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Highlights from a Missoulian story:
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2...s/sports01.txt
Grizzlies won't face I-A power or long road trip next season
By FRITZ NEIGHBOR of the Missoulian
The Montana Grizzlies' 2006 football schedule is done, and it includes neither a Division I-A power nor a three-game November road trip.
The Grizzlies, 8-4 last season, were notably absent from Washington-Grizzly Stadium in November thanks to three Big Sky Conference road games. They returned home for a Division I-AA playoff game on Thanksgiving weekend, only to lose to Cal Poly.
Next season the Griz begin and end their regular season at home, where there are seven games. Montana opens with three straight contests at Washington-Grizzly, beginning with nonconference foe South Dakota State on Sept. 9. UM also has three of its final four games at home, including the 106th Griz-Cat game.
The schedule has an open date on Sept. 2 - which could be filled if I-AA administrators approve a 12-game schedule for 2006 in late April - and includes one Division II opponent in Central Washington, on Sept. 16.
Jim O'Day, Montana's first-year athletic director, rates the schedule as a good one, considering the difficulty I-AA programs have finding the right mix of games.
“Everyone's in the same (boat),” he said. “Do you schedule the big guys, or do you schedule Division II? And nobody's totally happy either way.”
Montana's 2005 season included a 47-14 setback at Pac-10 Oregon, and the Grizzlies' season-long injury problems began inside Autzen Stadium.
The $450,000 guarantee netted the UM athletic department near what it could've expected from a home game - in the $300,000-325,000 range - which makes O'Day open, if cautious, about playing I-A opponents. . . .
As expected, Cal Poly, originally a road game in 2006, will play the Grizzlies in Missoula on Nov. 4. Northern Colorado, originally scheduled as a home game Labor Day weekend, will host UM on Nov. 11. The Bears become the Big Sky Conference's ninth school in 2006-07.
Cal Poly signed a deal to come to UM twice, with the second visit in 2010. O'Day declined to reveal financial terms. A straight buyout would've cost UM $50,000.
The Mustangs are in a tight scheduling spot because their conference, the Great West, is down to five teams after Northern Colorado's departure. That leaves Cal Poly, a I-AA playoff team for the first time, with four conference games next season.
And it's become clear that UM isn't excited about heading to San Luis Obispo, Calif., where the Mustangs were 6-0 in '05, including a 4-0 mark against Big Sky schools.
“When you have to schedule seven (non-conference) games, it's hard,” O'Day said of Cal Poly. “Especially when you're not Notre Dame. Cal Poly - it's a beautiful place, and they're getting better and better all the time. But it's hard to get down there. Eastern found that out. Montana State found that out.”
O'Day said UM could end up scheduling NAIA power Carroll College of Helena if the I-AA presidents approve the expanded schedule. That extra game could help a division searching for a different identity - and O'Day plans to attend a meeting, organized by the Southern Conference, on Dec. 16 in Chattanooga, Tenn., concerning the future of I-AA football. . . .
“I think it is critical (to) start to find ways that teams that are perceived as the top teams in I-AA get to other areas of the country,” O'Day said.
A 12-game schedule could clear the way for a program like UM to head to the East Coast, as when the Grizzlies played at Hofstra (in 2002) and Maine (2003). Montana bought out its 2005 game at Hofstra while continuing to attack a $1 million deficit discovered in spring 2004.
“We're looking over the next couple years at the few openings we have left,” O'Day said. “(Former AD) Don Read did a great job of getting the schedule whole for about the next four years. We don't have many openings left, and with a nine-team league, if you have 11 games, eight of your games are already scheduled.”
But an extra game could solve a lot.
“A Carroll game, what it does is free up money in your budget for the next year, to go somewhere,” O'Day said. “Hopefully by then - knock on wood - we'll have our deficit paid off. Once we have our deficit paid off, we'll be in a little better situation to play some opponents (on the road).”
