Last piece falls into place for football schedule

The University of Montana football completed its 2007 schedule on Thursday, adding a home game against Albany (N.Y.) as the final piece to its scheduling puzzle.

“Football and basketball scheduling is becoming incredibly difficult for schools at our level, so it’s always nice to get them done,” University of Montana athletic director Jim O’Day said Thursday night.

The Griz and the Danes will do battle on Sept. 22 at Washington Grizzly Stadium.

With rumors swirling around Missoula the last few months claiming that teams ranging from the University of Southern California to Montana school Carroll College would be UM’s final opponent, Montana settled on a university that it has played once before, a 45-7 conquest in 2002.

Montana will pay Albany $125,000 to come to Missoula.

UM nearly rounded out its schedule with a road game against Kansas State, a Football Bowl Subdivision team that plays in the Big 12 Conference. Kansas State initially had $325,000 offered, to the Griz, but retracted it last week when they got an offer that included a televised game on ESPN from Auburn.

Defending College Football Subdivision (formally known as I-AA) champion Appalachian State was a possibility for Montana, but their available dates did not fit into Montana’s schedule. UM talked to Cal Poly and North Dakota State, but nothing materialized as both schools were looking for home games. O’Day also said that UM talked to a couple of Ivy League programs.

UM’s difficulties with filling out its schedule can partially be attributed to the reluctance of some schools to sign a contract with UM because of a bad reputation earned by the program over the past few years. To help erase the million dollar deficit in the athletic department that was discovered in 2004, Montana has
had to buy out a couple of opponents over the past few years in lieu of guarantee games with bigger universities, such as the University of Oregon in 2005 and the University of Iowa this past season.

“Because of our past history, we are probably not the most popular place to play,” O’Day said. 

O’Day hopes that UM will be able to rebuild its reputation over the next few seasons. Montana plans to announce to the Board of Regents in March that the deficit has been erased, nearly 2.5 years ahead of schedule.

Albany went 7-4 in 2006 with a 5-2 record in the Northeast Conference and is expected to return 17 starters from last year’s squad. The Danes were third in the CFS in scoring defense last season and their defense will be anchored in 2007 by All-American linebacker Colin Disch, who registered 103 tackles in 2006.

“They are going to be a tough opponent for us,” O’Day said.

Montana will play its first five games of 2007 at home.

The Griz are coming off of a 12-2 season that ended with a 19-17 loss to UMass in the CFS semifinals.

2007 Montana football schedule
9/1 Southern Utah at 1:05 p.m.
9/8 Fort Lewis at 1:05 p.m.
9/15 Open
9/22 Albany at 1:05 p.m.
9/29 Weber State (homecoming) at 1:05 p.m.
10/6 Eastern Washington at 1:05 p.m.
10/13 at Sacramento State at 3:05 p.m.
10/20 Northern Colorado at 1:05 p.m.
10/27 at Northern Arizona at 3:05 p.m.
11/3 Portland State at 12:05 p.m.
11/10 at Idaho State at TBA
11/17 at Montana State at 12:05 p.m.