No. 2 Montana State vs. Illinois State, FCS title game - Skyline Sports

[ColoradoGriz]

How do you think MSU’s offense matches up against the 3-3-5? Do you think ISU’s personnel is different enough from UM to have a different result than facing the Griz 3-3-5?

[RedbirdFourthandShort]

Moved this from the earlier Ill St thread.

Hello all .. Redbird Fan here. Yes, the guy who did the drill down on our UCD game vs yours ... please don't shoot !!!!

First of all, congrats on another great season and getting to Natty again. Ive been touting the Big Sky these last 5+ years on Redbird and AGS forums, as right there with MVFC, other than the title teams. Sounds like last year was viewed as a big missed opportunity .. game you could just as easily won. I don't doubt it, and ntoed you guys are back with a much younger roster. So that is impressive by itself.

.........................................

Glad to respond to any questions on Redbird related stuff.

Appreciate the insight and hopping over!
Always nice to hear from fans from other school that we normally wouldn't.

Yep, weve got a couple Bobcats on our our forum. Been very gracious .. in spite of a couple not so gracious Redbird fans.

But aside from a couple rude Redbird fans .. one misunderstood point on our forum was the discussion on population demographics in Montana vs Illinois. Weve made same point about the 4 Dakotas. Not sure if you saw it but I saw it brought up here. It was actually intended in a completely complimentary manner ... basic point being how impressed we were that both Montana schools keep putting out very competitive teams despite a lot of smaller HSs. Illinois has 8 classes from 1A to 8A ... we've got a lot of HSs with 2,500 to 4,000 students .. all the way down to the 250 to 400. So we break it up into 8 classes to ensure it is more fairly competitive. I'm in west suburbs of Chicago and there are 8 HS within 20 mins of my home that have 2,500 to 4,000 students. Plus there are another 5-6 that are much smaller that play in lower classes. Our point was simply the bigger schools have competition advantages due to laws of larger numbers and increased competition that comes with greater depth. It's not to say there aren't great players at smaller schools, just a lot less of them. The other sports have just 2 to 4 classes. But football has 8 classes because of these competitive/size differences.

As it happens, ISU now hosts all 8 HS class football championships these last couple years. Great for marketing the school and recruiting (not just for football) to have 16 teams of athletes, students, families, and parents parading thru here last weekend in November. It's only been a couple years. We had to give up hosting the 1st round playoff game in 2024 against SEMO because of the conflict .. so we played at SEMO in 2024. Spack and everyone are all for it in spite of this.

[Montanabob]

Moved this from the earlier Ill St thread.

Hello all .. Redbird Fan here. Yes, the guy who did the drill down on our UCD game vs yours ... please don't shoot !!!!

First of all, congrats on another great season and getting to Natty again. Ive been touting the Big Sky these last 5+ years on Redbird and AGS forums, as right there with MVFC, other than the title teams. Sounds like last year was viewed as a big missed opportunity .. game you could just as easily won. I don't doubt it, and ntoed you guys are back with a much younger roster. So that is impressive by itself.

.........................................

Glad to respond to any questions on Redbird related stuff.

Appreciate the insight and hopping over!
Always nice to hear from fans from other school that we normally wouldn't.

Yep, weve got a couple Bobcats on our our forum. Been very gracious .. in spite of a couple not so gracious Redbird fans.

But aside from a couple rude Redbird fans .. one misunderstood point on our forum was the discussion on population demographics in Montana vs Illinois. Weve made same point about the 4 Dakotas. Not sure if you saw it but I saw it brought up here. It was actually intended in a completely complimentary manner ... basic point being how impressed we were that both Montana schools keep putting out very competitive teams despite a lot of smaller HSs. Illinois has 8 classes from 1A to 8A ... we've got a lot of HSs with 2,500 to 4,000 students .. all the way down to the 250 to 400. So we break it up into 8 classes to ensure it is more fairly competitive. I'm in west suburbs of Chicago and there are 8 HS within 20 mins of my home that have 2,500 to 4,000 students. Plus there are another 5-6 that are much smaller that play in lower classes. Our point was simply the bigger schools have competition advantages due to laws of larger numbers and increased competition that comes with greater depth. It's not to say there aren't great players at smaller schools, just a lot less of them. The other sports have just 2 to 4 classes. But football has 8 classes because of these competitive/size differences.

