Looking forward to 2025 Think about the size of the Montana economy (#47 GDP in 2024). UM and MSU football are pretty big money in that state.
According to the AI fever dream overview I pulled up....UM alone contributes $94 million a year to the local economy. MSU probably less, but a substantial amount to Bozeman's local economy.
Bottom line is their football budgets are justified, for both the schools and their communities. I'm sure those programs are money makers across the board
For Davis, Poly and Sac...its literally just super expensive to have anything in this state.