Sports

Montana Athletic Director Posts Private Emails To Expose Nevada Football’s Lies About $650K Snub

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iStockphoto / Marco Garcia-Imagn Images

Nevada football coach Jeff Choate said Montana refused to schedule.


The Nevada football team will face Montana State in Week 2 of its 2026 season. Head coach Jeff Choate insists that the Bobcats’ rival, Montana, was the initial target when making the schedule.

He says the Grizzlies were not interested in a trip to Reno. So, the spot was filled with the next closest option.

Montana’s athletic director rejected those claims in a post on social media. Kent Haslam suggests it was the Wolfpack that cut contact.

Nevada football will play Montana State.

The Wolfpack are fresh off a 49-14 win over Western Kentucky in the opener. They’ll continue through non-conference play before entering the Mountain West schedule in Week 4.

Next up is Montana State. The Bobcats are 2-0 with a pair of blowout wins over Butler and Utah Tech. They’ve outscored opponents 105-24 thus far.

It will present Nevada with a strong FCS foe after its head coach says the Wolfpack were snubbed by Montana.

Choate has been at Nevada for three seasons. He is 7-19 as a D1 coach. Prior to his stint in Reno, he was the head coach at Montana State.

The matchup sparked speculation of scheduling bias. Was he throwing his former school a bone?

The Bobcats will secure a payout for playing the buy game. Choate claimed that Montana turned down the opportunity to earn the paycheck first.

“I wanted to play Montana,” he said in the pregame presser. “They said they weren’t interested.”

Grizzlies AD Kent Haslam set out to expose Choate’s lies.

Montana athletic director posts receipts.

In 2024, communication between the two schools began. Nevada started the conversation. Interest was mutual, though Montana appeared to have a conflict with the year of the anticipated matchup as it was already in talks with another opponent.

The Grizzlies offered to schedule a future meeting. That request was not returned, according to Haslam.

Montana is not on any Nevada schedule through the year 2030. It does not appear that a future matchup will happen given the online spat.

In the email, Montana offered to swap an already scheduled home game for no less than $650,000. Haslam says his athletic department was then ghosted.

Nevada will, instead, pay $400,000 to Montana State for the 2026 contest. Montana says that was a Wolfpack decision. The Grizzlies did not snub Jeff Choate, regardless of what’s being said.

Haslam posted a private conversation to reject the narrative.