As it happens, ISU now hosts all 8 HS class football championships these last couple years. Great for marketing the school and recruiting (not just for football) to have 16 teams of athletes, students, families, and parents parading thru here last weekend in November. It's only been a couple years. We had to give up hosting the 1st round playoff game in 2024 against SEMO because of the conflict .. so we played at SEMO in 2024. Spack and everyone are all for it in spite of this.

Hillarious.... very competitive teams despite a lot of smaller HSs. Illinois has 8 classes from 1A to 8A ... we've got a lot of HSs with 2,500 to 4,000 students .. all the way down to the 250 to 400.
2 of Montana's high school divisions are smaller than this. Class C 6 and 8 man are schools under 100 an Class B is under 250...

[RedbirdFourthandShort]

Moved this from the earlier Ill St thread.

Hello all .. Redbird Fan here. Yes, the guy who did the drill down on our UCD game vs yours ... please don't shoot !!!!

First of all, congrats on another great season and getting to Natty again. Ive been touting the Big Sky these last 5+ years on Redbird and AGS forums, as right there with MVFC, other than the title teams. Sounds like last year was viewed as a big missed opportunity .. game you could just as easily won. I don't doubt it, and ntoed you guys are back with a much younger roster. So that is impressive by itself.

.........................................

Glad to respond to any questions on Redbird related stuff.

Appreciate the insight and hopping over!
Always nice to hear from fans from other school that we normally wouldn't.

Yep, weve got a couple Bobcats on our our forum. Been very gracious .. in spite of a couple not so gracious Redbird fans.

But aside from a couple rude Redbird fans .. one misunderstood point on our forum was the discussion on population demographics in Montana vs Illinois. Weve made same point about the 4 Dakotas. Not sure if you saw it but I saw it brought up here. It was actually intended in a completely complimentary manner ... basic point being how impressed we were that both Montana schools keep putting out very competitive teams despite a lot of smaller HSs. Illinois has 8 classes from 1A to 8A ... we've got a lot of HSs with 2,500 to 4,000 students .. all the way down to the 250 to 400. So we break it up into 8 classes to ensure it is more fairly competitive. I'm in west suburbs of Chicago and there are 8 HS within 20 mins of my home that have 2,500 to 4,000 students. Plus there are another 5-6 that are much smaller that play in lower classes. Our point was simply the bigger schools have competition advantages due to laws of larger numbers and increased competition that comes with greater depth. It's not to say there aren't great players at smaller schools, just a lot less of them. The other sports have just 2 to 4 classes. But football has 8 classes because of these competitive/size differences.

As it happens, ISU now hosts all 8 HS class football championships these last couple years. Great for marketing the school and recruiting (not just for football) to have 16 teams of athletes, students, families, and parents parading thru here last weekend in November. It's only been a couple years. We had to give up hosting the 1st round playoff game in 2024 against SEMO because of the conflict .. so we played at SEMO in 2024. Spack and everyone are all for it in spite of this.

Hillarious.... very competitive teams despite a lot of smaller HSs. Illinois has 8 classes from 1A to 8A ... we've got a lot of HSs with 2,500 to 4,000 students .. all the way down to the 250 to 400.
2 of Montana's high school divisions are smaller than this. Class C 6 and 8 man are schools under 100 an Class B is under 250...

I don't doubt it. Someone on our forum took your HS enrollments and compared to our 8 classes. Then looked at the distribution over the 8 classes. Ours are evenly distributed by design ... the top 1/8th go into 8A, etc. In Montana, it was skewed much more to the smaller classes with very few in larger classes as a %.

