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Utah Tech AD Ken Beazer interview on The Andy Thompson Show
Utah Tech is Joining the Big Sky in 2026-27
Audio Transcript
Andy: What an announcement. I know it's been a process for you. What's today been like for you personally, just the weight of the world and finally getting it done and the relief just must be awesome.
Ken: Yeah, you mentioned a lot of it there. Weight of the world, being lifted a little bit, relief. It's been a great day. It really just happened in a 48-hour period of time. Obviously, a lot of work up to that point, but it went down literally in less than 48 hours for it to happen. Woke up this morning, felt the relief, but then you look forward and you got a lot of work to do still. I mean, we still have a lot of work to do. And, but for the moment, going to really enjoy where we're at now as an institution within the Big Sky Conference, and then work to now, like I tell people, sometimes getting in is the easy thing to do. Now you've got to really produce them and move forward.
Andy: Yeah, one of the premier conferences in, we're talking about football and all the FCS, the Big Sky, with all those great schools. What was the, kind of the deliberations like between you and the Big Sky, how long and what did that all look like before the final decision was made to extend the invitation?
Ken: Yeah, you know, it's, again, we're part of the WAC. We've been part of the WAC, great members of the WAC. We enjoy the WAC. In fact, we owe going Division I to the WAC. Yeah. Flat out, Utah Tech does not get to be Division I without an invitation from the WAC. great partners within the WAC, love the institutions we worked with and the people there in the WAC office. But you know, you could kind of start to see as teams were leaving the WAC, you know, a couple of teams would leave, you go, okay, all right, we're still good. Another couple of teams left. Okay, actually, that's a better number. And then once you get down below nine or 10, you start thinking, okay, when's this going to end? And to put it in perspective, The WAC lost 10 teams in a three-year period of time. And then with today's announcement, that's going to 15, 15 teams. The WAC was up to 15 teams three years ago. And so when you could kind of start to see that, you start looking around and seeing if there are homes out there. And that's when we started looking at the Big Sky Conference. Now, looking at the Big Sky Conference and them needing to not only add a team, but to select you are two different things. And so we reached out to the Big Sky in January and just said, hey, we're interested. We think we got something that can really benefit the conference. The university has made some real great strides and you really sell them on the upside of the institution and what we're doing. But in March it was thanks but no thanks, we'll call you, don't call us. And so you're looking around and then it all started when Sacramento State a week, a little over a week ago announced they were leaving the Big Sky Conference and going to the Big West. And that's what started the momentum that eventually led to, well, today's announcement.
Andy: So even before the Sacramento State announcement, there were still kind of some volleys back and forth between you and the big sky about potentially doing something in the future.
Ken: Yeah, when you say volleys back and forth, the communication was like this. If and when you guys are to a point to where you're looking to expand, we think we can position ourselves to be your top choice. And those were the conversations, they were like, okay, yeah, thanks, we know where you're at.
Andy: And as they, I'm sure, are considering other, or were considering other institutions as well as you, what was it like for you looking around at potential other conferences to land in other than the Big Sky if they weren't gonna take you?
Ken: Yeah, so those selections were fewer and fewer. There were some opportunities in the Midwest that you really think, ah, you know, if I don't have a choice, I'll go back there because the travel, good conferences, but yet your kids are traveling all over the place and at institutions that aren't really household names out here. So you start looking around and then all of a sudden I found myself just praying for chaos. You know, just the more chaos that happens in the NCAA conference alignment, you know, we're gonna slot in somewhere out west here. We just want chaos, want chaos. And it kind of went quiet for a couple months. It just kind of went quiet. There's nothing going on. Everybody's waiting for, you know, the final mitigation between the Mountain West Conference and the PAC-12 and what those numbers are going to look like, because that'll determine who they invite. or if they don't invite. And then it truly was when Sacramento State just kinda, I'm not gonna say went rogue, they didn't go rogue, but they made a decision nobody was expecting. And boom, all of a sudden, the big sky is like, we have a slot.
Andy: Because the thought with Sac State was always, oh, are they gonna get a Pac-12 invite? Are they gonna get another? But once they didn't get those, it was like, okay, they're gonna stay in the big sky.
Ken: You would think, right? And then they take off. Yeah, so when that announcement came out that they're, Their appeal to go FBS or application FBS was denied by the football oversight committee, huh? You know, we knew I had to go to the division one council, but we thought okay, they're going to take that as alright Well, we're we're going to still have aspirations to go FBS, but we're gonna stay in the big scale and and then they just you know, they doubled down on it and They doubled down and said, not only are we gonna go FBS, we're gonna go independent FCS. And it was like, okay. So that was- What a blessing. Yeah, that was the anomaly. One of those things that you don't expect that just came out of nowhere. And when they did that, to be in the big sky, you have to have football. And as soon as they said, we're going independent in FCS, you knew the inevitable was there. They were going into the Big West. Good conference then. The Big West really fits their other sports, becomes a bus league. They go into a bus league now. And Utah Valley now is part of that. But yeah, that was the thing, that was the one thing that nobody was expecting that opened it up for us.
Andy: Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. So the big sky talking specifically about football, just as a stable, a bunch of teams that are content being FCS, competitive FCS teams, the Montanas are winning national titles. And so for the football program, I mean, I remember a few years ago, the vision was potentially getting the UAC together and jumping up to FBS one day. How does that forecast change now with your commitment to a conference like the Big Sky?
Ken: So, I'll tell you a little secret. When the UAC started, the United Athletic Conference started, and it was made, the comment was made, we're going to go FBS by 2025. There was nobody in that room that was thinking of doing that outside of Tarleton. We're all just like, what? Yeah. I mean, I'm trying to put together an FCS program here, let alone go FBS. Yeah. And so we all kind of knew that that was kind of beyond our reach.
Andy: I thought it was a clever to get everybody together, then you all go up at once. Correct. But it just seemed like, holy cow, this seems impossible.
Ken: Yeah, several of the ADs got together after and goes, what was that? I mean, it was just one of those things like, who's going to go FBS? And you're like, oh, sure, why not?
Andy: Yeah, right. Yeah. We all hope for that one day.
Ken: We're still struggling to be FCS right now.
Andy: And so the majority of the athletic programs will be in the big sky, including football and basketball, men's and women's basketball and all that. the vast majority, but there are a couple of programs that won't be in the big sky, right?
Ken: Yeah, correct. Swimming, Women's Swimming already has a home. They had a home, we got them a home last fall, and then was called the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, which is really a good conference for swimming. So we signed that agreement back late fall, early January when we signed that. So they've always had a home, but hanging out to right now are baseball and men's soccer. They don't have homes. However, no sooner did this happen than I've had several conferences reach out to me and say, oh, by the way, if you're looking for a home for these sports, which we are, we're just right now trying to evaluate the best conference fit for these two sports.
Andy: And so the change will take place July 1, 2026. Correct. And there will be playing in the Big Sky for the programs that are going to the Big Sky and baseball will have another conference other than the Big Sky that doesn't have baseball.
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