Whatever Happened to This Conference?? - The Skyline Conference

Conference realignment is seemingly never going away in college football and it has become a topic of constant conversation. We currently have conferences seemingly on the brink of either ceasing operations completely or becoming realigned in a way that doesn’t make geographical sense (or some already have). We’re talking about a Major Power Five conference potentially being broadcast on random networks or potentially being put behind a streaming service paywall. Due to this uncertainty, we started to wonder what happened to conferences in college football’s past and how they fell out of the picture. We will take a brief tour of some defunct conferences, explore their members, give a brief summary on how the conference fell apart and where everyone wound up after the conference disbanded.  

The Skyline Conference

The Skyline Conference was a college athletic conference based in the Western United States that was active from December 1937 to June 1962. The conference's formal name was the Mountain States Athletic Conference, although it was also known as the Mountain States Conference along with informal but popular nicknames such as Big Seven, Skyline Six and Skyline Eight. (It is unrelated to the contemporary Skyline Conference that is active in NCAA Division III in the New York City area.)

The conference began operating on December 3, 1937 when most of the larger schools in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference left to form a new conference. The seven charter members of the conference were: BYU, Colorado, Colorado A&M (now Colorado State), Denver, Utah, Utah State, and Wyoming. During the Conference’s lifespan, Montana and New Mexico were later added after Colorado’s exodus.

Skyline Conference Timeline

At the time of formation in 1937, the formal name of Mountain States Athletic Conference was adopted, although newspapers were already calling it the Big Seven at that time. The conference became popularly known as the Skyline Conference or Skyline Six after Colorado left in 1947. Colorado joined the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MVIAA), informally known as the Big Six Conference, which took over the Big Seven name and would later become the Big Eight Conference.

Pretty amazing that Colorado got to take the conference name of Big Seven with them when they moved to another conference. I guess the Buffaloes were just that powerful.

The Skyline Conference operated with Six teams from 1947-1951.

In 1951, New Mexico then joined the conference from the Border Conference. Montana played one year as an Independent in 1950 but was in the Pacific Coast Conference for several decades before.

Here’s a Press Radio information book beveled from the 1958 season. $84.00 on Ebay

The conference operated with Eight teams for the remainder of the Conference’s life.

Total Skyline Conference Championships

• Utah - 10

• Wyoming - 7

• Colorado - 4

• Denver - 3 (A happy little Denver Pioneer beveled below)

• Utah State - 3

• Colorado A&M (Aka Colorado State) - 1

• Montana - 0

• New Mexico - 0

• BYU - 0

The Skyline Conference Breaks Up

As stated earlier, in 1947, Colorado joined the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MVIAA), informally known as the Big Six Conference, which took over the Big Seven name and would later become the Big Eight Conference.

Nothing too dramatic really happened after Colorado left. The Skyline Conference added New Mexico and Montana four years later. (Sports illustrated preview from 1956 of the conference.)

Denver dropped football after the 1960 fall season (1960–61 school year). So the conference was down to only seven football playing schools.

The conference officially dissolved as of July 1, 1962. Four out of the eight conference members (BYU, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming) departed decided to leave the conference to to form the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). Interestingly enough the Skyline Conference Commissioner, Paul Brechler, served as commissioner until the conference disbanded and then became the first commissioner of the WAC.

Denver took the most interesting journey after dropping football. The Pioneers had joined the following subsequent conferences: as an NCAA D-I Independent from 1962–63 to 1978–79 and during the 1998–99 school year; as an NAIA Independent from 1979–80 to 1989–90; the Colorado Athletic Conference (CAC) of NCAA D-II from 1990–91 to 1995–96; NCAA D-II Independent from 1996–97 to 1997–98; the Sun Belt Conference from 1999–2000 to 2011–12; and the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) during the 2012–13 school year.

Utah State remained Independent for football until 1978 when they joined the Big West.

Montana remained Independent for one year and then they formed/joined the Big Sky Conference in 1963 where they have been ever since.

Colorado A&M became Colorado State and remained Independent until 1968 when they joined the WAC, reuniting with some old Skyline Conference mates.

Sound off in the comments below if you’d like us to review what occurred in another defunct conference.