El_Gato wrote:OK, grizlaw, now you're starting to embellish pretty well here. First of all, the Griz have played Stanford four times, losing all 4 (doesn't qualify as "all those years"). Yes, you played BYU a number of times (16), mainly when you both were in the Mountain States conference in the 50's.
BUT, you've also got a history littered with Carroll College, MT Tech, Gonzaga, Whitman, Intermountain Union (?), the Anaconda Anodes (??), and the Butte Centervilles (???).
I'm afraid your claim that the Griz would have had "a title run or two of their own" is pure (BS) speculation on your part and you have ZERO basis for making that claim.
Since 1963, both the Bobcats and Grizzlies have been members of the Big Sky Conference and although we (both) moved from Division II to Division I-AA, we've competed against the same conference foes since then.
Of course the claim that the Griz might have won a title or two if they had played in the Cats' league prior to 1963 is speculation; I think that's self-evident from the nature of the claim, isn't it? If I could make such a claim and
not be speculating, I don't know what I'd be doing for a living, but it would be something much more lucrative than practicing tax law.
I thought the Griz had played Stanford more than four times. I guess I don't quite remember who the members of that conference were; all I remember is that the conference was made up largely of current Pac-10 and MWC teams. Regardless, though, I think we can agree on my primary point,
i.e., that the Griz played in a much tougher conference than the Cats did prior to 1963, can we not?
My point in stating all of this isn't to argue that the Griz's history is on par with these other programs or to diminish anything that Cats did, but rather, to put the earlier years of the series in the proper perspective. If you want to compare the relative histories of UM and MSU, you do have to acknowledge that they weren't playing at the same level for quite a few years. That fact kind of cuts both ways in the debate; on the one hand, every win by the Cats during that time period is a win over a program at a higher level. On the other hand, though, it's hard to hold the fact that the Griz didn't have a lot of success during those years against them in terms of deciding which program has a more storied history, since the Cats probably would have fared no better had they been at UM's level.
--GL
I work as an attorney so that I can afford good scotch, which helps me to forget that I work as an attorney.
Couldn't stand seeing the younger sibling succeed I guess 
