Montana in 2011?

#1
S

Skjellyfetti

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#1
Any truth to this? ... replacing North Texas with Montana?

Any Volunteers?

There have been some rumors floating around that the Montana Grizzlies will travel to play Tennessee to open the 2011 football season. Well, a source of mine says it's a done deal. Good ol' Rocky Top!

The Griz, apparently, will face the Volunteers on Sept. 3, 2011, at 100,000-plus seat Neyland Stadium in Knoxville. Montana, I'm told, will replace North Texas on the Vols' schedule.

If it happens, this will be the first game the Griz will play against an Bowl division team since traveling to Iowa in 2006, a game they lost 41-7. Sure, they took one on the chin, but Montana did make something like $650,000 on that game, which helped the athletic department crawl out of a significant financial hole. So it was pretty much a victory in the long run.

Griz AD Jim O'Day has told me in the past that the football team would not play an "up game" unless the money was right. Why would they go on the road, get beat, and only make $200,000? They can make that kind of coin easily on any given Saturday at Washington-Grizzly Stadium when they line up a patsy like Western State or Fort Lewis.

Is the potential matchup with Tennessee a bodybag game in which the Griz will take a pounding? Perhaps, although the Vols are hardly the SEC power they used to be. And after the Lane Kiffin debacle, UT is in a reconstruction phase under new head coach Derek Dooley.

New Griz coach Robin Pflugrad told me in an extensive interview during the spring that he will never duck the big dogs:

"I don't want to ever sound conceited or brag about the fact that we don't have to go anywhere, because I WANT to go somewhere. I WANT to take this team on the road and play a, quote, Division I team. I want to do that if not every year, every other year. We've been looking for a 2011 (FBS) opponent, and it's been difficult. We've had a lot of teams turn us down. Do you go to just play them? No. You better be able to make more money if you leave Missoula, or straight across even.

"We don't want to be cannon fodder for Nebraska or Florida or Alabama just to say we went and played them. I think our players have to get something out of it and I want it to be a positive experience. And our administration needs to get something out of it in a paycheck."


Win or lose, my guess is that the Griz are going to be laughing all the way to the bank on this one.
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Any Volunteers?
 
#2
#2
I haven't heard this, but wouldn't be surprised...

It is about money for the smaller teams and I have no problem with that. Every now and then you get a Wyoming or Appy St. win out of it too.
 
#5
#5
What would be the purpose of switching them with North Texas? Wouldn't have to pay them as much?
 
#6
#6
Good thing it's not until 2011, because Montana would light up Tennessee this season.
 
#9
#9
Dang, I was looking forward to seeing North Texas's kelly green colors at Neyland.

Playing Montana would be pretty cool, too, though.
 
#12
#12
Montana has been to the FCS championship games for the past 2 years--lost both times, but they were there. They beat alot of good teams to get there. Tenn would have no problem with them but it would be fun to watch.
 
#15
#15
why don't we just play a cupcake Bowl division team. No one wants to see a repeat of App St. in the Big House.
 
#16
#16
I bet you Montana is a better football team than North Texas. They are always competing for the 1-AA title. This is off topic but the NCAA needs to switch the names back to 1-A and 1-AA because no one can remember what the official names are for the two divisions now.
 
#17
#17
CT_Vol said:
Good thing it's not until 2011, because Montana would light up Tennessee this season.
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Ouch. That really hurts coming from some chick that lives in California.

Oh, you mean you're a guy? It's hard to tell with the make up and girl pants. L.A. is one big ass freak show. Enjoy the fake orange women with bleached hair, bad boob jobs and hep c. :good!:
 
#19
#19
The_Orange_Pearl said:
Ouch. That really hurts coming from some chick that lives in California.

Oh, you mean you're a guy? It's hard to tell with the make up and girl pants. L.A. is one big ass freak show. Enjoy the fake orange women with bleached hair, bad boob jobs and hep c. :good!:
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Isn't CT, Connecticut?
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#20
#20
You guys are responding to a poster whose top 3 teams are Bama, USC and UF.


Hmmm.
 
#22
#22
CT_Vol said:
Good thing it's not until 2011, because Montana would light up Tennessee this season.
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It's pretty easy to spot that your a troll, every team you have listed is the teams that we have the most hatred for. Next time, I suggest you make your identity a little less noticeable. I mean that's just pathetic.
 
#23
#23
Ericvol2096 said:
What would be the purpose of switching them with North Texas? Wouldn't have to pay them as much?
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The only reason would be that North Texas backed out. I don't know if that happened or if this is anywhere close to official, but it's certainly possible.

UT would much rather play a smaller DI opponent rather than going to a I-AA school and will only do so as a last resort. The fact is, though, that smaller DI schools are starting to insist on home and home series instead of one-time "paycheck" games.

There is also the issue in a few states (Ohio and Texas being two) of there being pressure on the "big" schools to give money to the "little" state schools to play games rather than going out of state. IF North Texas dropped us, I bet it's to play Texas, Tech, or A&M.
 
#24
#24
My youngest daughter went to Montana and I can tell you first hand that Montanans are as passionate about the Griz as we are the Vols. This is not a slouch program, they have been to the national championship in their division several times recently. They play in the same football division as Appalachian State, maybe our friends in Michigan can tell us about the time Appy State came to the Big House!

On a side note, with the exception of Folsom Field in Boulder, and of course Neyland Stadium, there's not a more beautiful setting for a football game than Missoula Montana.
 
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#25
#25
The_Orange_Pearl said:
Ouch. That really hurts coming from some chick that lives in California.

Oh, you mean you're a guy? It's hard to tell with the make up and girl pants. L.A. is one big ass freak show. Enjoy the fake orange women with bleached hair, bad boob jobs and hep c. :good!:
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Your avatar is the spitting image of a typical Los Angeles girl.

TheVolunteer said:
It's pretty easy to spot that your a troll, every team you have listed is the teams that we have the most hatred for. Next time, I suggest you make your identity a little less noticeable. I mean that's just pathetic.
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I just put three teams down there for the hell of it... you, conversely, actually like the Red Sox.
 
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