Go State! ;D
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2...s/sports01.txt
Grizzlies won't face I-A power or long road trip next season
By FRITZ NEIGHBOR of the Missoulian
The Montana Grizzlies' 2006 football schedule is done, and it includes neither a Division I-A power nor a three-game November road trip.
The Grizzlies, 8-4 last season, were notably absent from Washington-Grizzly Stadium in November thanks to three Big Sky Conference road games. They returned home for a Division I-AA playoff game on Thanksgiving weekend, only to lose to Cal Poly.
Next season the Griz begin and end their regular season at home, where there are seven games. Montana opens with three straight contests at Washington-Grizzly, beginning with nonconference foe South Dakota State on Sept. 9. UM also has three of its final four games at home, including the 106th Griz-Cat game.
The schedule has an open date on Sept. 2 - which could be filled if I-AA administrators approve a 12-game schedule for 2006 in late April - and includes one Division II opponent in Central Washington, on Sept. 16.
Jim O'Day, Montana's first-year athletic director, rates the schedule as a good one, considering the difficulty I-AA programs have finding the right mix of games.
“Everyone's in the same (boat),” he said. “Do you schedule the big guys, or do you schedule Division II? And nobody's totally happy either way.”
Montana's 2005 season included a 47-14 setback at Pac-10 Oregon, and the Grizzlies' season-long injury problems began inside Autzen Stadium.
The $450,000 guarantee netted the UM athletic department near what it could've expected from a home game - in the $300,000-325,000 range - which makes O'Day open, if cautious, about playing I-A opponents. . . .
As expected, Cal Poly, originally a road game in 2006, will play the Grizzlies in Missoula on Nov. 4. Northern Colorado, originally scheduled as a home game Labor Day weekend, will host UM on Nov. 11. The Bears become the Big Sky Conference's ninth school in 2006-07.
Cal Poly signed a deal to come to UM twice, with the second visit in 2010. O'Day declined to reveal financial terms. A straight buyout would've cost UM $50,000.
The Mustangs are in a tight scheduling spot because their conference, the Great West, is down to five teams after Northern Colorado's departure. That leaves Cal Poly, a I-AA playoff team for the first time, with four conference games next season.
And it's become clear that UM isn't excited about heading to San Luis Obispo, Calif., where the Mustangs were 6-0 in '05, including a 4-0 mark against Big Sky schools.
“When you have to schedule seven (non-conference) games, it's hard,” O'Day said of Cal Poly. “Especially when you're not Notre Dame. Cal Poly - it's a beautiful place, and they're getting better and better all the time. But it's hard to get down there. Eastern found that out. Montana State found that out.”
O'Day said UM could end up scheduling NAIA power Carroll College of Helena if the I-AA presidents approve the expanded schedule. That extra game could help a division searching for a different identity - and O'Day plans to attend a meeting, organized by the Southern Conference, on Dec. 16 in Chattanooga, Tenn., concerning the future of I-AA football. . . .
“I think it is critical (to) start to find ways that teams that are perceived as the top teams in I-AA get to other areas of the country,” O'Day said.
A 12-game schedule could clear the way for a program like UM to head to the East Coast, as when the Grizzlies played at Hofstra (in 2002) and Maine (2003). Montana bought out its 2005 game at Hofstra while continuing to attack a $1 million deficit discovered in spring 2004.
“We're looking over the next couple years at the few openings we have left,” O'Day said. “(Former AD) Don Read did a great job of getting the schedule whole for about the next four years. We don't have many openings left, and with a nine-team league, if you have 11 games, eight of your games are already scheduled.”
But an extra game could solve a lot.
“A Carroll game, what it does is free up money in your budget for the next year, to go somewhere,” O'Day said. “Hopefully by then - knock on wood - we'll have our deficit paid off. Once we have our deficit paid off, we'll be in a little better situation to play some opponents (on the road).”
Go State! ;D
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