Bobcats pull out of Big Sky Conference spring football season

Bobcat Football head coach Jeff Choate, alongside MSU Athletic Director Leon Costello, announced that MSU will not participate in the upcoming spring season On Friday, Jan. 15. This news came alongside a similar announcement from the University of Montana and Portland State. Since the Bobcats have opted out of the spring season, they will be ineligible for the spring Big Sky Conference championship and FCS playoffs, where the Cats reached the semi-finals in 2019 for the first time since 1984.

In a statement released on the Bobcat Football Twitter page, Choate said, “Here in Montana we’re uniquely challenged in keeping our student-athletes safe and healthy, which is our top priority, while preparing and playing in deep winter conditions. This is nearly impossible to accomplish given the Big Sky Conference schedule timeline.”

Choate and Costello both stressed the desire to protect student-athletes and provide a sense of stability during a tumultuous time. During the fall, the upper-division of college football saw positive COVID-19 cases which forced teams to postpone games or continue without football’s biggest stars. The most notable example was Clemson’s star quarterback Trevor Lawernce missing two games, including an overtime loss to Notre Dame. The uncertainties that surround present-day sporting events and a desire to prepare for Big Sky play in the fall were deciding forces for the Bobcats to opt-out of the season.

“When you start with player safety and their health and well-being,” Choate said, “and you start stacking the other reasons for why this will be difficult and challenging on top of that, my tipping point was that these kids had been through enough.”

The state of play was always in flux. Choate cited rising case numbers in Arizona as well as increased restrictions in California as reasons he was not confident in a spring football season from the outset.

Choate pointed out that extreme Montana winter conditions also deterred Bobcat preparedness and violated NCAA guidelines, which stated that athletes shouldn’t participate in outdoor activities when the temperature is below 15°F. Since MSU lacks the proper indoor training facilities, practices would be limited at best.

Participating in the spring season would have also shortened the off-season and prevented the Cats from being rested and healthy for the first game of the fall against the University of Wyoming on Saturday, Sept. 4. Spring season participation would have shortened the off-season to a mere two weeks. Football is a grueling sport, one where hard-hitting collisions take a toll on a player’s body. The extremely short break from play wouldn’t have allowed players to heal from those aches and pains sufficiently before starting preparations for a new season.

“They aren’t giving their bodies an appropriate amount of time to heal and go back into that,” Choate said. “And they’re going to be asked to do it, make no mistake … so that’s what went into our decision was looking at the totality of this concept of players safety, health and well-being.”

Costello echoed that sentiment. "The health and safety of our student-athletes is paramount," Costello said. "The timeline for our football student-athletes to be physically prepared for the current conference schedule can't be guaranteed given our climate and related circumstances.  By altering our spring season, we will be able to focus on their physical training during the appropriate conditions and proper recovery for the fall season."

The team is trying to line up two potential non-conference games to get the young players on the team experience in a live game. They are open to playing a team out of the Frontier Conference or a close Big Sky foe if a game is canceled unexpectedly. Choate expressed optimism that fans will be able to catch a couple of games during these trying times, saying, “I think we’re still going to have some Montana State football this spring. It’s just not going to be a six or eight-game schedule.”

In August of 2020, the NCAA Board of Governors announced they would extend and grant another year of eligibility to fall sport athletes. "All fall sport student-athletes will receive both an additional year of eligibility and an additional year in which to complete it," the NCAA said in a press release. "Student-athletes who do not enroll full time during the 2020 fall term have flexibility in the progress-toward-degree requirements that must be met for eligibility in future terms."

This announcement meant that seniors who take advantage of the extended eligibility will not count toward the team scholarship limits for the 2021-22 season. But with no football occurring in 2020, budget shortfalls will hit athletic departments like MSU, making this an impractical option. The NCAA’s August announcement did not require schools to fund the scholarships of seniors who decide to play another year.

All this news came after Boise State announced the hiring of Oregon’s defensive coordinator Andy Avalos as their new head coach after Byran Harsin departed the Broncos program and headed for Auburn. Choate was a finalist for the job, and Boise State Athletic Director Jeramiah Dickey traveled to Bozeman on Thursday, Jan. 7, to conduct an in-person interview.

Choate has connections to the Boise State program, serving as an assistant to Boise State coaching great Chris Petterson from 2006-11. After the announcement that Avalos would lead the program, Choate tweeted from his account, “God is good. I’m so thankful for all the love and support I’ve received over the past several weeks. While I’m appreciative to have had the opportunity to engage with Boise State, I’m thankful to be the head coach at Montana State University. #UnfinishedBussiness #GoCatsGo.”

As vaccine distribution ramps up throughout the country, there is hope that we are rounding the corner on this pandemic that has put so many lives on hold. Hopefully, we will be able to pack the Sonny Holland Endzone shoulder-to-shoulder on game days in the near future. I look forward to seeing all you football fanatics soon.

Bobcat football will be back for the fall 2021 Big Sky season, where the Bobcats will look to become Big Sky champions for the first time since 2011 and compete for a National Championship title. With Jeff Choate stewarding the team, he looks to remain undefeated against the Griz. Follow Bobcat Football on social media for updates about their modified spring season.