MISSOULA — No. 3 Montana and No. 14 South Dakota State are a pair of the rare bluebloods at the FCS level.
Through all of college football's changes, these two have stayed put and remained the same.
WATCH THE FULL VIDEO HERE:
Lately, they've been perennial contenders, and when they line up on Saturday, it'll be the third straight year these two programs have seen each other in the playoffs.
Of course two years ago it was in Frisco, Texas, where the Jackrabbits got the best of the Grizzlies in the FCS national championship game, 23-3.
Last year they met again, only this time in Brookings, S.D., in the second round, where again SDSU prevailed over UM, 35-18.
Now, they will meet in Missoula for the first time since 2015.
While the Jacks have had the advantage of late, those two victories are SDSU's only wins in the all-time series.
The previous eight meetings went the Grizzlies' way, as the teams have met a total of 10 times prior. They first met back in 1969 and 1970, where it was Montana taking the first two matches by a combined score of 82-0.
UM and SDSU wouldn't see each other again until 1988, where Montana again won in a blowout, 41-16, in Missoula.
Five years later, the Griz opened the 1993 season against the Jackrabbits in Missoula and won in a shootout, 52-48, to kick off the season.
It would be over a decade before they met again, and Montana slugged out a 7-0 victory in 2005, followed by a 36-7 route when they clashed in 2006.
Then, there's arguably the biggest classic of them all, when the programs met in 2009 for the first time in the playoffs in Missoula.
Fans know the story well. SDSU led 48-21 late in the third quarter, but Montana reeled off 40 unanswered points to complete the comeback, 61-48, and provide an all-time moment at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
The Griz were then victorious in 2015 in the playoffs, as well, but that's the last time they've claimed a win over SDSU, which has skyrocketed in recent seasons.
It's a semifinal-caliber matchup in the second round of this year's FCS playoffs between two teams that have aspirations for the national championship game in Nashville, Tenn., come January.
