BOZEMAN — A presentation at the Big Sky Football Kickoff over the summer illustrated the sizable strata within the conference. Big Sky commissioner Tom Wistrcill met with his league’s 12 head football coaches on July 21 in Spokane, Washington. At one point, the topic of nonconference scheduling came up.
Wistrcill showed a list of programs over the last decade that Big Sky schools had paid to host, according to Northern Colorado coach Ed Lamb. “The vast majority of them were to Montana and Montana State,” Lamb told 406 MT Sports on July 22. Nonconference play in college football is filled with “guarantee games” (aka “buy games”, “money games” and “blood games”) in which the host school gives a six- or seven-figure check to opponent.
It’s one of the few ways to satisfy both sides — the host gets a winnable home game, while the visitor gets to challenge itself and receives enough money to pay for travel and other expenses. Schools in the Football Championship Subdivision drink from much smaller revenue streams than the top-tier Football Bowl Subdivision, so many FCS programs are almost required to schedule road guarantee games. There are exceptions, notably two that reside in the Treasure State.
While Montana and Montana State have advantages compared to their Big Sky peers, nonconference scheduling isn’t always easier. In fact, the traits other schools envy sometimes pose problems for the Grizzlies and Bobcats. “Scheduling’s hard,” Griz coach Bobby Hauck said July 22.
“It's hard to put it all together. It's hard to get people to come play. It's just really difficult.
Sometimes we’ve just got to take what we can get.” Different priorities To become eligible for a bowl game, an FBS program must simply win six games (even five is enough in some cases), no matter how impressive those six wins look. So there’s little incentive for an FBS team to schedule a tough nonconference foe when it can dig into its deep coffers to host a low-FBS or FCS opponent.
The calculus is different at the FCS level. The FCS granted 12-game regular seasons , but in a typical 11-game season, an FCS team must earn seven wins over Division I teams to be seriously considered by the FCS playoff committee for a spot in the 24-team playoff bracket. Victories over Division II, D-III or NAIA programs are no better than losses from a postseason eligibility perspective.
FBS games carry risk and reward. An FBS loss, which is likely, forces an FCS team to win seven of its remaining games against D-I teams to get playoff consideration. An FBS victory, on the other hand, looks doubly impressive to the playoff committee.
Sacramento State, for instance, probably would’ve missed the 2023 FCS playoffs if not for its upset of Stanford, a Power 4 FBS program. “You want to be competing for championships, at the conference level and at the national level,” said Sac State head coach Andy Thompson. “So 100%, yeah, we want to be able to play those (D-I) teams.
” Idaho coach Jason Eck believes the best formula for FCS title contention is six games at home and five on the road, all against D-I teams with one guarantee game against an FBS team. “You want to test yourself,” said MSU coach Brent Vigen. “While the kids appreciate the competition that we're going to get in our league and being in the playoffs and having those opportunities potentially, when you know there's an FBS carrot out there, you want to play in those games.
” MSU defensive end Brody Grebe and Sac State offensive lineman Jackson Slater both hope to play in the NFL, and their odds of getting there increase if they play well against tough college competition. That’s why Grebe looked forward to the Week 0 game at New Mexico and Slater was excited to play two other FBS Mountain West teams, San Jose State and Fresno State, to begin this season. “(Those) are kind of the games I need to make my money,” Slater said.
“Having success in those games and putting on film what I want to put on film is going to be big for me personally.” Strong performances against FBS teams can provide a major confidence boost, Grebe said, while struggling can help the Bobcats address weaknesses before Big Sky play and the playoffs arrive. Grebe also gets personal value out of those games beyond NFL aspirations.
“If I have goals to be the Big Sky MVP and Buck Buchanan Award winner, not being able to play half the second quarter or the third and fourth quarters will be detriments,” he said. “To accumulate stats, you can't get them if you're not playing. That is one negative aspect of playing some teams that we blow out.
” But blowout wins can be beneficial. The Bobcats’ 31-7 victory at Utah Tech on Aug. 31 and 41-24 rout of Maine on Sept.
7 got them two steps closer to the seven-win threshold while allowing them to rest starters in the second halves and give meaningful reps to backups. Big Sky bottom dwellers like Northern Colorado appreciate light nonconference schedules for different reasons. The Bears lost confidence in nonconference play last season en route to an 0-11 record, Lamb said.
In hindsight, maybe an easy win or two would’ve helped his players more than facing three tough D-I teams prior to league play. “The scheduling philosophy is not, ‘Let's go test ourselves against the best,’” Lamb added. “We're already in the best conference in the country.
” Different challenges UM and MSU averaged 26,269 and 21,610 fans, respectively, per home game last regular season, . Those consistently large attendances lead both programs to schedule more home nonconference games than other Big Sky programs. Next year, UM will become to play eight home games in a regular season, with all four nonconference games coming at home.
MSU will host seven regular season games — three in nonconference play — . “There's a lot that goes into it, both on the financial side but also our atmosphere and what that means for our fans,” Vigen said. “The environment is second to none.
For our players, I think it's a big piece of why they choose Montana State.” The Griz haven’t faced an FBS team since 2021, when they upset Washington to open the season. The $675,000 they received from the Huskies, a Power 4 team, meant more than usual because UM’s athletic department was dealing with .
