Montana State tops FCS football budgets with $13.3 million in FY25

Montana State did more than edge the FCS budget race. It blew it open, posting a FY25 football operating budget of $13,377,782 and leaving the rest of the subdivision chasing a number that now looks closer to the lower end of the FBS than the top of the FCS.

That total, which maps to the 2024 football season, put Montana State well ahead of Sacramento State at $10,126,064 and Tarleton State at $9,415,847. South Dakota State followed at $9,124,858, William & Mary checked in at $8,965,483 and Montana was sixth at $8,889,687. The gap at the top matters because these budgets are not abstract accounting lines. They cover scholarships, coaching salaries, travel, equipment and stadium or facility debt, the basic ingredients of a program trying to buy competitive margin.

The Bozeman school’s jump was the eye-opener. Montana State increased football spending by $4,530,140 from FY24, when it sat at $8,847,642, to its FY25 figure of $13,377,782. That kind of year-over-year rise does not happen by accident, and it is the kind of spike that can reshape a title race. South Dakota State led the FCS in FY24 at $9,620,366, but Montana State’s new number pushed it past the Jackrabbits and into first by a wide margin.

The spending also underlines how sharply the FCS is tilting upward. Montana State’s FY25 budget was larger than 20-plus FBS programs, including Northern Illinois, Wyoming and UTEP, a reminder that the old budget hierarchy is getting harder to trust. It also sits in a strange middle ground with Akron and ULM in the comparison mix, proof that some FCS powers are already operating in the same financial neighborhood as the bottom rung of the Football Bowl Subdivision.

That crossover will matter even more with Sacramento State and North Dakota State moving to the FBS in 2026. Their spending levels are not just FCS trivia now; they are a preview of how expensive the jump can be and how much separation there still is between the haves and the have-nots. Montana State’s own budget process also shows this is not a loose estimate. The university submits operating budget reports each year to the Commissioner of Higher Education and the Board of Regents for review and expense evaluation, which means the number sits inside a larger institutional spending plan. In a subdivision where money is increasingly a roster tool, Montana State just showed how fast an ambitious budget can change the power map.