Anyway, I think the main point is in IL the bigger schools are usually better/deeper teams than the smaller schools. I have to believe same is true in Montana and every other state. And I think any coach will admit, the better the competition in practice and in games, the more you get out of your players. That said, ISU does not get any of our states best players, not even close. The best players in IL all go to the FBS schools in IL and all over the country. Whereas in states like Montana and Dakotas, you guys get most of your states best players from what I understand.

In the end, Montana St is favored by 10 pts over Illinois St and rightly so. And if not for our Bison win, it probably would have been closer to the 28 pts Bison was initially favored by. But this all started with wondering how/why you guys (Montanas and Dakotas) are consistently so good and draw so many fans. Obviously, you guys have a program formula/culture that works. But I think the state demographics/logistics are an inherent part of that formula.

I don't think this is anything derogatory or critical. Just trying to understand why certain FCS programs win and draw consistently. And most of the rest struggle for this consistency.

[SparkCat]

Moved this from the earlier Ill St thread.

Hello all .. Redbird Fan here. Yes, the guy who did the drill down on our UCD game vs yours ... please don't shoot !!!!

First of all, congrats on another great season and getting to Natty again. Ive been touting the Big Sky these last 5+ years on Redbird and AGS forums, as right there with MVFC, other than the title teams. Sounds like last year was viewed as a big missed opportunity .. game you could just as easily won. I don't doubt it, and ntoed you guys are back with a much younger roster. So that is impressive by itself.

.........................................

Glad to respond to any questions on Redbird related stuff.

Appreciate the insight and hopping over!
Always nice to hear from fans from other school that we normally wouldn't.

Yep, weve got a couple Bobcats on our our forum. Been very gracious .. in spite of a couple not so gracious Redbird fans.

But aside from a couple rude Redbird fans .. one misunderstood point on our forum was the discussion on population demographics in Montana vs Illinois. Weve made same point about the 4 Dakotas. Not sure if you saw it but I saw it brought up here. It was actually intended in a completely complimentary manner ... basic point being how impressed we were that both Montana schools keep putting out very competitive teams despite a lot of smaller HSs. Illinois has 8 classes from 1A to 8A ... we've got a lot of HSs with 2,500 to 4,000 students .. all the way down to the 250 to 400. So we break it up into 8 classes to ensure it is more fairly competitive. I'm in west suburbs of Chicago and there are 8 HS within 20 mins of my home that have 2,500 to 4,000 students. Plus there are another 5-6 that are much smaller that play in lower classes. Our point was simply the bigger schools have competition advantages due to laws of larger numbers and increased competition that comes with greater depth. It's not to say there aren't great players at smaller schools, just a lot less of them. The other sports have just 2 to 4 classes. But football has 8 classes because of these competitive/size differences.

As it happens, ISU now hosts all 8 HS class football championships these last couple years. Great for marketing the school and recruiting (not just for football) to have 16 teams of athletes, students, families, and parents parading thru here last weekend in November. It's only been a couple years. We had to give up hosting the 1st round playoff game in 2024 against SEMO because of the conflict .. so we played at SEMO in 2024. Spack and everyone are all for it in spite of this.

Hillarious.... very competitive teams despite a lot of smaller HSs. Illinois has 8 classes from 1A to 8A ... we've got a lot of HSs with 2,500 to 4,000 students .. all the way down to the 250 to 400.
2 of Montana's high school divisions are smaller than this. Class C 6 and 8 man are schools under 100 an Class B is under 250...

I don't doubt it. Someone on our forum took your HS enrollments and compared to our 8 classes. Then looked at the distribution over the 8 classes. Ours are evenly distributed by design ... the top 1/8th go into 8A, etc. In Montana, it was skewed much more to the smaller classes with very few in larger classes as a %.

