Both were members of the old Pacific Coast Conference ( the forerunner of today 's Pac-12 ) ; Montana departed after the 1949 season , and the PCC disbanded in the summer of 1959 . The universities were charter members of the Big Sky Conference in 1963 , ( although Idaho remained an independent in football until 1965 ) and their final season as conference opponents was in 1995 . While Montana has been in the Big Sky since its inception , Idaho has changed its conference affiliation no fewer than five times since 1995 : Idaho moved to the Big West for all sports in 1996 , returning to Division I-A after 18 years in I-AA . After the 2000 season , the Big West dropped football . Idaho became a football-only member of the Sun Belt Conference in 2001 while remaining a full Big West member . Idaho joined the WAC for all sports in 2005 as part of a major NCAA conference realignment . After the WAC experienced a near-complete membership turnover in the early 2010s , it dropped football after the 2012 season . Idaho football was an FBS independent for one season in 2013 , then returned to the Big Sky in 2014 except for football , which rejoined the Sun Belt . Idaho will drop back to FCS in 2018 and resume football membership in the Big Sky
FBS independent
NCAA Division I FBS independent schools
Idaho Vandals football