Only an old SPECULATION. New news, though hardly surprising.
Anyone spying over on EGriz would have a surprising number of tears to taste. I mean, nothing that does squat for Portland State, just that they're wrestling with decisions not made and, of course, blaming the conference for things assuredly out of its control. Montana had its chance to move up when the Mountain West was young and the WAC still had a functioning football conference. If they'd spent time in the WAC, they had a 25% chance of building a MWC-worthy program, but didn't take it, and while some posters still want to see FBS... they have nowhere to go now other than where they are. They made their bed. They blew their chance.
Thing is, what Portland State really needs is a Putinesque disinformation campaign that wedges a rift between UC schools and Cal-State schools that breaks up the Big West and gives Portland State some options. However, the nation already having suffered Putinesque political divisions, the chances of this happening are single digits and it's either this conference or GNAC, baby!