NASHVILLE, Tenn. — For the past couple of days and through the weekend, Nashville has been home to Montana State football fans.
But the actual home base here is at Barstool Nashville, which is partnering with the Bobcat Collective to give fans a place to gather as a community in preparation for Monday's FCS championship game.
The Barstool Nashville location is a hopping destination point in downtown, and it is no stranger to hosting visiting fans.
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"Our staff enjoys it so much because obviously they feed off of the people that are here and we try and make them feed or feed themselves to the people as well," Barstool Nashville assistant general manager Julianna Rodriguez said. "So it's really easy to build a good connection with the people that they're serving and make sure that everyone has a good time and a good party. And it's a fun time."
The Bobcat Collective, which is MSU's revenue-sharing source, helped set up the space to give fans a place to congregate throughout the weekend.
"Everywhere you go there are Bobcats," Bobcat Collective general manager Brandon Vancleeve said. "And that's what we hoped it would be. And it's only going to get busier, but that's what Montana State is and the Bobcat community is.
"People show up, they're proud, they want to connect with the Bobcat nation in general. And you're seeing it out there in the bar. And (you'll) most definitely see it at the game on Monday."
"This is another level of party and crazy and devotion to a team that I was unaware of until I got over here," Rodriguez added. "So to be able to see everyone chanting last night — we heard so many chants coming from the crowd and we got some cool videos of that. So it's been great. High energy all the time."
The Bobcat Collective continues to grow and connect with fans under Vancleeve, a former player at Montana State who has been proud to give back to his alma mater.
"It has tremendously increased the collaboration with the players and the community," Vancleeve said. "And that's something I'm very passionate about. We want to add value to the people that donate, not only be able to donate, but just the community in general.
" We have players in schools all the time. We're getting our players into fans' homes to provide them dinners. That kind of stuff has been awesome."
As the program continues to succeed, so too can the collective, as the two aim to go hand in hand moving forward to keep players in Bozeman, and in turn stack more wins.
"We're just constantly making strides," Vancleeve said. "I think you're going to see us separate ourselves from other collectives and other rev share engagements, because I think we have the support in the community that we're going to be able to retain more guys than I think people expect."
