BILLINGS — Leon Costello got the call on May 24. And in the intricate and complicated realm of college football scheduling, this was most unwelcome news.
On the other end of the line was new Stephen F. Austin athletic director Michael McBroom, phoning to let Montana State’s ninth-year AD know it was reneging on the home-and-home agreement the schools had in place, with the first matchup scheduled for Sept. 14 at Bobcat Stadium.
“They basically told me they were going to cancel the contract,” Costello recalled this week. “It’s the end of May, and we’re playing football in about three months. So a little bit of panic sets in.”
Home football games and the revenue they generate are the financial lifeblood for Montana State. It’s the same up the road at Montana. The Cats and Griz need six home games per season to meet and fulfill their athletic budgets.
So the Stephen F. Austin snafu was a problem for the Cats. It left them with just five home games for the 2024 season — which was rapidly approaching.
“To give someone three months to try to find a game, that’s really, really difficult,” Costello said.
“I was frustrated. Really frustrated. The game had been scheduled for five years. The timing of it was poor. But one of the things we’ve done best around here the last few years is if there are things that don’t go your way you try to make an opportunity out of it.”
In a pinch, MSU adjusted.
This Saturday the Bobcats will host Mercyhurst, a first-year FCS program from Erie, Pa. The Lakers compete in the Northeast Conference and are beginning a four-year NCAA Division I reclassification period.
They, too, were looking to add a game to their schedule, and were happy to fill the slot vacated by Stephen F. Austin.
This week was originally going to be the first of two byes for the Bobcats in their 12-game, 14-week regular season. Instead, MSU was idle last week. Saturday’s game against Mercyhurst will kick off at 1 p.m. in Bozeman.
Costello said Stephen F. Austin paid a $150,000 buyout to MSU for terminating their original contract. For the two games with Mercyhurst, MSU will pay the Lakers a combined $275,000, Costello said.
Of note, MSU got help filling the open date for this season from Dave Brown, the developer and founder of the scheduling software Gridiron, which athletic departments across the country utilize to navigate the complexities of schedule-building.
Brown’s help to MSU was twofold, Costello said.
“One of the reasons we were able to get this game was because earlier in the summer we had been reached out to by (Brown) on behalf of Drake to move our scheduled Drake game that was supposed to happen in 2025 and move it back to 2027,” Costello said.
“As part of that, he had a replacement game for us, which was Mercyhurst (for 2025). And I said I’d be open to that. I had no idea it was going to pay dividends when this scenario with Stephen F. Austin happened. Obviously in ’24 we needed a game, and so did Mercyhurst.
“And so we reached back out to them and they were more than willing to look at it and we came to an agreement. That’s what allowed us to move so quickly and to schedule them for this week.”
Costello had an inkling something was amiss with Stephen F. Austin in the spring when someone from the Lumberjacks’ football staff canceled the reservations the team had at a Bozeman hotel. When McBroom called, Costello's suspicions were confirmed and the game was off.
Five days later, SFA announced it had accepted a bid to rejoin the Southland Conference as a full-time member beginning this year. It spent 2023-24 in the FCS United Athletic Conference, which is an amalgamation of the WAC and Atlantic Sun.
In the long run, Stephen F. Austin’s cancellation turned out to be a good thing for the Bobcats.
MSU’s return trip to Nacogdoches, Texas, to play SFA was slated for Sept. 13, 2025. But with that off the table, the Bobcats were afforded the opportunity to add a seventh home game for 2025, which will be a contest against San Diego of the Pioneer Football League on Sept. 13 of next year. Mercyhurst will visit again on Sept. 20.
MSU’s other 2025 home games, as announced by the school on Tuesday, are South Dakota State (Sept. 6), Eastern Washington (Sept. 27), Idaho State (Oct. 11), Weber State (Nov. 8) and UC Davis (Nov. 15).
It will be the Bobcats’ first seven-game home regular season since 2014, and helps defray the $275,000 Montana State will pay Mercyhurst for its back-to-back trips to Bozeman.
“We definitely made some lemonade out of the lemons we were given,” Costello said. “You just never want to be in that position, but I think we ended up in a positive space given the circumstances.”
With a 3-0 overall record so far this year and the No. 3 ranking in the FCS top 25 poll, the Bobcats are off to a great start — which included a valuable win over FBS New Mexico in Week 0.
This week’s Mercyhurst game also gives MSU the chance to be 4-0 entering Big Sky Conference play.
“I think this year has probably gone as well as we could have hoped,” Costello said. “The coaches are learning a lot about this team, and hopefully getting through this week and hopefully putting a W on the board, and then looking ahead to conference play ... I think non-conference has worked about as well as we could have wanted going into Big Sky play.”
