MISSOULA — The Montana Grizzlies will be looking to fill a date for their 2026 football season.
Montana and Missouri State have mutually agreed to cancel their meeting that was scheduled for Sept. 19, 2026, in Springfield, Missouri, as part of a home-and-home series signed between the programs back in 2015.
FBSschedules first reported the news on Tuesday, and University of Montana athletic director Kent Haslam confirmed the decision with MTN Sports on Tuesday evening.
Missouri State is slated to moved up from the FCS to the FBS level in 2025, so the Bears requested the cancellation as part of their transition. According to the report, which Haslam confirmed, Montana will pay Missouri State $150,000 in compensation for the cancellation since the Bears won't get their home game as part of the initial home-and-home deal.
UM is still scheduled to open the upcoming 2024 season against Missouri State on Aug. 31 at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
The programs were initially set to meet in 2020 in Missouri and in 2021 in Missoula, but the former game was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the latter was eventually moved to 2024.
As of now, Montana's lone non-conference game for the 2026 season is a home game against Utah Tech on Sept. 12.
