In another thread I declared the Big Sky is no longer a power conference based on their playoff results.

I'll use the last four years of playoffs for comparison. No real reason for that length, say it's a full career of eligibility for a player.

2016 - 2-3 EWU had the only wins. Cal Poly lost to non-scholarship San Diego, giving the Pioneer their first ever playoff win. Co-champ UND lost to Richmond, who was missing 18 starters and was the 2nd ever start for their freshman QB.
2015 - 2-4 with a Montana win. Outright champ SUU wasn't even seeded and lost 1st round. #6 Portland lost to UNI in their first game.
2014 - 2-3, 1 win over non-scholarship San Diego(Montana), who was then beat by other another BSC team(EWU again).
2013 - 2-4, again EWU only. #8 Montana continues the BSC tradition of a seed losing their first game.
8-14 in total
Out of 13 teams, only EWU and Montana won a game, with EWU counting 6 of those wins.


Other so-called power conferences:

MVFC
2016 7-3
2015 9-4
2014 9-4
2013 5-1
30-12
Winners: YSU, NDSU, SDSU, WIU, UNI, ISUr, ISUb

CAA
2016 7-3
2015 3-4
2014 3-3
2013 6-3
19-13
Nova, UNH, Richmond, JMU, W&M, Towson

Socon
2016 3-4
2015 2-2
2014 1-1
2013 1-2
7-9
Chatty, Wofford, Citadel, Furman
Loss of App St and GA Southern really hurt the SoCon, even with that they're doing well.

Other not-so-power conferences
OVC
2016 0-1
2015 3-2
2014 0-2
2013 4-3
7-8
JSU, Tenn St, EIU

Big South
2016 0-1
2015 1-2
2014 2-2
2013 2-1
5-6
CSU, Liberty, Coastal

Southland
2016 2-2
2015 3-2
2014 2-3
2013 2-4
9-11
Central AR, SHSU, SELA

Based on numbers, the Big Sky is clearly closer to the the midpack conferences than the 3 real power conferences. I'd even put them towards the bottom of the 2nd group. They've all had a higher winning percentage and more teams win. EWU is a very strong team that's usually threatening to win it all and...actually EWU has one of the best passing offenses in the FCS and not much defense. That's still enough to get them pretty far though.

Brings me to talking about the proliferation of 1 dimensional teams in the BSC. Cal Poly, UND, Portland St are also good examples of this. At times Cal Poly and PSU have had very strong running games, which have given them upset wins that catapulted them up the rankings. UND is one of the few BSC teams that cares about defense so they've done well against the run, which also pulls them up. You can pass on them all day long though. Computer rankings are dominated by the transitive property, which is why Sagarin has the BSC so high despite their lack of playoff success. The minute one of these plays a balanced team they're ripped apart. There are lots of other unbalanced teams in the FCS but nobody seems to take it to the extreme that the BSC does. Couple that with an absolutely horrible bottom half and scheduling that often avoids top teams playing each other and it's easy to get a great record by a mediocre team.

As I said in the other thread, have 2 or more teams win at least 1 playoff game each against scholarship teams for 2 years in a row and you're back in. Until then I completely reject calling the Big Sky a FCS power conference.