From FCS To FBS: What People Are Saying On Montana’s Future

Conference realignment is active once again. Earlier this week, Yahoo Sports reported Colorado State, Boise State, San Diego State and Fresno State will leave the Mountain West Conference for the PAC-12 beginning in 2026.

It's a massive shakeup and another domino to fall. Now the question is how will it impact Montana? Will the Grizzlies receive an invitation from the Mountain West? Would they accept it? There's so much that goes into moving up to the FBS and the Voice of the Griz Riley Corcoran and myself broke it down on The Daily Drive With Ace Sauerwein yesterday.

What they're saying...

At this time, it doesn't seem like Montana will be on the move. Matt Brown with Extra Points reported earlier today that Big Sky Conference teams "are unlikely to seek reclassification." Brown cites finances as the biggest reason. No surprise there because when a team leaps from FCS to FBS, coach salaries increase and a $5 million fee is slapped on as well.

Montana doesn't appear to be on the move and in fact, the remaining Mountain West Conference teams could leave for the FCS level instead. Jon Wilner with The Mercury news wrote "It seems more likely that some of the remaining schools in the Mountain West drop down to the FCS level."  Wilner references how FCS schools would have to up their operating costs and many of the schools mentioned (Montana, Montana State, North Dakota State, South Dakota State, etc) would face some serious hurdles. As HERO Sports' Sam Herder pointed out, a lot of the top targets don't receive a huge chunk of institutional support.

In a later tweet, Herder said the Mountain West should reload with football powers, not so much market powers.  

Money is going to be a topic of discussion when an FCS school jumps up to the FBS, but let's say Montana conjured the dough up. Would it be worth it for the Grizzlies to move up to a Mountain West Conference that now doesn't have Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State?

Would it be worth it for the fans?

Consider it from a fan's perspective. It would have been intriguing to see the Griz play Boise State on a yearly basis, but now they're in the PAC-12. So are New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV, Nevada, Air Force and Wyomings of the world worth a move? Will it be that much more fun for Griz fans to see these teams instead of Weber State, Northern Arizona, Sacramento State and UC Davis?

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The other competition-related angle to ponder is the playoff systems. The FCS has the superior playoff system: No bowls and a 24-team bracket to decide the National Championship. If the Griz move up to the Mountain West, they will not have a shot at a title in the current state of the playoffs. Montana will never have the resources to compete with Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State or Michigan. In my opinion, the Group of 5 Conferences would need to install its own playoff separate from the Power 4 (Big 10, Big 12, ACC and SEC). I wrote about that back in April (read below).

READ MORE: How Proposed Playoff Changes Could Affect Griz Football (April, 2024)

All that said, it's great to see the PAC-12 regain life and this will be very compelling to follow what happens to all those teams in limbo.