2012 Montana State Bobcats football team

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Ranking
Sports Network	No. 2
FCS Coaches	No. 2

2012 Big Sky Conference football standings
v t e
Team	W		L	W		L
No. 4 Eastern Washington +^	7	–	1	11	–	3
No. 5 Montana State +^	7	–	1	11	–	2
No. 12 Cal Poly +^	7	–	1	9	–	3
No. 20 Northern Arizona	6	–	2	8	–	3
Sacramento State	4	–	4	6	–	5
Northern Colorado	4	–	4	5	–	6
Southern Utah	4	–	4	5	–	6
North Dakota	3	–	5	5	–	6
Montana	3	–	5	5	–	6
UC Davis	3	–	5	4	–	7
Portland State	2	–	6	3	–	8
Weber State	2	–	6	2	–	9
Idaho State	0	–	8	1	–	10

$ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Rankings from The Sports Network poll

The 2012 Montana State Bobcats football team represented Montana State University in the 2012 NCAA Division I FCS football season. The Bobcats were led by sixth-year head coach Rob Ash and played their home games at Bobcat Stadium. They were a member of the Big Sky Conference. They finished the season 11–2, 7–1 in Big Sky play to share the conference championship with Cal Poly and Eastern Washington. The received an at–large bid into the FCS playoffs where they defeated Stony Brook in the second round before falling to Sam Houston State in the quarterfinals. It was the second straight year the Bobcats were knocked out of the playoffs by Sam Houston State.

Schedule

|- ! colspan=8 | Non-Conference Schedule

August 307:05 PMChadron State*No. 4

Max Media/Big Sky TVW 33–6 20,767 September 85:05 PMat Drake*No. 4

W 34–24 3,558 September 151:35 PMNo. 23 Stephen F. Austin*No. 3

Bobcat Stadium
Bozeman, MT

Max Media/Big Sky TVW 43–35 17,147

|- ! colspan=8 | Conference Schedule

September 222:05 PMNorthern ColoradoNo. 2

Bobcat Stadium
Bozeman, MT

Max Media/Big Sky TVW 41–16 18,637 September 291:35 PMat Southern UtahNo. 2

RTNW ^[1]W 24–17 8,417 October 65:05 PMat UC DavisNo. 2

RTNWW 48–41 9,877 October 131:35 PMNo. 6 Eastern WashingtonNo. 2

Bobcat Stadium
Bozeman, MT

RTNWL 24–27 20,477 October 272:05 PMNorth DakotaNo. 4

Bobcat Stadium
Bozeman, MT

Max Media/Big Sky TVW 55–10 17,137 November 35:05 PMat Sacramento StateNo. 3

RTNWW 20–17 7,143 November 101:35 PMPortland StateNo. 2

Bobcat Stadium
Bozeman, MT

RTNWW 65–30 15,177 November 171:35 PMat MontanaNo. 2

RTNWW 16–7 26,210

|- ! colspan=8 | 2012 FCS Playoffs

December 15:00 PMNo. 10 Stony Brook*No. 2

Bobcat Stadium
Bozeman, MT (FCS Playoffs Second Round)

ESPN3W 16–10 15,257 December 76:00 PMNo. 5 Sam Houston State*No. 2

Bobcat Stadium
Bozeman, MT (FCS Playoffs Quarterfinals)

ESPN2L 16–34 16,417

Template:CFB Schedule End

Game summaries

Chadron State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Eagles	3	0	3	0	6
#4 Bobcats	6	13	7	7	33

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
2–1	2006	CHAD, 35–24

@ Drake

	1	2	3	4	Total
#4 Bobcats	7	7	7	13	34
Bulldogs	0	17	7	0	24

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
1–1	2010	MSU, 48–21

Stephen F. Austin

	1	2	3	4	Total
#23 Lumberjacks	10	10	3	12	35
#3 Bobcats	14	7	7	15	43

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
3–1	2005	MSU, 42–6

Northern Colorado

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bears	0	13	3	0	16
#2 Bobcats	21	10	7	3	41

