BILLINGS — One thing coaches Bobby Hauck and Brent Vigen will combat this week is their respective football teams — Montana and Montana State — peering ahead to an unprecedented Cat/Griz matchup in the semifinal round of the FCS playoffs.
But that doesn't mean we can't.
When this year's NCAA Division I Football Championship field was announced Nov. 23 — one day after the Bobcats edged the Grizzlies 31-28 in Missoula in their annual Brawl of the Wild clash — it was immediately evident that the archrivals were on another collision course. The No. 2-seeded Bobcats and No. 3 Grizzlies were officially paired on the same side of the bracket, meaning a semifinal bout between the programs was a distinct possibility.
It's never happened before, perhaps surprisingly. But now the Cats and Griz stand one quarterfinal win each away from setting up the biggest game of 2025 for the second time. Montana State (11-2) hosts Stephen F. Austin (11-2) Friday night while Montana (12-1) welcomes South Dakota (10-4) on Saturday afternoon.
It's interesting: Only three other times have the Bobcats and Grizzlies been matched on the same side of the bracket — in 2002, 2011 and again in 2023. All three times a potential matchup was snuffed out.
A quarterfinal game could have happened in 2002 but the Bobcats fell 21-14 on the road at top-seeded McNeese State. Montana beat Northwestern State 45-14 in their first-round matchup but then lost to McNeese 24-20 the following week.
In 2011 MSU lost on the road 49-13 at Sam Houston in the quarters while the Griz rolled over Northern Iowa 48-10. Montana ultimately fell one win shy of the title game, losing at SHSU 31-28 in the semifinals.
And in 2023 the Bobcats were knocked out in the second round at home by North Dakota State 35-34 on a blocked extra point in overtime. Montana, behind Junior Bergen's heroics, handled its business and marched to the championship game in Frisco, Texas, before losing 23-3 to South Dakota State.
The FCS/Division I-AA playoffs have been contested each season since the subdivision was formed in 1978. Only four teams competed in the bracket that first year, but it has since grown into a 24-team tournament. What's also interesting is that the Cats and Griz have been in the postseason together just 11 times in 48 years.
Montana State won the national championship in 1984 but then went 17 long seasons without qualifying. The Grizzlies won titles in 1995 and 2001 and have been in the postseason 30 times since 1982, including 17 in a row between 1993 and 2009.
These days the rivalry is on incredibly even footing, including when it comes to postseason success. Since 2021, MSU has won nine playoff games and has appeared in the national championship game twice. The Grizzlies have won seven playoff games and made one title-game trip.
Is this the year we finally get an in-state semifinal confrontation?
Hauck saw the potential for it even before the Bobcats and Grizzlies closed the regular season on Nov. 22 in Missoula, six days before the bracket was even unveiled.
"The way it's shaping up is interesting in my opinion," Hauck volunteered on Nov. 17. "Probably a chance we'll play each other later in the year."
It wouldn't be the first time the Cats and Griz have met twice in the same season. It's happened seven times before, but that was well over a century ago.
With 10-time national champion North Dakota State knocked from the playoffs in a second-round stunner versus Illinois State last week, the Bobcats and Grizzlies are the top-two seeds remaining in the bracket and a championship seems there for the taking. So you've got to go through UM or MSU, if not both, to get to Nashville.
That's what No. 7 seed Stephen F. Austin and 11th-seeded South Dakota hope to do this week on the road, at least.
SFA, lead by quarterback and former Griz player Sam Vidlak, shares something in common with the Bobcats in that they have both reeled off 11 consecutive wins after starting the season 0-2. After a first-round bye, the Lumberjacks beat 10th-seeded Abilene Christian 41-34 in the second round last week.
South Dakota went on the road and put the hurt on No. 6 seed Mercer 47-0 in the second round a week ago. That came after a 38-17 first-round win at home over Drake. This will be the 21st all-time meeting between the Coyotes and the Grizzlies, but their first in the playoffs.
The usual clichés of "going 1-0 this week" and "there's only one game on the schedule" will prevail out of Missoula and Bozeman as Montana and Montana State prepare for their quarterfinal contests. The teams themselves, they say, won't look ahead.
But that doesn't mean we can't. And if the Cats and Griz do indeed end up meeting up in the semifinals Dec. 20 in Bozeman, there would be only one way to characterize it — unprecedented.
