Griz Football Product

[mthoopsfan]

At ASU they have roughly 32,000 season tickets and 14,000 students attending each game. The ratio of students to season ticket holders is a lot higher at ASU than UM.

It must be the music.

ASU has a huge number of students. ASU total football attendance in 2025: was 381,109. Montana's total attendance in 2024 was 193,391. ASU has 55,000 students at Tempe campus and more in the Phoenix area. 150,000 undergrads. 194,000 total students. Has a huge online population.

 

[bobcatfan123]

You think "improvements" would be changes to some music for college students, of which there are only a few thousand at games. And this would improve the program. And save the program for the future. That is just plain silly. I don't care about the music and rarely even hear it, so I don't care. But if UM wants the support and dollars to keep flowing, UM needs to take care of the people who are attending, paying some bucks and contributing.

My guess is that your "improvements" aren't even improvements. There are people, including paid marketing people, who oversee what occurs at the games, in terms of entertainment.

If 68 is even fighting, he's flighting against some of the silly comments made by some Cat fan who doesn't know what's going on at UM.

Wow. Not even close to what I’m saying. I’ll just allow you old timers continue with status quo.

 

[Hulapoops]

No, nothing I described was scratching or clawing. Nothing. I suppose some innovations occurred. Challenges? Don't even know what you are talking about.

Some tech. Huge tech. It's driven the Bozeman area economy. It's made alot of people rich, and attracted alot of tech and other people to the area.

Oracle is a small piece of Bozeman tech. There are scores of tech companies in the area. I see an article saying 100 jobs were sent to Texas. That's a drop in the bucket.

Much of what the tech boom brought to the area, including what RightNow Tech (my client that sold to Oracle) brought, was wealth for the early add more senior workers and investors, and for the top people. I made 10X on my investment in a round of its preferred stock. Those with big stock options made a ton of money, some multiple millions. Yes, there were and are also a good number of high-paying jobs. You clearly don't understand the Bozeman tech economy or understand business.

RNT probably gave 3/4 of billion (a guess) of wealth to local people. Many of those people are Cat supporters. It also resulted in multiple new tech companies being started, some of which have done very well. And former RNT employees have gone on to take positions at area tech companies. I worked with these companies for 3.5 decades. Some Silicon Valley investors bought places in the area. Some moved to the area. Some brought other companies or moved headquarters or opened offices for their other companies.

Here's a big company that got to Bozeman. "FICO (legal name: Fair Isaac Corporation) is an American data analytics company based in Bozeman, Montana, focused on credit scoring services." "In 2013, it moved its headquarters to San Jose, California, a year after CEO William Lansing joined. In 2016, it opened an office in Bozeman, Montana, which later became its headquarters." I worked with Will in NYC when he got out of college. In the late 90's, I introduced him to Greg Gianforte, the CEO of RNT, my client. Will went on the board of RNT. He started spending more and more time in the Bozeman area and eventually moved to Bozeman. Great guy and very smart. Has done a great job with

Interesting, guess bigger than I thought.

I work in tech in Seattle, have for a while, small to Amazon. Prob have at least a pedestrian understanding of the industry.

Several years ago, pre-pandemic, I started getting marketing materials about moving from Seattle to Bozeman. Tips on how to pitch your boss on remote work, lifestyle info, etc… Imagine for a second we try something that unconventional.

 

[5280Griz]

It must be the music.

ASU has a huge number of students. ASU total football attendance in 2025: was 381,109. Montana's total attendance in 2024 was 193,391. ASU has 55,000 students at Tempe campus and more in the Phoenix area. 150,000 undergrads. 194,000 total students. Has a huge online population.

The majority of the music say 80% ASU plays is actually from before 2005. An example being Beastie Boys fight for your right. I consider ASU to be one of the most innovative programs in the country and they don’t have an issue playing music from the 80s, 90s and early 2000s. Students seem to be fine with it too since 14,000 come every game.

 

[Ut-Grizfan]

You didn't provide all the data, so your data is incomplete. You were selective. You didn't list many good road wins over those years. You tended to just list the last games played, which in the playoffs are always losses unless the team wins the national championship. Those aren't all of the big games, or big road games, each season.

How is it selective when it's the entirety of Bobby's Record from his 2.0 stint when playing on the Road or at Neutral Sites from both the Regular Season and Playoffs + NC? You're gonna have to come up with a much better excuse than that one.

And deflecting to winning at Home doesn't help the situation here, this is proof that if we ever have to play on the road in the playoffs chances are we are probably screwed based on the Data, this also ties into the problem of being unable to beat MSU, once again take the "In State Rival" out of it.

They are a Top Conference Opponent that we HAVE to play every single year and will more often then not be competing with for top Playoff Seeds. We are 2-6 against them since Bobby came back, we need to improve one (winning on the road vs winning teams) to help improve the other (beating MSU) to ensure we have home field advantage through the playoffs. If we aren't at home as the Data suggests we're not winning in the Postseason.

 

[Ut-Grizfan]

If you want to ever reach the pinnacle you have to know how to win big road games. Booby is a mediocre coach, will never reach the top tier. Hoops doesn’t know ball… thinks the Wing T would still work.

To be fair Navy is running a Modernized Wing-T Flexbone hybrid offense and it's doing very well. I honestly would love to see us run it but thats just because I'm a fan of the Military Academies.

 

[5280Griz]

To be fair Navy is running a Modernized Wing-T Flexbone hybrid offense and it's doing very well. I honestly would love to see us run it but thats just because I'm just a big fan of the Military Academies.

The game I would most look forward to if Montana moved up to the Mountain West would be at Air Force. That’s the only military academy I have been to a game at but it was awesome. I have also seen the Griz play basketball there which wasn’t as cool as going to one of Air Force’s football games.

