Andy Austin is a former offensive tackle for Montana State University, but that alumni status was no help when sales opened for tickets to the year’s most-coveted Montana sporting event — a rematch of the famed Cat-Griz rivalry in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.
Austin took to Instagram, with a dig at his former opponents and a small amount of pleading: “I know these tickets are harder than a Griz fan trying not to talk about how good they were in the 90s…. But hit a man up if you got any leads.”
The semifinal game will be played between the MSU Bobcats and University of Montana Grizzlies in Bozeman this Saturday. The winner will go to the FCS championship game. For many fans, getting a seat has taken a lot of effort — or money.
Demand from MSU season ticket holders, who had access to an exclusive presale, exceeded the number of spots available. MSU announced that they were sold out on Monday and that no tickets for the playoff game would be offered to the general public.
You can still get a ticket for the game on resale markets, but it’ll cost you. The cheapest seat posted on SeatGeek, the only official resale platform, was $417 for a single seat as of Thursday. For a pair of good seats near the 50-yard line, the price was $7,421, or about $3,700 each before fees.
Austin eventually acquired a ticket through “my good buddy Steve,” he said in an interview with MTFP. He said he pushed back a flight to the East Coast to 6 a.m. Sunday so he could make the game.
“Having played in Cat-Griz and done that, it’s obviously really important for me,” Austin said. “It’s going to be an amazing time to see friends and people I haven’t seen in a long time.”
The Bobcats and Grizzlies play every year in the regular-season Brawl of the Wild, but Saturday’s game marks the first time the teams have ever met in the playoffs over their 127-year history of facing off.
MSU’s Thijs Goossens, associate athletic director for business operations, said in an interview that there’s been “extreme high demand” for tickets. Goossens said requests began en masse after MSU defeated Stephen F. Austin State University in the FCS quarterfinal matchup on Dec. 12.
Bobcat Stadium has about 17,700 assigned seats, but total capacity hovers around 22,000 including standing room. Here are the ticket allocations for Saturday’s game:
- About 13,000 for season ticket holders, including public and corporate partners.
- Around 3,200 for MSU’s students and band.
- About 500 for the visiting team, a number mandated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
- About 400 for the families of athletes and coaches.
MSU season ticket holders got priority to request additional tickets for the playoff game.
“We are going to prioritize the people that have been with us all year, obviously, like the season ticket holders that have committed early on to be part of the entire season, or donors,” Goossens said.
Out of 7,000 extra ticket requests from season ticket holders, 2,500 were fulfilled.
MSU athletic’s department relies on a priority points system to select which season ticket holders will be able to get additional seats at playoff games.
“So based on what type of season tickets people buy every year, how many dollars they spend there or whatever donations they make throughout the year to either various teams or projects that we have, people earn priority points along the way,” Goossens said.
Goossens said using the priority points system is standard practice for college playoff games.
Debates over the high prices broke out in Facebook groups like FCS Fans Nation and Montana State Bobcats Ticket Exchange.
“What is lame is that MSU gave all the tickets to season ticket holders and didn’t do ANY for the public,” a user named Colton Philip wrote in FCS Fans Nation.
“Did anyone else see how greedy the bobcats fans are being with the tickets to the game Saturday vs the Montana Griz Football team?” a user named Brady Coker wrote in the same group. “I wouldn’t pay 100 bucks to watch the Griz beat the cats in the litter box in Bozeman.”
Tony Lyons, a season ticket holder who created the Montana State Bobcats Ticket Exchange group, said in a Wednesday interview with MTFP that he was tired of people complaining about the high prices. Lyons removed “tons” of people for their comments bemoaning costs.
“It’s the biggest football game in Montana history,” Lyons said. “It’s not going to be cheap. It’s not going to be 25 bucks, because everyone wants to go.”
In the several years he’s run the chat, Lyons said this is the busiest it’s been. The experience “put a nasty taste in my mouth for Montana.”
MSU expanded stadium seating ahead of the 2025 season and hopes to continue growing the stadium’s size in the coming years.
When the Cats and Griz met in Missoula Nov. 22, MSU won 31-28. MSU comes into Saturday’s game with a 8-0 conference record and a No. 2 ranking, while UM is ranked No. 3 with a 7-1 conference record, having only lost to MSU. Whoever wins will face the victor of Illinois State versus Villanova for the FCS championship in Nashville on Jan. 5.
MSU President Brock Tessman is married to former MTFP deputy director and current part-time MTFP contractor Kristin Tessman. MTFP business staff do not have input into editorial coverage.
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