Montana Grizzlies 2008 football schedule
The 2008 football schedule is out. As reported on here first, the Griz will open their season down San Luis Obispo against the Cal Poly Mustangs.
Here's the complete schedule:
Date ..... Opponent ..... Time
9.6 ..... at Cal Poly ..... TBA
9.13 ..... Southern Utah ..... 1:05 p.m.
9.20 ..... UC-Davis (Homecoming) ..... 1:05 p.m.
9.27 ..... Central Washington ..... 1:05 p.m.
10.4 ..... at Weber State * ..... TBA
10.11 ..... at Eastern Washington * ..... TBA
10.18 ..... Sacramento State * ..... 1:05 p.m.
10.25 ..... at Northern Colorado * ..... TBA
11.1 ..... Northern Arizona * ..... 12:05 p.m.
11.8 ..... at Portland State * ..... TBA
11.15 ..... Idaho State * ..... 12:05 p.m.
11.22 ..... Montana State * (108th meeting) ..... 12:05 p.m.* Conference game
The OOC is alright. We probably shouldn't be playing a DII school but whatever. Here's O'Day's rationale on playing schools from a lower division. It's his response to playing Ft. Lewis last year but fits around the fact that we're playing Central Washington:
Last year, we played Fort Lewis (Don Read loved the Division II schools to let young kids get experience) and UM Athletics netted about $300,000 - not counting what the Adams Center received for ticket fees ($1 per ticket), or what dining services produced in sales, or the bookstore... not counting what the Missoula economy saw by another home game (estimated at between $5-$7 million per home weekend). We admit that was a "money game," as do most teams at our level. Still, it is no different than Oregon hosting Montana for $450,000 or Iowa hosting Montana for $650,000. Their fans expected big wins at our expense, and they, too, need to produce funds to pay their bills.
After the non-conference slate, what should be two of our toughest BSC games are on the road: we have to go to Portland to play the Vikings and to the Cheney to play the Eagles. Those should be two very challenging games. Then we cap off the season with the Brawl in Missoula and hopefully another Big Sky Championship.
As nice as it is to play weak non-conference opponents because it's good practice for young guys, more business for the press box, or whatever, the fact is if the Griz want to get some credibility like, say, App. State, then we need to step up and play good teams. Who gives a shit if we beat Southern Utah by 40? When the time comes to play real competition, how are we going to compare? We're gonna lose to a Wofford again and keep living in Div. 1-AA mediocrity with crap schedules like this. Going 11-0 and losing in the first round is EMBARRASSING. If we're going to pretend to be the big fish in a little pond, let's at least dress it up a little better...
wow i am really losing all respect for this football program...we need 2 stop playing shitty d2 school and grow some balls and take on some D1-A schools. The same thing that happened this year as next year our guys are gonna get overhyped going into the playoffs and then lose early. But in my opinion D1-AA football is shit and we need 2 move up a level so i am done supporting griz football