Our editor Kellyn Brown stumbled upon a story by ABC Montana that appears to signal some very bad news for sports fans at the University of Montana and Montana State University, particularly Griz football fans. The story, posted yesterday on ABC Montana’s Web site, states that Missoula and Bozeman will no longer be able to host postseason athletic events because of a 2008 rule that NCAA spokesperson Stacey Osburn describes this way: “Any session of an NCAA championship cannot be conducted in a metropolitan area where legal wagering is available for sports.”
Not only does this mean no playoff games in the future, but it also means the Grizzlies’ two home postseason football games against Texas State and Weber State should have never happened. The implications of this report are significant. The Grizzlies have hosted playoff football games every year for the past decade, according to the story.
“Montana has been flying under the radar. It’s an odd thing that nobody has been paying any attention to what type of gambling is allowed by the state,” Big Sky Conference Commissioner Doug Fullerton told ABC Montana.
According to the report:
In Montana, you can’t bet directly on the outcome of a game, but other forms of sports wagering are allowed. The state lottery runs a fantasy sports game for professional sports. Also legal are sports pools and sports tab games, found at bars across the state. In these, players are assigned random numbers right before a game, and winners are determined by the game’s score rather than the final outcome. As of now, the NCAA sees no difference between this type of wagering and betting directly on the outcome of a game.
The story is developing and I will continue to keep my eye on it. As of now, unless the rule is reviewed or interpreted differently by the NCAA Sportsmanship Committee in early June, it appears the state’s gambling laws will prevent any NCAA postseason events from behind held in Montana from now on.