Former Davis TE Josh Gale is in the Sac State presser for the Griz this week:

I hate doing this but nothing else going on:

Montana 45 Sac State 35 Closer than expected
Weber 24 EWU 17 Who cares
Idaho 28 Portland State 10 Vandals are reeling
Idaho State 35 NAU 31 Probably the most entertaining of the matchups aside from the Cirque de Sacramento game
Montana State 42 Cal Poly 24 Mustangs will need to open it up and roll the dice to get this close

Aggies 42 Northern Colorado 21 Expect a heavy dose of Fisher and Vargas with CP taking shots down and across the field. The Defense will handle the Bears with a day out of the pass rushers and the DBs locking down.

I got Sac State with the slim upset 35-32

Bold, I won't be surprised if you're right. Too bad there won't be any students there, they could re-create the Lil' Yachty debacle in celebrating to dub

Sac is a 3.5 point underdog according to Sports Bet Montana.
Montana hasn’t impressed with their 219th ranked schedule according to Sagarin.
Sagarin’s models give Montana a 61% chance of winning or less, they have varying formulas but all project a narrow favorite. The home field advantage counts for more in Sagarin this year.

no students there?…Montana has kept things close the last few weeks and I think Sac State is too talented to let hang around. Away game also with a shortened week (think Thursday night football in NFL) anything can happen!

Does Montana typically schedule weak competition?

I absolutely agree that anything can happen in that game. Friday night games are weird for college football, but the Griz will come into that thing with a chip on their shoulder. Montana pays FBS teams to go to Missoula. They did beat the Huskies in Seattle a while ago, but the last four years they tend to play two tougher (Dakota schools primarily) FCS games and two FCS creampuffs.

according to AI:

Over the past decade (2015–2025), the University of Montana Grizzlies have consistently ranked in the upper-middle to top quartile of FCS teams in strength of schedule, primarily due to the competitiveness of the Big Sky Conference and frequent matchups with ranked opponents such as Montana State, Eastern Washington, and UC Davis.

Historical Strength of Schedule Overview
Using data from Jeff Sagarin and Massey Ratings, Montana’s strength of schedule (SoS) usually ranged from **#30 to #70 out of approximately 130–135 FCS programs placing them between the 25th and 50th percentile nationally in most seasons.

what Sagarin may not consider is that Big Sky officiating squads have long offered some sort of extra courtesy to Montana, and consciously or not, are probably less inclined to do any homecooking for Sac. Historically, playing clean is not the Hornet way, and key penalties or spots can have an outsized impact on an otherwise close game.

Compared to its fellow conference members Montana consistently has a easy out of conference schedule.
How many FBS teams has Montana played in the most recent five seasons? One, five years ago.
How many D2 teams has Montana played in the most recent five seasons? Two
How.many FBS teams has Davis played in the last five seasons? Five
How many D2 teams has Davis played in last five years? Zero

Hate to say it, but rooting for SAC ST this weekend. If we can't play Montana, maybe we can beat them via transitive properties