Anyway, I think the main point is in IL the bigger schools are usually better/deeper teams than the smaller schools. I have to believe same is true in Montana and every other state. And I think any coach will admit, the better the competition in practice and in games, the more you get out of your players. That said, ISU does not get any of our states best players, not even close. The best players in IL all go to the FBS schools in IL and all over the country. Whereas in states like Montana and Dakotas, you guys get most of your states best players from what I understand.

In the end, Montana St is favored by 10 pts over Illinois St and rightly so. And if not for our Bison win, it probably would have been closer to the 28 pts Bison was initially favored by. But this all started with wondering how/why you guys (Montanas and Dakotas) are consistently so good and draw so many fans. Obviously, you guys have a program formula/culture that works. But I think the state demographics/logistics are an inherent part of that formula.

I don't think this is anything derogatory or critical. Just trying to understand why certain FCS programs win and draw consistently. And most of the rest struggle for this consistency.

I just get a kick out of stating jabs on our forum and reading your forums reactions!

Nothing but respect for your team, however, there seems to be a lot of Illinois > Montana in sporting going on over there, which I sure hope with the difference in population there would be at the high school level. Regardless, stating the obvious isn’t the flex you all think it is.

Like us, I’m sure the majority of your fan base is great, but what a bunch of party poopers you have on your forum, especially those taking digs at our fans for enjoying their time in Nashville… I know, how dare they!

We are dominant and will continue to be dominant in FCS because we share a great and extremely petty at times rivalry with the Gris. We have been able to build our program around, for the most part, coaches who have stuck around and have the resources to develop players, especially large bodied Montana kids. Each year we have numerous in state high school athletes who would much rather play at a Montana school than most G5 school.

Despite what many of you think or Montana, Bozeman has great and strong engineering and architecture programs. Also, the Bozeman community is loaded with wealthy individuals, per capita (don’t want to upset anyone who wants to argue on total population), many who lately are more than happy to open up their checkbooks to make sure MSU never reverts back to their darker days of FCS.

[Colter_Nuanez]

[Colter_Nuanez]

[Colter_Nuanez]

[Colter_Nuanez]

[coloradocat]

[allcat]

Why would they have her when our band is there.

[grizzh8r]

Why would they have her when our band is there.

[Colter_Nuanez]

[RedbirdFourthandShort]

Moved this from the earlier Ill St thread.

Hello all .. Redbird Fan here. Yes, the guy who did the drill down on our UCD game vs yours ... please don't shoot !!!!

First of all, congrats on another great season and getting to Natty again. Ive been touting the Big Sky these last 5+ years on Redbird and AGS forums, as right there with MVFC, other than the title teams. Sounds like last year was viewed as a big missed opportunity .. game you could just as easily won. I don't doubt it, and ntoed you guys are back with a much younger roster. So that is impressive by itself.

.........................................

Glad to respond to any questions on Redbird related stuff.

Appreciate the insight and hopping over!
Always nice to hear from fans from other school that we normally wouldn't.

Yep, weve got a couple Bobcats on our our forum. Been very gracious .. in spite of a couple not so gracious Redbird fans.

But aside from a couple rude Redbird fans .. one misunderstood point on our forum was the discussion on population demographics in Montana vs Illinois. Weve made same point about the 4 Dakotas. Not sure if you saw it but I saw it brought up here. It was actually intended in a completely complimentary manner ... basic point being how impressed we were that both Montana schools keep putting out very competitive teams despite a lot of smaller HSs. Illinois has 8 classes from 1A to 8A ... we've got a lot of HSs with 2,500 to 4,000 students .. all the way down to the 250 to 400. So we break it up into 8 classes to ensure it is more fairly competitive. I'm in west suburbs of Chicago and there are 8 HS within 20 mins of my home that have 2,500 to 4,000 students. Plus there are another 5-6 that are much smaller that play in lower classes. Our point was simply the bigger schools have competition advantages due to laws of larger numbers and increased competition that comes with greater depth. It's not to say there aren't great players at smaller schools, just a lot less of them. The other sports have just 2 to 4 classes. But football has 8 classes because of these competitive/size differences.

