The Montana State Bobcats have added the Butler Bulldogs to their 2026 football schedule, Montana State director of athletics Leon Costello announced Wednesday.
Montana State will host Butler at Bobcat Stadium in Bozeman, Mont., on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. The game will be the season-opener for both schools and it will also mark the first-ever meeting between the two programs on the gridiron.
Butler competes in the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League (PFL), while Montana State plays in the Big Sky Conference, both in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).
With the addition of Butler, Montana State has tentatively completed its non-conference schedule for the 2026 season. Following the Butler contest, Montana State is scheduled to visit the Nevada Wolf Pack on Sept. 12 before hosting the Central Connecticut Blue Devils on Sept. 19.
Montana State’s three non-conference opponents will add to a forthcoming nine-game Big Sky slate, which is expected to be revealed this fall. The league is adding an extra contest following the NCAA’s decision to allow FCS teams to schedule 12 games annually.
As for Butler, Montana State is the first scheduled non-conference opponent for that season.
FOOTBALL SCHEDULES
Big Sky can’t play 9 games because they’ll have an odd number of teams.
The commissioner said they are moving to a nine-game schedule. How they will do it is unclear.
Apparently 12 teams will play 9 games, and 1 team will play 8 games.
Hey Kevin, he talked about it at the Big Sky media day in Spokane. If you want to check out the video of it there is one out there.
Because its 9 conference games and there are 13 teams, they plan to have one team that only plays 8 conference games every year. He said that they will rotate it between the two new schools, Utah Tech and Southern Utah, but it will cycle around the rest of the conference.
I don’t know how that will go into tie brakers, I don’t believe they have calculated all that yet, but that is the plan at this point.
We’ll have to see where UC Davis falls, or if they add in another D-II team I guess.
Still no FCS teams with games schedule the week of Aug 29. This would have been a good time to fit one in there it seems.
Alabama A&M and Howard are set for Aug. 29 (Cricket MEAC/SWAC Challenge).
Oops, I overlooked that one, thanks.
Kevin, since all these teams are going to have to eventually put games into that weekend, is there anything you’re seeing on how or when they will get these games already schedule into those dates. I know a lot of Montana people are of the mind that the Big Sky is just going to schedule conference games there for 2026. Not the preferred start to the season in my opinion.
I don’t have any info on that yet.