But not all guarantee games are created equal. A payout like the $360,000 MSU received from New Mexico this year probably wouldn’t be worth the travel expenses and lack of gate revenue for UM, and FBS checks have become less crucial to the Cats as their home attendances have increased, per MSU athletic director Leon Costello. “We went and won at Washington a couple years ago, and that was great, and they paid us a lot of money to go there,” Hauck said.
“But we sell out our stadium every week. So for us to leave, it’s got to be a financial balance.” At the same time, Hauck enjoys playing FBS opponents and said his team has to win road games “to win at the level we expect to win.
” Scheduling road games, however, has “nothing to do with desire,” Hauck added. Not only is it more financially beneficial to play at home, UM and MSU limit their nonconference options when they beat teams like Washington and New Mexico. “The stronger our program’s become, I think the less likelihood that people want to play you,” Vigen said.
Scheduling can also be tricky because nearly every nonconference game is determined years before it's played. Other than UM and MSU, the only Big Sky programs to average more than 10,000 spectators per home game last year were Sac State, Idaho and UC Davis. To make up for relatively low gate revenue, those non-Treasure State programs book more guarantee games and often schedule home-and-home series with other FCS programs that result in a financial wash.
Sometimes they have to settle for opponents at the D-II level or lower. That financial reality hurts those teams’ playoff chances relative to the Cats and Griz, who scheduled a combined seven nonconference games against FCS teams this season (five at home). “We could have the same conference record (as the Griz) and they’ll go to the playoffs and we won’t,” Idaho State coach Cody Hawkins told 406 MT Sports’ Frank Gogola.
“Now, they’re a great program, but the investment of the fan base and the commitment has allowed them to not have to go play these blood games, which are so commonplace in our conference. When you don’t have to do that, you play more winnable FCS games.” MSU paid Maine $250,000 and Mercyhurst $275,000 and didn’t schedule road games against either team.
Other Big Sky schools would struggle to pay that kind of guarantee without getting a check in return, as is the case with home-and-home series (for example, South Dakota State paid MSU $100,000 for their game in Brookings, South Dakota, last year, and the Jackrabbits will get $100,000 from MSU when they play in Bozeman next year). “There's no magic formula,” Wistrcill said, “other than money talks.” Cal Poly has a non-financial advantage compared to the rest of the Big Sky.
“San Luis Obispo’s a great area, so at times, we'll get people that really want to come out and visit us,” said Cal Poly coach Paul Wulff. The Mustangs, Sac State and UC Davis reside close to many D-I teams, unlike most of their Big Sky peers. “We can drive to San Jose State and Fresno State, and they'll pay us to come play those games,” Thompson said, “so you're getting to make more money when you don't have to fly someplace.
Paying for a bus is a lot cheaper.” Programs also deal with unforeseen circumstances that can turn the headache of nonconference scheduling into a migraine. Eastern Washington was slated to play at Florida, a Power 4 program, in 2020.
Because of COVID and Hurricane Ian, the schools — three weeks after EWU played at Power 4 Oregon, one week after the Eagles hosted then-No. 4-ranked MSU and one week before they traveled to No. 7 Weber State.
EWU lost all four games, going from a ranked FCS team to one of the Big Sky’s worst that year. “It wasn’t ideal,” said EWU coach Aaron Best, adding, “For the first time in Eastern history, we faced an SEC team. .
.. We played on Sunday, two days after a hurricane.
Those are memorable moments, and if it's not memorable, to me, it's not worth it. “But it wasn't easy, by any stretch.” Portland State began the 2022 season with losses at San Jose State and Washington, then capped nonconference play with a blowout home win against Lincoln, a sub-D-I independent program.
PSU began last season with an 81-7 loss at Oregon, a 31-17 loss at FBS Wyoming and a 91-0 home victory over NAIA North American. The Vikings scrambled to get the Lincoln and North American games after their originally scheduled nonconference matchups fell through for “a myriad of reasons,” said PSU head coach Bruce Barnum. They were able to get four D-I opponents on their 2024 nonconference slate, albeit against two FBS teams and two ranked FCS programs.
“I have a group that needs to get to the playoffs,” Barnum said, adding, “(PSU’s administration) told me I'm playing two money games. I asked, ‘Make it one, give me another FCS.’ I told them, ‘If you want things built here, and you want to be in the playoffs annually, get rid of both of them.
Then you'll see how good this group is.’ “Right now, we go into the season (saying), ‘We have to have an excellent year,’ instead of saying, ‘We played alright, but we're still in the playoffs.’ We don't have that luxury.
” The 12-game schedule in 2024 and 2025 provided a slight challenge because it’s hard enough to get three nonconference games, much less four. But it also allowed Big Sky programs to schedule a home-and-home series and still be able host six games in both seasons. Less than six home games can hurt athletic department budgets.
“Nobody wants to do the home-and-away during an 11-game season because it costs you a home game the year that you travel,” Barnum said. MSU got an extra home game next year unintentionally. Stephen F.
Austin with MSU in May, leaving the Cats little time to find a replacement (SFA hasn’t responded to requests for comment). Mercyhurst not only filled the holes, it agreed to come to Bozeman both seasons, turning a road trip (to SFA) into a seventh home game next fall. The Cats also added San Diego after Drake requested to move its game at Bobcat Stadium from 2025 to 2027.
“It's getting harder,” Vigen said. “Can you get a home-and-home? Do you have to have a couple of games that you're buying each year? Those FBS opportunities are pretty thin. “So it is challenging.
We all have our individual challenges.”.