 

[Ut-Grizfan]

The game I would most look forward to if Montana moved up to the Mountain West would be at Air Force. That’s the only military academy I have been to a game at but it was awesome. I have also seen the Griz play basketball there which wasn’t as cool as going to one of Air Force’s football games.

As a kid when Utah was in the MWC we'd always go to the Air Force games every time they came to SLC, their offense was so awesome to watch I've been a fan of it and similar ones ever since. Also coached the Flexbone/Splitback Veer for 3 years before I got deployed.

 

[mthoopsfan]

Wow. Not even close to what I’m saying. I’ll just allow you old timers continue with status quo.

That's exactly what you were saying.

 

[BrownBear9501]

Yes, fine. I understand. But that doesn't mean you or anyone should be saying that the last Griz season was anything other than a terrific season. Not perfect, as they almost never are, but terrific.

Was a terrific season until the semifinal game in Bozeman….then it turned into a pretty good season at best. Coaching staff was a no show that game!

 

[mthoopsfan]

Was a terrific season until the semifinal game in Bozeman….then it turned into a pretty good season at best. Coaching staff was a no show that game!

Pretty good season? No knowledgeable football fan would agree with you on that. What did the coaches do wrong?

 

[5280Griz]

Pretty good season? No knowledgeable football fan would agree with you on that. What did the coaches do wrong?

The Griz had a slow, unprepared start. Bobby himself called it atrocious with MSU jumping to a 20-3 lead. Our coaches also failed to make adjustments in the game. Montana’s defense was overwhelmed by MSU’s rushing attack and the coaches didn’t make the necessary in game adjustments.

 

[GrizRealist]

UM should take a hint from MSU and start tailoring its sports marketing toward a younger demographic, specifically the 25 to 45 age range. UM has built much of its success on the support of an older generation, and credit is due there, but there needs to be a more deliberate push to engage younger fans, especially from a giving standpoint.

The younger generation, as a whole, is far less philanthropic, and the older generation that has financially supported UM for decades will not be around indefinitely. That is simply a fact. This reality requires changes that some people will view as misguided or unnecessary, looking at you, hoops. However, if UM wants to be positioned for the future, it cannot rely on legacy support alone. Unless older donors are planning to leave their estates to Griz football, the product itself needs to better align with what younger fans want and expect.

This shift is already happening across college football. You can see which schools adapted early and which ones fell behind, only to realize it later and scramble to catch up.

I get some people aren't going to like this, but would you rather have stability into the future, or the same old stuff until your dead?

 

[MontanaBornFan]

Sounds reasonable.

 

[Norsky19]

So here’s what I think is being missed and something that the boomers on this board don’t understand. Modern football is akin to selling a product. One of the biggest killers of any once great company is lack of innovation and complacency.

Our football product and athletics department in general is so stale it’s an absolute shame. We seriously still play a Jay-Z song as our run out? How many times can we drag out our throwback colors and brag about the 95 chipper?

Imagine AT&T deciding to double down on land line phones in the late 90’s instead of revamping as an internet and mobile provider? That is exactly what Griz athletics and football under Haslam and Hauck 2.0 have become.

You don’t hire the old guard to innovate and bring you into the modern era. You do what MSU has done the past 15 years. At this point Vigens selling the new iPhone while Hauck and Haslam are convinced they can still make their quarter hawking Sky-tel pagers.

You finished as #3 in the final rankings. Amazing record and the best attendance in FCS with a rabid fan base. I think you're fine. You're the envy of every FCS fanbase. Relax.

 

[5280Griz]

You finished as #3 in the final rankings. Amazing record and the best attendance in FCS with a rabid fan base. I think you're fine. You're the envy of every FCS fanbase. Relax.

We aren’t the envy of MSU, NDSU, SDSU or ISU. They have had better results on the field recently.

 

[Norsky19]

We aren’t the envy of MSU, NDSU, SDSU or ISU. They have had better results on the field recently.

Best game day atmosphere. Everyone would love that. Did you watch the ISU vs Villanova game? What a joke!! And you finished ahead of all the Dakota's. I appreciate ya'll having high standards and you should. Just keeping it in perspective.

 

[EverettGriz]

We aren’t the envy of MSU, NDSU, SDSU or ISU. They have had better results on the field recently.

Everything about WaGRIZ is the envy of every fcs program. And frankly all but a couple of P4 programs.

 

[Da Boyz Mom]

Hey, da Boyz Mom, why aren't you complaining about this? How many times are you going to let this guy make the same (untrue) post without complaining?

I thought you were ignoring me and I was supposed to ignore you.

But if you really really want my opinion, here it is:

1. pretty much all the crap you get from other people, you bring on yourself by the things you say to them. I could go back and find 20 posts in the last couple of weeks where you're calling people bad fans, stupid, clueless idiots, and pussies (which is a word that I personally find very offensive. But I mostly just ignore it and don't say anything.)
2. Beyond that, I'm confused that you're even pointing out this post from him since it's lame and was just part of a general back and forth banter you were already having (see point number one).
3. I also find it interesting that while I did not mention any names in my previous post, you immediately assumed that it was about you. I wonder why that is... Maybe you need to do some self-reflection instead of attacking people all the time for simply posting their opinions.

 

[Da Boyz Mom]

At ASU they have roughly 32,000 season tickets and 14,000 students attending each game. The ratio of students to season ticket holders is a lot higher at ASU than UM.

Increasing the ratio of students would be a terrible idea because it would raise the other ticket prices exponentially and at some point people would quit coming. Plus there's only a certain percentage of students that you can manage to get involved and show up.