No more playoff games in Missula?

[wsucatfan]

NCAA may ban football playoff games in Missoula

Reporting from KPAX in Missoula

The Montana Grizzlies have made a trip to the FCS playoffs 16 straight years, and many of those contests kicked off in Missoula.

But a NCAA rule could keep future postseason games away from Washington-Grizzly Stadium. The NCAA does not allow playoff games in cities where sports betting is allowed, and Montana recently started a fantasy sports lottery game in towns like Missoula.

University of Montana Athletic Director Jim O'Day says the issue was brought up in an ESPN story on new gambling legislation in Delaware. He tells Montana's News Station that Delaware officials raised an objection to NCAA policy pointing to Montana's playoff games and sports wagering.

O'Day said that an NCAA official said they had made an oversight with last year's UM payoff games against Texas State and Weber State. O'Day says no final ruling has been made, and the NCAA might not make a decision on what happens to future playoff games in the state until football season starts this fall.

NCAA may ban football playoff games in Missoula
Posted: May 28, 2009 10:06 PM MDT
Updated: May 28, 2009 10:07 PM MDT
http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?S=10442359&nav=menu227_3

 

[WILDCAT]

Uh Oh, what a shame.

 

[mtgrizfankb1]

well if it did happen you know we would move over and play the playoff games in washington. we have played their before. and the big sky would lose all the rep it has. because face it all the other stadiums in the sky other than wa griz are horrible with horrible attend. numbers. but right now im not too worried i think the UM will prob win this battle with the NCAA and we will get to play playoffs at home again. I HOPE

 

[weberwildcat]

well if it did happen you know we would move over and play the playoff games in washington. we have played their before. and the big sky would lose all the rep it has. because face it all the other stadiums in the sky other than wa griz are horrible with horrible attend. numbers. but right now im not too worried i think the UM will prob win this battle with the NCAA and we will get to play playoffs at home again. I HOPE

You make a good point, though most FCS home playoff games/stadiums are similar to Stewart Stadium and don't produce large crowds.

In a down economy or not $$ is all that matters, there wont be a ban in Missoula.

 

[weberwildcat]

http://blogs.standard.net/wsu-sports-blog/

Griz shouldn’t have hosted playoff games
by Jasen Asay - May 29th, 2009
Somehow, Montana has slipped under the radar.

According to a story out of ABC Montana, Montana and Montana State are not allowed to host NCAA postseason basketball and football games under the state’s current set of gambling rules. Montana should also not have been allowed to host the two football playoff games last season — a first-round game against Texas State and a quarterfinal game against Weber State — that took place in Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

The interesting question is how did this rule, which started with basketball in 2004 and football in 2008, go unnoticed by the Big Sky Conference and the FCS?

 

[mtgrizfankb1]

http://blogs.standard.net/wsu-sports-blog/

Griz shouldn’t have hosted playoff games
by Jasen Asay - May 29th, 2009
Somehow, Montana has slipped under the radar.

According to a story out of ABC Montana, Montana and Montana State are not allowed to host NCAA postseason basketball and football games under the state’s current set of gambling rules. Montana should also not have been allowed to host the two football playoff games last season — a first-round game against Texas State and a quarterfinal game against Weber State — that took place in Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

The interesting question is how did this rule, which started with basketball in 2004 and football in 2008, go unnoticed by the Big Sky Conference and the FCS?

Hell the NCAA didnt even know about the rule. they had no clue until Espn brought it up in an interview about Delaware. It looked as if it caught her off guard and she said montana was a eh.... oversight on their part. she didnt think montana would even come up. The Ncaa wont be too big on this with it being Fantasy Football gambling. out of all the profit from the FCS montana gets the NCAA one of the highest. it would be like throwing out thousands of dollars. In this economy i think montana is going to be fine. sucky part is they said they might not make a decision until football season.
what that tells me is that they are going to let us have playoffs. if they were going to stop us from it they would tell us soon. cause im sure we will appeal and then its delayed. and they would have to figure out the logistics of us playing in washington for a home playoff game. but idk if it would happen. There would be alot of unknowns and ? in the short football season when the ncaa is already busy. and if worse comes to worse..... we will travel to who knows where and win there. :lol:

 

[n.ogdencat]

I don't think anything will change, and to be honest, it would be really dumb if UM or State lost the chance to host because of fantasy gambling. Now Delaware, thats a whole different problem. They allow betting on actual games.
Also, all you fans stop ripping on Stewart... Stewart Stadium isn't a bad stadium. Its far better than a lot of FCS stadiums, and, if it had more seats (which invariably would be empty) it would compete quite well with many FBS stadiums. New Mexico State and Nevada's stadiums are exactly like Stewart. In my opinion Stewart is in the top 3 of Big Sky Stadiums... Of course, WA-GRIZZ is the best, but other than that, I don't think there is a stadium better than Stewart right now in the Sky. MSU will have a good stadium, which when done in 20 years will be better, but then again WSU has a 20 year plan for Stewart that could rival MSU's. We all know the Potatodome is the among the worst. Personally, I think Eastern has the worst field and stadium. Many Utah high school stadiums are better. PSU has an alright stadium, but its on a baseball field with astro turf. Sacs and UNC both have small stadiums. Northern is nice, but Stewart is still better.

 

[WILDCAT]

Stewart Stadium is a great facility, Its bigger than MSU's and everyone elses except WGS, Sac and PSU, But Sac's stadium is only big because of the renovations made durning the olympics and PSU's stadium belongs to a baseball team, and soon, a soccer team. If we could fill Stewart Stadium every game, it would be a very hard place to play at.

Montana, Washington Grizzly Stadium- 25,203
Sacramento State, Hornet Stadium- 21,195
Portland State, PGE Park- 19,566
Weber State, Stewart Stadium- 17,500
Northern Arizona, Walkup Skydome- 15,000
Montana State, Bobcat Stadium- 13,000
Idaho State, Holt Arena- 12,000
Eastern Washington, Woodward Stadium- 8,600
Northern Colorado, Nottingham Field- 8,500





This is a great Facility

And lets not forget that new beautiful scoreboard.

 

[mtgrizfankb1]

sorry guys. yea i agree your stadium is nice. its not huge but you dont need huge and its fairly well kept. the new add ons are cool but overall as a conf. the big sky has prob the worst stadiums. N colorado has like an out house for changing in.

 

[wordup]

I gotta say, that outside bathroom was pretty hard core as was the snack bars. I'm not a big fan of stadiums with tracks either. Other than that, Weber Stadium is alright. I think the way the stadiums are configured goes a long way in engaging the fans. Griz stadium is the embodiment of that. You just cant beat pure football stadiums. I'm looking forward to seeing PGE field in Portland once its done. I will say that the evening before the Portland State game I went up to Stewart stadium and walked around the field and stands for the first time and no one stopped or bothered me. That was pretty cool. My nephews play on the team and they told me that the Sac State stadium was the worse they saw so far.

 

[smjcpa1]

PGE Park is a horrible place to watch football!! I have been there a couple of times, and both times you need some binocs to see what is happening on the field. It is an ok stadium for baseball but for anything else, it is terrible :!: