Analysis

Need for indoor facilities more pressing than ever in Montana

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The illusion of a spring football season set to start in the dead of winter is quickly becoming a reality around the Big Sky Conference, at least for now.

Several school around the league are set to begin their spring semesters later this month (some Big Sky schools are on a quarters system) and can in turn begin practicing football in preparation for a football schedule that is tentatively set to begin on February 27.

Classes at Montana State University are set to begin on January 11. Classes start at the University of Montana the following Monday, January 18.

A typical “fall camp” schedule leading up to the first game of the football season lasts 29 practices, sessions taking place over the course of roughly one calendar month. If the Bobcat football team wants to replicate a similar schedule, MSU will have to practice 29 times in the span of 47 days. Montana will have to get those 29 practices completed over the span of 40 days.

Questions about the opportunity both Montana head coach Bobby Hauck and Montana State head coach Jeff Choate’s will get to adequately prepared their teams while enduring the inconsistent, often extreme winter season that comes from living in the heart of the Rocky Mountains linger as an atypical season surrounded by skepticism fast approaches.

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Main photo of Bobcat Athletic Complex courtesy of Rex Connell – Martell Construction.

Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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