The Bobcat Nation

Moving football title games to a single site is under discussion.

https://www.montanasports.com/category/ ... sion-phase

imacat wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 26, 2026 6:31 pm

Moving football title games to a single site is under discussion.

https://www.montanasports.com/category/ ... sion-phase

I have always been curious why 6 man plays on an 80 field. Is it due to fewer players vs field size?

RickRund wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 26, 2026 6:46 pm

imacat wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 26, 2026 6:31 pm

Moving football title games to a single site is under discussion.

https://www.montanasports.com/category/ ... sion-phase

I have always been curious why 6 man plays on an 80 field. Is it due to fewer players vs field size?

Both 6 and 8 man are played on 80 yard fields. And I believe it is due to fewer players on the field.

I really truly hope that this doesn't come to pass for a number of reasons. At least for Classes B & C. Class AA and A can do whatever they like.

MTCowpoke22 wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 27, 2026 10:21 am

RickRund wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 26, 2026 6:46 pm

imacat wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 26, 2026 6:31 pm

Moving football title games to a single site is under discussion.

https://www.montanasports.com/category/ ... sion-phase

I have always been curious why 6 man plays on an 80 field. Is it due to fewer players vs field size?

Both 6 and 8 man are played on 80 yard fields. And I believe it is due to fewer players on the field.

I really truly hope that this doesn't come to pass for a number of reasons. At least for Classes B & C. Class AA and A can do whatever they like.

Thank you, appreciated.

Would the single site rotate between cities every year, or only through Missoula/Bozeman to align with Cat/Griz? I would think the MHSA would want to keep the games as centralized in Montana as possible and doubt they'd consider Kalispell as a host for Class C for schools from the extreme NE or SE corners of the state due to cost. And as a AA fan, not sure if I'd travel to a neutral site like Billings to watch Glacier host CMR. As the article suggested, I just don't see the AA signing onto this. And if Helena High ever hosts for the opportunity to win their first championship since 1932, yes 1932, it would be ideal to do it in a proposed stadium on the current Helena High campus with an overflowing crowd vs. a neutral stadium (including a virtually empty WaGriz or Bobcat Stadium)

To me, the state of Montana is simply way too geographically large for this to be a feasible idea. Making two eastern Montana schools and their fans travel 500+ miles to Missoula to play the state championship game in potentially poor weather conditions is just unnecessarily dangerous and pointless.

RUACAT wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 27, 2026 1:13 pm

Would the single site rotate between cities every year, or only through Missoula/Bozeman to align with Cat/Griz? I would think the MHSA would want to keep the games as centralized in Montana as possible and doubt they'd consider Kalispell as a host for Class C for schools from the extreme NE or SE corners of the state due to cost. And as a AA fan, not sure if I'd travel to a neutral site like Billings to watch Glacier host CMR. As the article suggested, I just don't see the AA signing onto this. And if Helena High ever hosts for the opportunity to win their first championship since 1932, yes 1932, it would be ideal to do it in a proposed stadium on the current Helena High campus with an overflowing crowd vs. a neutral stadium (including a virtually empty WaGriz or Bobcat Stadium)

Helena High is proposing an on campus stadium? I don't know that.

Wow! Just looked it up. Vigilante as a soccer only stadium. That's just weird to me.

RUACAT wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 27, 2026 1:13 pm

Would the single site rotate between cities every year, or only through Missoula/Bozeman to align with Cat/Griz? I would think the MHSA would want to keep the games as centralized in Montana as possible and doubt they'd consider Kalispell as a host for Class C for schools from the extreme NE or SE corners of the state due to cost. And as a AA fan, not sure if I'd travel to a neutral site like Billings to watch Glacier host CMR. As the article suggested, I just don't see the AA signing onto this. And if Helena High ever hosts for the opportunity to win their first championship since 1932, yes 1932, it would be ideal to do it in a proposed stadium on the current Helena High campus with an overflowing crowd vs. a neutral stadium (including a virtually empty WaGriz or Bobcat Stadium)

Would you go to Billings to watch a Basketball championship between those schools? Discussion has some merit. All 5 games same weekend, some fans will watch multiple games. I think to increase attendance games have to be week before Cat Griz.

tetoncat wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 27, 2026 10:40 pm

RUACAT wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 27, 2026 1:13 pm

Would the single site rotate between cities every year, or only through Missoula/Bozeman to align with Cat/Griz? I would think the MHSA would want to keep the games as centralized in Montana as possible and doubt they'd consider Kalispell as a host for Class C for schools from the extreme NE or SE corners of the state due to cost. And as a AA fan, not sure if I'd travel to a neutral site like Billings to watch Glacier host CMR. As the article suggested, I just don't see the AA signing onto this. And if Helena High ever hosts for the opportunity to win their first championship since 1932, yes 1932, it would be ideal to do it in a proposed stadium on the current Helena High campus with an overflowing crowd vs. a neutral stadium (including a virtually empty WaGriz or Bobcat Stadium)

Would you go to Billings to watch a Basketball championship between those schools? Discussion has some merit. All 5 games same weekend, some fans will watch multiple games. I think to increase attendance games have to be week before Cat Griz.

State basketball tournaments guarantee your team at least 2 games, and involve 8 teams. It makes sense to have them in neutral locations that can handle 8 towns worth of fans (actually more, now that girls and boys tournaments are run together). State football is two teams competing in 1 game.

I'm not sure it's a great idea to take these games away from the towns (especially as we know the first thing that would happen would be two NE MT schools making the championship and both having to drive 600 miles to play the game), but it's kinda cool that we could now play an 8 man or 6 man game in our indoor facility. Might come in handy somebday when one of those brutal cold snaps hit in the fall.

As for field size -- long ago St. Leo's used to play their games on the Fergus High School field in Lewistown. They'd just add additional chalk lines to the field and would move the ball 20 yards on change of possessions (when needed). The only quirks would be something like needing to run a bit further if you had a pick 6 on the defense's end of the field. It seemed to work okay, so I don't think that would be a major issue.