- Utah Tech will join the Big Sky Conference in July 2026, uniting Utah's FCS teams.
- Trailblazers' move aims to improve travel logistics and boost recruitment opportunities.
- Coaches express excitement, citing geographic fit and competitive benefits of the Big Sky.
ST. GEORGE — Every other week or so for the past several months, Utah Tech coaches and administrators would report to their athletic department meetings and one question would be asked before any other: What's going on with the conference?
The Trailblazers finally have an answer.
Utah's newest NCAA Division I university will join the Big Sky, along with counterparts at Southern Utah, beginning July 1, 2026. The move gives the conference that is based in Farmington a stronger foothold in the Beehive State, with all three FCS institutions — Southern Utah, Utah Tech and Weber State — in the same league for the first time.
Finally, the biggest question has been answered, but others sprung from it.
"I think it's a good move for us," Trailblazers men's basketball coach Jon Judkins told KSL.com. "It's great for all of our sports, to have football in the same conference that (basketball) is in. I think the Big Sky is one of the best conferences, it's solid year-in and year-out, and we've played a lot of teams from the Big Sky the last couple of years. We're excited to be a part of it."
Utah Tech moved up to Division I ahead of the 2020-21 season thanks to an invitation from the Western Athletic Conference, which will rebrand as the United Athletic Conference and partner with the ASUN beginning next year to form a conference that spans east from Texas.
So saying "goodbye" to the old friend that is the WAC — one that has been home to every NCAA Division I program in Utah history except Big Sky charter member Weber State — is a little like waving goodbye to an old friend.
"We're really grateful for what we had in the WAC," said Utah Tech executive director of athletics Ken Beazer, who was Southern Utah's athletic director in 2012 when the Thunderbirds joined the Big Sky from the Summit League. "Without the WAC, we're not Division I. The WAC was the one that gave us that first portal to get into Division I, and we had a lot of great friends there.
"But transitioning to the Big Sky, these are household names … and they're close," he added. "There are a lot of opportunities for our fan base to follow us."
Still, at a time when geography was splintered in realignment that drove Utah Valley to the Big West, conference realignment has shifted the college map — from USC and Oregon in the Big Ten to Stanford and Cal in the ACC.
Yet Utah Tech's move unites most of the athletic department — from football to men's basketball and most Olympic sports — under the same umbrella, and puts the Trailblazers together with teams in its current geographic footprint.
Utahh Tech still needs to find find a home for baseball and men's soccer, and women's swimming and diving will compete in the MPSF. But everything else — from football and basketball to softball and men's golf, which will resume sponsorship by the Big Sky in 2025-26 — will compete in the same league by 2026.
"I think geographically, it fits us very well," Utah Tech football coach Lance Anderson said of playing the likes of Weber and SUU, as well as Northern Arizona and Idaho State. "The travel suits us much better. It's going to be much easier than traveling to West Georgia, Eastern Kentucky, Austin Peay.
"There are a lot of really positive things about joining the Big Sky Conference."
In football, Utah Tech will get a small taste of Big Sky play before its final season in the UAC this fall. That's when the Trailblazers open the season hosting Big Sky foe UC Davis before visiting Idaho and Northern Arizona.
The three-game slate will likely even Anderson and his staff what they need to do to prepare for full-time membership next summer.
"We know big picture-wise, there's a lot that we need to do to improve this program," Anderson said. "There's a lot of work that goes into that, and we're going to do that every day to be better prepared to go to the Big Sky. And I think you can help that by working in recruiting, getting into Utah, into Arizona and Idaho, even the Pacific Northwest. This move opens up some new recruiting grounds a little more, too, as well as parts of California with UC Davis and Cal Poly."
Off-the-field battles will also continue with those same schools, particularly in the life blood of college sports: recruiting.
The Trailblazers have long recruited heavily out of Utah, but also find talent from Arizona, Nevada, California, Idaho and the Pacific Northwest. With Big Sky schools representing each of those reasons, in addition to Montana, recruiting could receive the same boost as when Utah Tech first joined the WAC and Division I.
"The recruiting has been a lot better, no question, from Division II to Division I," Judkins said. "Living in St. George, it still brings people here — and they love it."
Even so, new challenges will rise — just as they are now.
"When we call people in the transfer portal, the first thing they ask is, how much are you paying me?" said Judkins, whose program has seven Division I transfers on the 2025-26 roster. "That's how the game is going, and we've got to figure it out and deal with it the best we can."
