Montana to play twice on ESPN family of networks

The Montana Grizzlies will play two regular season football games on national television in 2025, with the ESPN family of networks picking up the broadcast rights to a pair of UM's preseason top 25 matchups.

The Griz will be the first team in the Big Sky Conference featured on "The Worldwide Leader in Sports" this season when the Idaho Vandals come to Missoula in a battle for the Little Brown Stein on Saturday, Sept. 27. Exact kickoff time and the linear network the game will be shown on will be announced at a later date.

Montana will then appear on ESPN2 under Friday night lights when the Griz travel to Sacramento State, with the game rescheduled for Friday, Oct. 24, at 8:30 p.m. MT.

The remainder of Montana's kick times and broadcast details will be announced in the near future.

As part of the Big Sky's continued partnership with ESPN, Montana will be featured in two of the league's four games to air nationwide on the ESPN family of networks, the conference announced Thursday. Northern Arizona's game against Idaho on Oct. 31 in Flagstaff, and Montana State's game against UC Davis on Nov. 15 in Bozeman will also be shown on the ESPN family of networks as part of an expanded agreement with the conference.

Montana's two games on ESPN are shaping up to be preseason top 25 battles, with HERO Sports placing the Griz at No. 7 in its recent preseason poll, followed by Idaho at No. 10, and Sac State at No. 12.

Montana hosted ESPN for two games at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in 2024 when UC Davis visited Missoula during the regular season and Tennessee State came to town for the first round of the FCS Playoffs. Since 2023 the Griz are 4-1 in games broadcast by ESPN.

The Griz open the 2025 season on Sept. 6 against Central Washington in the first of eight regular season home games, a first for any FCS program. Montana will then play five of their next six games in Washington-Grizzly Stadium, spending the entire month of September in Missoula and only traveling twice in the month of October. UM caps the season with two of the last three games at home against Eastern Washington on Nov. 8 and Montana State on Nov. 22.

New Griz football season ticket packages are on sale now at GrizTix.com or GoGriz.com/tickets. Single game tickets are set to go on sale in July.

University of Montana Athletics

Related Videos