Montana Grizzlies to play five year series with Cal Poly
For the 2007 campaign, the Griz's non-conference slate consisted only of cupcakes. That will not be the case over the next five years. According to UM Athletic Director Jim O'Day, two games down at Cal Poly will bookend three straight years of the Mustangs coming up to play at Washington-Grizzly Stadium. The first game is September 6th, down in San Luis Obispo.Here are O'Day's comments on the series:
If history prevails, each game will be very well contended. Cal Poly is a very well respected academic institution with an excellent athletic program. Like Montana, they have a lot of trouble attracting people to play in their venue because of their home winning successes and travel costs to get into their areas.While the Mustangs did not make the playoffs, they did finish at #24 in the final Sports Network FCS rankings.
The 2010 game was scheduled two years ago, while we just finished the details on the new two home-and-home series. This is, and always has been, a good series for the two schools. We have very high respect for them, as do they for us. The Mustangs will be very tough next year... but they seem to be every year.
These are exactly the type of games the Griz and the entire FCS needs. It's a long series between perennially rank teams. Would you be surprised to see this grow into a legit inter-conference rivalry? I wouldn't. In 2005, Cal Poly knocked us out of the playoffs in the first round. That's worth some hostility. It can be our own West Coast, FCS version of Notre Dame/Michigan. Yes, I know that ended. Still, very well done by O'Day. I look forward to these games and hope the rest of the conference and division can step up and establish more sets of games like this.
The news and comments come via a great email with O'Day. I will have further comments, on a variety of subjects related to the schedule, up in future posts.
