Commish here again, we were lucky to get invited to Starch Madness by the Big Sky Conference. The Conference Tournament took place on March 8th - March 12th. Here at the Sickos Committee, we don’t do this for our full-time jobs just yet, and we can have some lag times on our writing and reporting. Our resident Committee Member in the Big Sky footprint is Big Sky Brigit. She was able to attend this Conference Championship in Boise, Idaho, and she wrote a blog that took a bit to write along with loading up 200+ photos. Then my life got in the way a little bit too, and we’re just now getting this to you. Sorry for the delay, but we hope you enjoy it still. Thank you for reading and subscribing!

It hasn’t been for very long that we here at the Committee have been able to travel to live events and cover them for you, our dear readers. What started as something of a goof has evolved into a true Committee, spread around this great big world of ours, made up of people who genuinely, enthusiastically love sports of all kinds. And so as I’ve struggled to write this blog for a full Gregorian calendar month, I decided to write a small meditation on being a Committee member in 2025 and tell you, dear reader, how grateful I am to be part of this. Truly just happy to be here, Coach.

Last year, you may remember, I went to Big Sky Media Days in Spokane. What began as a lark (“haha, wouldn’t it be funny if I went to media days and got a press pass, and they thought I was a real media person?”) began a series of covering Big Sky events. I went to see my beloved Bobcats stomp the Vandals in Bozeman in October 2024. And when I looked at the Starch Madness schedule (and when I saw the shirt), I once again went, “haha, wouldn’t it be funny if I went and covered the tournament?”

A note on the photos from the event: you’ll notice some games have fewer photos than others. This is by no means malicious on my part. The first day of the tournament, I came down with some mystery crud that required a very strict regimen of the Quils, Day and Ny. During the first night of men’s games, in fact, I found myself hallucinating from a fever in the second quarter and had to leave early. We powered through, but there were definitely moments where I had to step back. Also, some games were just total blowouts. I did my best to cover everyone as much as and as fairly as possible.

Back to sincere hours.

Here’s the thing about being a Committee member: this is still very new to all of us. There’s a level of imposter syndrome that comes with being amongst legacy media. I don’t know that I’ll ever get used to people coming up to me and telling me how much they love what we do. We’re just a bunch of goobers on the internet making jokes about sports and the things that excite us (funny things that happen in sports at all levels anywhere in the world).

There’s also an element of being a good house guest, as it were. You’ll notice I photographed the games from many different angles and parts of the arena, while most legacy media people were seated on the sidelines. That’s because a) why would I open myself up to getting beaned in the head with a basketball and end up memed on the internet over it; and b) I’m not a big enough kid in this world to sit with them. They earned those spots. So I did my best to be unobtrusive, to never be in the way, and to be a good steward of the Sickos Committee. We’re only here because of your support for what we do, and I will be goddamned if I’m going to be the person who messes it up for us by being "Too Much" or committing some faux pas.

Vulnerability out of the way, let’s get to the fun parts.

I linked the full gallery here of all the photos taken by Big Sky Brigit, she’s got 18 games of action broken down in here below.

Mascots

Mascots are always a delight. And Starch Madness absolutely delivered on mascot content. You’ll notice highlights like Monte and Champ trading handmade signs and Monte wiping his behind with the “Cats” sign. Or Viktor E. Viking pulling Joe Vandal on a sled. I did my best to capture as much mascot content as possible without going overboard because I know you, my fellow Sickos, are here for that as much as I am.

Fans

The atmosphere of a tournament is neat. Everyone is there to enjoy the games, and a lot of fans stick around to just watch every team play, even if it’s not their team. Each day, there were sections specifically for fans of a certain team to sit together and watch their team play that day. And even with the smallest of crowds, all the fans came out big to support their teams. You’ll see the Northern Colorado dudes who had “B-E-A-R-S” shirts. The packed Montana State section for the final. We here at the Sickos love being among the fans because, at our core, that’s what we are. Sickos – they’re just like us!

But seriously – let’s take the final Montana vs. Montana State. For the last half of the game, I pretty much put my big camera down and watched the game. Not as a photographer, but an alum there to watch my team play the other best team in the tourney (Sac State, you were also v. good, props to you). There’s a magic in being in a group of people, and chasing that magic is a big reason we do what we do. So thank you to you for letting us experience that magic and bring it in the form of content to you. I hope you can feel some of that magic through these photos.

The Big Sky Conference

If there’s anyone who deserves their flowers, it’s the hardworking people at the Big Sky Conference. So much work went into the tourney, and everyone worked their asses off to make it come together and go off without a hitch.

I can’t say thank you enough to them for not only letting little old me come and be there for the whole week, but for seeing what we do here and embracing it. I said it earlier, but it will never not be a trip that we get to do stuff like this. So thank you again to the best conference in sports, the Big Sky.

And go ‘Cats.

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