As it happens, ISU now hosts all 8 HS class football championships these last couple years. Great for marketing the school and recruiting (not just for football) to have 16 teams of athletes, students, families, and parents parading thru here last weekend in November. It's only been a couple years. We had to give up hosting the 1st round playoff game in 2024 against SEMO because of the conflict .. so we played at SEMO in 2024. Spack and everyone are all for it in spite of this.

Hillarious.... very competitive teams despite a lot of smaller HSs. Illinois has 8 classes from 1A to 8A ... we've got a lot of HSs with 2,500 to 4,000 students .. all the way down to the 250 to 400.
2 of Montana's high school divisions are smaller than this. Class C 6 and 8 man are schools under 100 an Class B is under 250...

I don't doubt it. Someone on our forum took your HS enrollments and compared to our 8 classes. Then looked at the distribution over the 8 classes. Ours are evenly distributed by design ... the top 1/8th go into 8A, etc. In Montana, it was skewed much more to the smaller classes with very few in larger classes as a %.

Anyway, I think the main point is in IL the bigger schools are usually better/deeper teams than the smaller schools. I have to believe same is true in Montana and every other state. And I think any coach will admit, the better the competition in practice and in games, the more you get out of your players. That said, ISU does not get any of our states best players, not even close. The best players in IL all go to the FBS schools in IL and all over the country. Whereas in states like Montana and Dakotas, you guys get most of your states best players from what I understand.

In the end, Montana St is favored by 10 pts over Illinois St and rightly so. And if not for our Bison win, it probably would have been closer to the 28 pts Bison was initially favored by. But this all started with wondering how/why you guys (Montanas and Dakotas) are consistently so good and draw so many fans. Obviously, you guys have a program formula/culture that works. But I think the state demographics/logistics are an inherent part of that formula.

I don't think this is anything derogatory or critical. Just trying to understand why certain FCS programs win and draw consistently. And most of the rest struggle for this consistency.

I just get a kick out of stating jabs on our forum and reading your forums reactions!

Nothing but respect for your team, however, there seems to be a lot of Illinois > Montana in sporting going on over there, which I sure hope with the difference in population there would be at the high school level. Regardless, stating the obvious isn’t the flex you all think it is.

Like us, I’m sure the majority of your fan base is great, but what a bunch of party poopers you have on your forum, especially those taking digs at our fans for enjoying their time in Nashville… I know, how dare they!

We are dominant and will continue to be dominant in FCS because we share a great and extremely petty at times rivalry with the Gris. We have been able to build our program around, for the most part, coaches who have stuck around and have the resources to develop players, especially large bodied Montana kids. Each year we have numerous in state high school athletes who would much rather play at a Montana school than most G5 school.

Despite what many of you think or Montana, Bozeman has great and strong engineering and architecture programs. Also, the Bozeman community is loaded with wealthy individuals, per capita (don’t want to upset anyone who wants to argue on total population), many who lately are more than happy to open up their checkbooks to make sure MSU never reverts back to their darker days of FCS.

Agree both forums have been taking jabs at the other and thats inevitable. But most posters have been respectful. The naysayers are just going to stand out and some may post more. But I was only trying to explain the exchanges on avg enrollments wasn't one of them. It was a genuine curiosity of how Montanas and Dakotas are able to win and draw so consistently over the years.

In any case, its game day ... still thinking and hoping this will be a great competitive game tonight. We're definitely an improved team in playoffs over reg season. But we're still going to have to play up to our competition again. Its just not as far up as it was walking into these playoffs 6 weeks ago.

Congrats again on another great season !!

[Colter_Nuanez]

[Colter_Nuanez]

[Colter_Nuanez]

[Colter_Nuanez]

[Colter_Nuanez]

[Colter_Nuanez]