When Montana State faces off against North Dakota State in the FCS national championship game, the Bobcats will be looking to not only snap a 40-year national title drought, but also a long, five-game playoff losing streak to the Bison that has spanned 15 years.
The Bobcats haven’t beaten the Bison since a 2005 regular season game in Bozeman when NDSU was transitioning from NCAA Division II status to Division I/FCS. The win required some of quarterback Travis Lulay’s magic as MSU came back for a 20-17 victory.
MSU’s last playoff win over the Bison came in the 1976 Division II semifinal. A frigid day with a high of 21 degrees that was enhanced negatively by 12 mile-per-hour winds that saw the Bobcats prevail for a 10-3 win. Of the six playoff games between the two teams, the winner has gone on to win the national title four times – 1976, 2018, 2019, and 2021 – and this one will make it five times in seven meetings regardless of who wins.
During the first four losses of the current streak against NDSU, the Bobcats self-analyzed themselves as not physical enough to beat a team like the Missouri Valley Football Conference’s NDSU or South Dakota State. Those two teams have won every national title since 2011 save when James Madison won it in 2016. During its current six-year playoff streak, the only time Montana State’s season has ended to a team other than NDSU came in 2022 when the Bobcats got wiped out by SDSU in Brookings.
“We are in a different place than we were in ’22 and ‘21 for that matter when we match up with these teams,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said following his team’s 31-17 win over South Dakota, another customarily physical MVFC team. “We’re going to have to play extremely well. We’re going to have to prepare like crazy over the next couple weeks to put ourselves in position, but I think we’re going to go there with a team that’s going to fight and be right in the fight.”
MSU has its history of losing streaks to certain teams. “The Streak”, an ominous 16-game black eye on the program to arch-rival Montana, is the only one more noteworthy than the current five-game losing streak to NDSU, which is magnified due to the fact all five have been playoff games.
Cal Poly beat the Bobcats eight straight times from 1997 to 2014. Eastern Washington, which has dominated MSU more than any team since 1983, has two seven-game, one six-game and one five-game winning streak over the ‘Cats. The Eagles defeated the Bobcats 28 times in 36 meetings from 1983 to 2018. Oddly, one of the Montana State triumphs came during EWU’s 2010 national championship season, the last time a Big Sky Conference squad won the national title.
MSU has the edge against those three teams in recent years however, so getting the monkey off their collective backs is something the Bobcats are familiar with. MSU has won six of eight and eight of 13 against Montana while the Bobcats are 4-0 against Eastern Washington under Vigen.
The opponent, however, has never been so formidable. Bobcat’ players, while confident, remain stoic about the task of finally knocking off the mighty Bison.
“I can’t wait to play them,” quarterback Tommy Mellott stated sternly, while nodding his head after beating South Dakota 31-17 in the semifinals.
“I’m pretty excited,” defensive end Brody Grebe said in practically mimicking Mellott. “I’m glad it’s NDSU. We’ve got something to prove there.”
Indeed, they do.
For the Bison have dominated nearly every team it has faced with any regularity over the past 15 seasons – a stretch that has seen them win nine FCS titles. Their wins over MSU occurred in 2010, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2023.
There’s also the infamous 2013 regular-season game between the two FCS powers that never happened. The Bobcats bought out the non-conference game and played at SMU instead.
North Dakota State has beaten the Bobcats twice at home, twice in Bozeman and once on a neutral field: in the 2021 national championship game. NDSU has pulled away late, they’ve blown MSU out and they’ve won in dramatic fashion.
In 2010, the Bobcats had a 17-14 lead entering the fourth quarter. The Bison scored 28 unanswered points from that point on for a 42-17 win to put an abrupt end to MSU’s Big Sky championship season.
Eight years and six titles later, the Bison would host an upstart 2018 MSU squad in the second round and blow out the ‘Cats, 52-10.
In 2019, NDSU hosted MSU in the national semifinals and summarily put down a 42-14 whipping.
The teams continued moving up the ladder to the 2021 national title game where the Bison dominated again, this time by a 38-10 count.
That was the last time NDSU won an FCS championship as it would lose in the final to South Dakota State in 2022, then failed to advance in 2023 after pulling out a 35-34 overtime win in the second round in Bozeman when it blocked an extra point. The Bison ousted South Dakota the following week before losing 31-29 in an epic double overtime thriller in Missoula to the Griz as Montana advanced to its first national title game since 2009. UM promptly lost 28-3 to South Dakota State to complete SDSU’s back-to-back championship runs.
If nothing else, MSU proved to itself in 2023 that it’s at least in the ballpark with NDSU. The narrow loss masked the Bobcats’ ability to not only move the ball, but also hold the Bison in check somewhat on offense.
The Bobcats gained 507 total yards to NDSU’s 380 last season, which was the most by MSU and the least by the Bison in the five games. However, in the previous three matchups the Bison averaged 514 yards of offense to MSU’s 311. In 2010, the yardage total had NDSU up 432-380.
While there may not be a lot of differences between this year’s and last year’s Bobcat’ squad, there has been a lot of change since the 2021 season.
“We’ve had Coach Vigen for a couple years now, so I’d say that’s been the biggest difference,” Grebe said when listing off the items that aren’t the same from 2021. “We’re all bought into the coaches. We aren’t having any quarterback issues, which is nice.
“We have the best quarterback in the country (Mellott), so that’s definitely helpful. That’s one of the biggest differences and then Coach Vigen, the trust that we have in him and the gratitude we have for him and just playing for him.”
The last two losses have been especially painful for the Bobcats, and no one more so than Mellott.
In 2021, Mellott was moving the Bobcats efficiently as he took them from their own 35 on the opening drive to the NDSU 28. During the drive, however, he suffered a broken bone in his ankle upon converting a third-and-one with a two-yard run. He finished the drive but did not return.
The Bobcats were never the same the rest of the day. A fake field goal, turned pooch punt gave NDSU the ball on its own 20 and 11 plays later they were ahead 7-0. A missed field goal by MSU on its next possession led to another Bison’ touchdown as the Bobcats found themselves in a seemingly insurmountable 14-0 hole.
Last year, Mellott was in the midst of perhaps the best game of his career as he had the Bobcats leading 28-21 late in the third quarter when he was knocked out of the game with a broken bone near his knee. Up to that point, he was 13 of 17 passing for 204 yards and two touchdowns to go along with 151 yards and two touchdowns on 18 rushes. The Bobcats held a 430-258 edge in total yards up to that point.
“We came up short there (three) years ago and last year didn’t go the way we wanted it to, so now we’re back to where we belong and that’s what we’re all about,” Mellott said.
The Bobcats and Bison will meet in Frisco, Tex. on Monday, January 6 at 5:00 p.m.
