There have been some ridiculous runs of teams winning championships in succession throughout all sports, but that’s been the exception not the norm….except in the Football Championship Subdivision, at least since 2011.
Once North Dakota State assumed position on the FCS throne, the Bison stacked championships like almost no team in modern college sports history. NDSU ended up winning 10 national titles between 2011 and 2025 before joining the Mountain West. The only other FCS champions since 2011? James Madison in 2016, South Dakota State as back-to-back champs in 2022 and 2023 and Montana State a year ago.
Talent is a big factor in getting that string of excellence accomplished, but if motivation isn’t a bigger factor, then it’s a
close second. What it could all boil down to is the expectation for this year’s Montana State team after winning a national championship with a team that wasn’t expected to do that at the beginning of 2025 is to do just that this season.
The recent polls show MSU to be an overwhelming No. 1 selection, so the expectations across the nation is that MSU could be the next repeat champion. To maintain that and have that at the end of the season could be all the motivation the Bobcats need.
Montana State football finds itself in this position as it grapples with figuring out how to become the first Big Sky Conference and just the sixth FCS team to repeat as national champions. There have been just eight NCAA FBS teams to do it since 1940. Only eight NFL teams have won successive Super Bowls, just five Major League Baseball teams have done it since 1936 and only six NBA teams since 1952. Montana is the only BSC team to get a shot at repeating when it followed its 1995 title with another appearance in the championship game in 1996 where its undefeated squad fell to Marshall.
Step one for the Bobcats is to identify just where they’re at, according to head coach Brent Vigen.
“We would’ve met as a team on January 14, which was our first day of classes,” Vigen said after his team returned to Bozeman from its 35-34 overtime national championship win over Illinois State. “And it was just making that reality, saying, ‘hey last year – one year ago – we sat in these chairs, and it was a little easier to be motivated by what had just happened from a failure perspective.’
“Now we’re on the other side of that. So, how do we get motivated from success? It’s recognizing that it’s not just about the end result. It’s how did we get there? And really being able to lean into ‘hey, last year or any previous years, it’s really about this is a new team going back to square.’ There are things we’ll get to enjoy because of what we just did, but this has got to be about going back to work and doing all the things we’ve done year after year to put us in position to be our best.”
Certainly, the Bobcats would be excused if they were to just want to take a victory lap after winning the school’s first football title since 1984. It was the first title for a BSC team since 2010 when Eastern Washington won it all and the first by any Montana college since that same season when Carroll College did it in the NAIA division.
One of the trademarks of Vigen’s teams at MSU has been its ability to find a way to get motivated to be better. While the year-by-year overall record doesn’t show it, the Bobcats have become a stronger, more physical team since Vigen’s arrival. They’ve become the undisputed top team in the league over the past two years. They’ve steadily progressed until finally achieving the pinnacle of the FCS.
Now the job at hand is to try to stay on top.
External motivators are out there as well. MSU has a chance to be the first BSC team to win back-to-back national titles and win an unprecedented fourth national title as a BSC team.
“This first six days we’ve been all systems go as far as our view and forward mindset,” Vigen said. “We talked way back in January that we’ve become the ’26 team but there’s going to be times here and there that we’ll celebrate the ’25 team. That’s great and we have to really appreciate those opportunities while not losing sight of who we are. That’s a new team. That’s a new cast of characters. Back to square one as far as being 0-0.
“(The trip to Washington D.C.) was a lot. You kind of adjust your first (practice) day essentially, which was going to be Wednesday for us and that became our day in D.C., so we crammed some meetings in and you think about all we did in a three day window of traveling that distance. Then an opportunity to go to the White House, all the players go through the Oval Office, and go have lunch at the Senate office building.
“That trip seems like it was about a month ago, because you get into football and these are our long days, but our guys have really been on task so far.”
Shifting gears from that trip to practice was noteworthy for defensive end Zac Crews.
“The main focus was to soak it all in but to always have a forward mindset,” Crews said. “Knowing that we’re going to have a target on our back and we’re going to have t prove what we did last year and that it wasn’t a fluke and that we’re going to go do it
again.”
Crews feels that the motivating factor for MSU in 2026 is simple.
“Honestly, just getting the job done,” Crews said. “Not a lot of teams get to finish the year with a win, especially on that stage. Each year the goal is to end the season on a win, so that’s the motivation I have.”
But for the Bobcats to keep it real in terms of playing to the best of their abilities, their tried-and-true mantra of taking workouts and practicing one repetition at a time is the one that as Vigen said, ‘makes being motivated a reality.’ There are other motivators for the Bobcats.
“Everyone is trying to do the best they can and earn a starting spot and at the same time I feel like I have a pretty big chip on my shoulder this year,” linebacker Bryce Grebe said. “Felt like these last couple years I’ve played and whatever, but what have I done? I haven’t done anything. I haven’t been All-American or whatever, so I feel like I still have a lot to prove for myself and I feel like that keeps me motivated. All I have to do is ask myself, ‘what have I done?’ and then I get motivated. I also feel like this is the best season going in and I’m the most prepared and ready as I’ve ever been.”
The Bobcats, like every team that finds themselves on top, need to avoid getting too high on their previous accomplishments. Resting on their laurels, instead of looking for new goals have knocked down many teams.
MSU has had to handle a lot of adversity since beating South Dakota in the 2025 national semifinals to gain a trip to the championship with an undefeated record. The Bobcats got off to a slow start in the championship yet still had a shot at beating North Dakota State only to fall short 35-32.
The next season they had to open up the season at perennial FBS powerhouse Oregon in what looked like and was a sure loss. They followed that with another loss in their Gold Rush game to South Dakota State in double-overtime. It was the only time MSU has lost three straight games since Vigen took over in 2021 and the three losses are 25% of the losses it has endured under Vigen.
When unseeded Illinois State knocked out No. 1 seed NDSU it looked like the coast was clear for MSU and they eased through their playoff slate only to find those very Redbirds waiting for them in Nashville. The Bobcats led by 14 points for most of the game only to find themselves needing a trio of unlikely, clutch plays (a blocked field goal, a blocked extra point and a touchdown on fourth-and-10) to eke out the win.
Senior cornerback Takhari Carr has a good feel for where his team is and what it can accomplish. He also looks at MSU’s championship game when the Bobcats gave up 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter as another big motivator.
“We understand that game shouldn’t have been as close as it was,” Carr said. “We took our foot off the pedal. That experience was for the better because now the next time we’re in that position, we know to keep that foot on their throat. Crunch time is when you need to be in the right spot the most.”
The quest of repeating officially begins on August 29 at Utah Tech.
