No doubt, problem just is Delaware had numerous possible landing spots thanks to its location, while Montana's only realistic path is to the Mountain West, which has never added a school in transition. Plus there needing to be 2 spots because the Montana schools either go together or stay together. This is basically Montana's best opportunity and I fear it may be their only opportunity for a long time. I've largely been content in the FCS, but that's because it was the second tier and I great preferred the FCS playoff system to hoping for some shitty bowl. Going forward I think the G5 is the new second tier, especially if they start their own playoff system. Status quo would effectively be a step down within a handful of years and I don't see a ton of paths opening up after this. I'm not delusional enough to think that Montana's roots in the old PCC means enough to get even the Pac-½ to so much as glance at such a small market, so it's the Mountain West or bust.
The WAC failing basically blocked any path western FCS programs had to move up until potentially this moment, and I have little doubt that the Mountain West is far more interested in poaching Texas/Louisiana teams than regional programs that'd fit the conference like a glove but don't come with a large TV market, or even the potential mid-major powers in the Dakotas.
It's frustrating because there's nothing Wyoming brings that Montana doesn't aside from the butterfly effect of one departing the Mountain States Conference for a conference that would go with 1-A distinction 15 years after the fact, while the other left the Mountain States Conference for a conference that would go with 1-AA distinction 15 years later.
