Griz Picked Third, Sixth in Preseason Polls

Media members around the league picked Montana to finish third in this year’s title race while coaches picked the Griz to finish sixth, the Big Sky Conference announced in its annual preseason polls on Monday from the football kickoff event in Spokane.

The Grizzlies earned two first-place votes and 359 overall points to slot in at No. 3 in the media poll, with voting made up of media members and sports information directors from around the conference.

In narrow voting among the coaches, UM picked up 84 points to come in sixth, with just 12 points separating five of the top six teams.

Consensus among coaches and media clumps Montana, Idaho, Sacramento State, UC Davis, and Weber State solidly in the top-half of this year’s polls. Montana State, however, was selected in both to repeat as conference champions.

Montana must travel to Idaho, which slotted in second in the media poll and fifth in the coaches’ poll, and UC Davis (fifth in the media and second in the coaches’ polls), but will have home-field advantage against defending co-champs Sacramento State and Montana State.

Photo courtesy of Grizzly Athletics

Montana opens the 2023 season on Sept. 2 against the Butler Bulldogs out of Indianapolis in a first-time matchup.

The Griz enter 2023 looking to improve on its 8-5 record a year ago, where narrow losses to ranked teams on the road led to the Griz finishing sixth in the Big Sky standings.

To help them, UM returns seven all-conference players and 15 starters, including the entire starting offensive line.

Season tickets and mini-plan packages are on sale now at GrizTix.com, with single-game tickets for all games except MSU on sale to the general public starting July 25.

Media Preseason Poll

1. Montana State (26) – 447
2. Idaho (8) – 410
3. Montana (2) – 359
4. Sacramento State (3) – 334
5. UC Davis – 330
6. Weber State – 320
7. Eastern Washington – 216
8. Northern Arizona – 178
9. Portland State – 167
10. Northern Colorado – 109
11. Cal Poly – 103
12. Idaho State – 69

Coaches’ Preseason Poll

1. Montana State (10) – 120
2. UC Davis (1) – 96
3. Sacramento State (1) – 94
4. Weber State – 91
5. Idaho – 89
6. Montana – 84
7. Eastern Washington – 52
8. Portland State – 45
9. Northern Arizona – 44
10. Northern Colorado – 37
11. Cal Poly – 25
12. Idaho State – 15

First-place votes in parentheses