MISSOULA — It's quarterfinal weekend in the FCS playoffs, and Montana State and Montana are still playing home football games.
The No. 2-seeded Bobcats, the highest-seeded team remaining in the postseason after No. 1 North Dakota State lost to Illinois State last week, will host seventh-seeded Stephen F. Austin in Bobcat Stadium in Bozeman on Friday. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m., and the game will be broadcast to a national audience on ESPN.
The Grizzlies, seeded third in the bracket, will also play in front of a national audience. Montana will welcome No. 11 South Dakota to Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula on Saturday. The Griz and Coyotes will kick off at 1:30 p.m., and the game will air on ABC.
If Montana and Montana State both win this weekend, they would meet in a semifinal game in Bozeman on Saturday, Dec. 20. The Cats and Griz have never met in the FCS playoffs.
ESPN has exclusive broadcast rights to the FCS playoff games and airs all games on its family of networks. The other quarterfinal games feature No. 4-seeded Tarleton State hosting No. 12 Villanova at 10 a.m. Saturday on ESPN and eighth-seeded UC Davis hosting Illinois State at 3 p.m. Saturday on ESPN+.
Both semifinal games will be played Dec. 20 — the first will kick off at 2 p.m. on ABC and the second will be at 5:30 p.m. on ESPN2.
The winners of the semifinal games will meet in the FCS national championship game, which is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn.