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
16–11–1	2011	MSU, 31–21

@ Southern Utah

	1	2	3	4	Total
#2 Bobcats	7	7	3	7	24
Thunderbirds	0	7	0	10	17

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
2–0	2007	MSU, 7–3

@ UC Davis

	1	2	3	4	Total
#2 Bobcats	7	24	0	17	48
Aggies	14	0	24	3	41

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
1–1	2011	MSU, 38–14

Eastern Washington

	1	2	3	4	Total
#6 Eagles	0	3	10	14	27
#2 Bobcats	0	10	7	7	24

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
10–25	2011	MSU, 36–21

North Dakota

	1	2	3	4	Total
North Dakota	7	0	3	0	10
#4 Bobcats	14	14	7	20	55

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
15–13–1	1983	UND, 21–3

@ Sacramento State

	1	2	3	4	Total
#3 Bobcats	7	3	3	7	20
Hornets	3	7	7	0	17

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
14–6	2011	MSU, 31–21

Portland State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Vikings	7	3	10	10	30
#2 Bobcats	24	35	6	0	65

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
17–9	2011	MSU, 38–36

@ Montana

	1	2	3	4	Total
#2 Bobcats	3	7	3	3	16
Grizzlies	7	0	0	0	7

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
36–70–5	2011	MONT, 36–10

FCS Playoffs

Stony Brook–FCS Playoffs Second Round

	1	2	3	4	Total
#10 Seawolves	0	3	0	7	10
#2 Bobcats	7	3	3	3	16

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
First meeting

Sam Houston State–FCS Playoffs Quarterfinals

	1	2	3	4	Total
#5 Bearkats	3	17	7	7	34
#2 Bobcats	3	0	6	7	16

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
2–3	2011	SHS, 49–13

This is the second straight year the Bobcats and Bearkats have met in the FCS quarterfinals. Last years game was in Huntsville, Texas.

Ranking movements

Ranking movements
**Legend:** ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Final
Sports Network	4	4	3	2	2	2	2	5	4	3	2	2	2
Coaches	4	4	3	2	2	2	2	5	4	3	2	2	2

References

^ "DIRECTV Sports Networks and Big Sky Conference Announce Inaugural 2012 Football Schedule on ROOT SPORTS". Rootsports.com. Retrieved 2012-04-10.

[1] "DIRECTV Sports Networks and Big Sky Conference Announce Inaugural 2012 Football Schedule on ROOT SPORTS". Rootsports.com. Retrieved 2012-04-10.

[1]

v t e Montana State Bobcats football
Venues	Gatton Field (1930–1971) Van Winkle Stadium (1972) Bobcat Stadium (1973–present)
Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games Montana
Culture & lore	Spirit of the West Marching Band
People	Head coaches NFL draftees
Seasons	1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906–1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942–1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
National championship seasons in bold

v t e Big Sky Conference football champions
College Division / Division II	Idaho State (1963) Montana State (1964) Weber State & Idaho (1965) Montana State (1966) Montana State (1967) Idaho, Montana State, & Weber State (1968) Montana (1969) Montana (1970) Idaho (1971) Montana State (1972) Boise State (1973) Boise State (1974) Boise State (1975) Montana State (1976) Boise State (1977)
I-AA/FCS	Northern Arizona (1978) Montana State (1979) Boise State (1980) Idaho State (1981) Montana, Idaho, & Montana State (1982) Nevada (1983) Montana State (1984) Idaho (1985) Nevada (1986) Idaho (1987) Idaho (1988) Idaho (1989) Nevada (1990) Nevada (1991) Idaho & Eastern Washington (1992) Montana (1993) Boise State (1994) Montana (1995) Montana (1996) Eastern Washington (1997) Montana (1998) Montana (1999) Montana (2000) Montana (2001) Montana, Montana State, & Idaho State (2002) Montana State, Montana, & Northern Arizona (2003) Montana & Eastern Washington (2004) Eastern Washington, Montana State, & Montana (2005) Montana (2006) Montana (2007) Weber State & Montana (2008) Montana (2009) Montana State & Eastern Washington (2010) Montana State & Montana (2011) Eastern Washington, Montana State, & Cal Poly (2012) Eastern Washington (2013) Eastern Washington (2014) Southern Utah (2015) Eastern Washington & North Dakota (2016) Southern Utah & Weber State (2017) Eastern Washington, UC Davis, & Weber State (2018) Sacramento State & Weber State (2019) Weber State (2020) Sacramento State (2021) Montana State & Sacramento State (2022) Montana (2023)
National championships in bold