The e-mail was flat out incredible in its candor.
I'm one of the strong stay in the FCS guys, and having been a Griz fan since the early 1990's I do not understand why so may fans clamor for "We want national respect, national recognition, nobody respects the FCS". Who is nobody? and why do fans care what they think? I've yet to hear one Griz player or coach since 1991 actually say publicly that they don't like how that "nobody" doesn't respect them. If they don't care, why should the fans? other than ego and Boise State envy, i just don't get it.
Having said that, I've been assuming the day when Montana moves on from the Big Sky would come and it really does look like it's here now. I don't like the possible WAC that Montana is joining, but it is what it is. And there are some things in the near future I wonder if Griz Nation can handle, like NOT being bowl eligible for many years, and those home and away scenarios O'Day referred to still not being a reality for some time. I believe there will be a process to endure, it will not be "We are here now, so Texas or Michigan do a 2-for-1 with us starting in 2012 or 2013."
Boise's home schedule from 1996-2004 looked like this, including conference games: 96 (Cent. Mich, Portland State, Eastern Washington, Northwestern State, Utah State, North Texas); 97 (Northridge, Weber State, NMSU, L. Tech, Nevada); 98 (Northridge, Wazzu, Portland State, N. Texas, Weber, Utah State, Idaho); 99 (S. Utah, New Mexico, Eastern Washington, Nevada, Ark. State, NMSU), 2000 (N. Iowa, Eastern Washington, N. Texas, Utah State, Idaho); 2001 (Wazzu, UTEP, Tulsa, Nevada, S.J. State, C. Michigan); 2002 (Idaho, Utah State, Hawaii, Fresno St., Rice, La. Tech); 2003 (Idaho State, Wyoming, Tulsa, S.J. State, UTEP, Nevada). Finally, in 2004, Oregon State and BYU both came to Boise. In that time, the Broncos played money games at Arizona State, Wisconsin, UCLA, Arkansas twice, South Carolina, Oregon State and BYU, with only OSU and BYU making return trips to Boise in 2004 and 2007. And in all those nonconference road games, Boise lost. Point is, there was a process and a lot of growing pains for Boise, and I think people, especially in this era of bandwagon mentality i.e Boise and Gonzaga hoops, tend to forget those steps that were taken to get to the Fiesta Bowl wins, ect. My question has always been, will Griz fans endure those steps? O'Day asked the same in his e-mail. During those growing pains, and not being eligible for ANY bowl game, will UM be able to recruit the type of player needed to take the next step? Will they be able to win players they go head-to-head with Boise State or the Pac 10? People assume Matt Miller would have stayed if Montana was a DI? Why? Did he say publicly the competition Montana plays in the BSC wasn't good enough for him, or could it have been the team he chose to play for was better than MT and he actually wanted to be a Bronco, versus wanting to be a Griz but thinking he was too good for the FCS.
Like O'Day said, there is much to consider, but the sad reality is, while everyone who wants to move up says that better competition is the primary reason of the "fans", no one knows if that better competion will come in the form they think it will. How does anyone know if Montana will ever reach the point where Nebraska or USC would ever have it in their interest to schedule MT in a way that would get them to Wash/Griz. The answer is, we don't. The only thing fans know for sure is that San Jose State, Idaho, New Mexico State and Utah State, along with now Texas State and UT-SA will be the conference games. Does anyone REALLY believe with a straight face that the MAJORITY (not egriz) will care more about those games than they do the current rivals with EWU, MSU and Weber? Maybe 20 years from now when it's the norm, yes, but in the first 10, there's no way.