BILLINGS — Montana State has been on a championship trajectory all season, and the Bobcats are now one win away from winning an elusive title after dispatching South Dakota 31-17 in the FCS playoff semifinals on Saturday in Bozeman.
MSU holds the distinction of being the only school to win college football championships at three separate levels of competition: NAIA in 1956, NCAA Division II in 1976 and finally the FCS (then known as Division I-AA) in 1984.
But its been 40 years since the Cats last wore the crown. And in order to end that drought they must exorcise a playoff demon and beat the most decorated program in FCS history — North Dakota State. Montana State is an early 2.5-point favorite.
The top-seeded Bobcats (15-0) and No. 2 NDSU (13-2) are no strangers to playoff meetings. The last time MSU played for a championship in 2021 the Bison won going away, 38-10. That was also a game in which a promising freshman quarterback named Tommy Mellott suffered an early ankle injury and never returned.
Last year NDSU came into Bozeman and edged the Bobcats 35-34 on a blocked extra point in overtime. Before that, the programs met in both 2018 (quarterfinals) and 2019 (semifinals), games that resulted in convincing Bison wins in the Fargodome.
North Dakota State also ran past MSU in the fourth quarter of a 2010 playoff game. The Bobcats haven't beaten the Bison since they met in the regular season in 2005 in Bozeman, one year after NDSU transitioned up from Division II.
The Bobcats of course beat North Dakota State 10-3 in the D-II semifinals in Fargo on the way to winning the national title that year under legendary coach Sonny Holland.
It's fitting the programs will meet again, and would be fitting for Montana State to end its title drought with a win over a team that's been a postseason nemesis.
This game will surely have some extra meaning for Mellott, whose injury in the 2021 championship set MSU's offense back. Since then, the quarterback from Butte has become an all-time MSU great.
Bobcats coach Brent Vigen, who was born in Buxton, N.D., later played at North Dakota State and earned his coaching stripes with the Bison from 1999-2013, should also have extra motivation to help deliver MSU its first national title in 40 years against the program he knows so well.
The Bobcats haven't lost since last year's home defeat to the Bison, and they've been on a mission all season to rectify it.
With one more win — against a program that has set the standard for excellence in the FCS — Montana State will finally be back on top.
