teams in FCS football,” said Southern Utah head coach Ed Lamb. “It’s something that we signed up for and it’s something that we aspire to. We’ve worked towards that goal and we’re excited about it. We think that we’re going to be right there.”

Because the Big Sky is now at 13 football-playing members, there are more opponents than can fit in any one schedule. This means that Idaho State will not play the other 12 conference universities every season. The Big Sky has decided to maintain “rival” universities that will compete against one another each year in addition to a rotating schedule. This season, for example, Idaho State will play Sacramento State, Portland

State, UC Davis, Montana, Northern Arizona and Cal Poly. The Bengals’ two “rivals” are Northern Colorado and Weber State, whom they will see every year.

Some schools have decided to schedule “non-conference” games against Big Sky opponents who they otherwise would not be playing that year. The quirky scheduling format also creates a sense of mystery when it comes to coaches picking the league’s top players.

“How are we going to vote for all-conference? How am I going to vote for a guy I don’t see,” Kramer said. “That’s interesting to me because that’s still an interesting facet of belonging to a conference. It’s unwieldy, but it enhances our visibility. It makes us a little more cohesive in a geographical sense and it also presents great opportunities in non-conference because we can schedule conference in a non-conference game. There is some of that going on now. There are so many possibilities with a greater number.”

Idaho State football players will report on Aug. 6 with fall camp beginning at Holt Arena on Aug. 7. The Bengals will take on Air Force on Sep. 1 in Colorado Springs. Kickoff is scheduled for noon.