A bombshell sent shock waves all over the FCS on Wednesday morning. They are waves that powerhouses like Montana State, North Dakota State, South Dakota State, and South Dakota might just try to ride in the coming weeks. Montana coach Bobby Hauck — one of the premier coaches in the sport for over 20 years and the winningest coach in Big Sky Conference history — retired pretty much out of nowhere, notifying his athletic director at 8 p.m. on Tuesday night and holding a press conference on Wednesday morning. This comes just less than a couple months after his Grizzlies throttled the Jackrabbits (50-29) and Coyotes (52-22) in back-to-back weeks in the FCS Playoffs to reach the semifinals. The next week, in-state rival Montana State thrashed the Griz 48-23. While Montana would finish ranked among the top three FCS teams for the second time in three years, the semifinal loss to MSU was the third time in a row and sixth time in Hauck's eight-year second stint in Missoula the Bobcats beat Montana. A few weeks later, MSU won its first national title to throw salt into the Griz' wounds. The end of Hauck's final season is fitting — it was wild, dramatic, chaotic, triumphant yet turbulent. In 15 seasons wrapped around a disastrous five-year tenure at UNLV, Hauck was wildly prolific, guiding the Griz to eight Big Sky titles and four trips to the national championship game. But he went 0-4 in those finals. Born in Missoula and a U of M graduate, he is both a hometown hero and his own worst enemy. Because of the odd timing of the retirement, too late for the school to conduct a full-scale search for a long-term replacement, Hauck leaves his program in both the strong spot of a solidified Top 5 powerhouse, yet bridesmaid in its own state with an uncertain future. While Hauck's wide receivers coach Bobby Kennedy — never a head coach and never even a coordinator in a 35-year career mostly spent in the FBS — was named immediate successor, Montana athletic director Kent Haslam made no mention of a multi-year contract for Kennedy, only saying he and school leaders will assess the program's performance after the 2026 season to then decide about the head coaching position then. Although, oddly, Haslam said Kennedy would not be labeled "interim coach." And now, the vultures are circling Missoula. Soon, a special two-week portal window will open for Griz players who prefer to transfer, a window granted for schools who make head coaching changes. Had Hauck retired prior to the nationwide Jan. 2-16 window, this "coach leaving" window would not have opened. Ironically, Hauck mentioned in the presser that the nature of which college football is operated in the NIL/transfer portal era is the primary reason he is stepping out and vowing to never be a head coach again — a la the sentiments expressed last year by USD's Bob Nielson and in December by Kansas State's Chris Klieman in their retirement announcements. There is a lot to unpack. The Happy Hour host plays the highlights of the presser, then turns it over to a pair of Montana alumni guests who have a deep following and passionate fandom for the Griz. Former U of M receiver Samuel Akem, who played for Bobby Hauck just a few years ago and is now an analyst and podcaster for Skyline Sports in Montana, gave his reaction from Missoula. Drew Trafton, a veteran news reporter at WDAY-TV in Fargo and now content manager for Forum Communications (parent company for Sioux Falls Live), attended Montana during Hauck's tenure and gave a historical perspective on Hauck's legacy. Hint: Neither of these Griz fans are thrilled about the timing of Hauck's retirement, nor what lies ahead in its wake. Carrie Eighmey Happy Hour's other guest for Wednesday's show is an example of a coach who is embracing the transfer portal and making it work for her program. Last year, South Dakota women's basketball coach Carrie Eighmey led the Coyotes to an 11-20 record (5-11 in the Summit League) in her first season, mostly with players she inherited from her predecessor. The Nebraska native, adept at turning sagging programs into national tournament qualifiers (Hastings in NAIA, then Nebraska-Kearney in Div. II), drilled down on her roster, signing a slew of transfers from all over the country. All five of this season's starters and each of USD's top seven scorers came from another school, including point guard, leading scorer, and Denver transfer Angelina Robles, who led the Yotes to a 73-54 breakthrough win over three-time defending league champion South Dakota State on Saturday. There's a method to Eighmey's roster-building madness similar to Curt Cignett's at Indiana that led to a College Football Playoff national championship: Experience and fit. Four of those top seven players are seniors who have logged in multiple full seasons of college hoops from all levels. Eighmey does a deep dive into how and where she found all the players that have powered the Coyotes to a 16-7 record and 7-2 mark in the Summit League, good for second place with seven regular season games remaining. Hint: It wasn't willy nilly. Eighmey has "types" that fit her style, and she explains how the winning and chemistry have all come together in such a short time.

Montana coach Bobby Hauck — one of the premier coaches in the sport for over 20 years and the winningest coach in Big Sky Conference history — retired pretty much out of nowhere, notifying his athletic director at 8 p.m. on Tuesday night and holding a press conference on Wednesday morning. This comes just less than a couple months after his Grizzlies throttled the Jackrabbits (50-29) and Coyotes (52-22) in back-to-back weeks in the FCS Playoffs to reach the semifinals. The next week, in-state rival Montana State thrashed the Griz 48-23. While Montana would finish ranked among the top three FCS teams for the second time in three years, the semifinal loss to MSU was the third time in a row and sixth time in Hauck's eight-year second stint in Missoula the Bobcats beat Montana. A few weeks later, MSU won its first national title to throw salt into the Griz' wounds. The end of Hauck's final season is fitting — it was wild, dramatic, chaotic, triumphant yet turbulent. In 15 seasons wrapped around a disastrous five-year tenure at UNLV, Hauck was wildly prolific, guiding the Griz to eight Big Sky titles and four trips to the national championship game. But he went 0-4 in those finals. Born in Missoula and a U of M graduate, he is both a hometown hero and his own worst enemy. Because of the odd timing of the retirement, too late for the school to conduct a full-scale search for a long-term replacement, Hauck leaves his program in both the strong spot of a solidified Top 5 powerhouse, yet bridesmaid in its own state with an uncertain future. While Hauck's wide receivers coach Bobby Kennedy — never a head coach and never even a coordinator in a 35-year career mostly spent in the FBS — was named immediate successor, Montana athletic director Kent Haslam made no mention of a multi-year contract for Kennedy, only saying he and school leaders will assess the program's performance after the 2026 season to then decide about the head coaching position then. Although, oddly, Haslam said Kennedy would not be labeled "interim coach." And now, the vultures are circling Missoula. Soon, a special two-week portal window will open for Griz players who prefer to transfer, a window granted for schools who make head coaching changes. Had Hauck retired prior to the nationwide Jan. 2-16 window, this "coach leaving" window would not have opened. Ironically, Hauck mentioned in the presser that the nature of which college football is operated in the NIL/transfer portal era is the primary reason he is stepping out and vowing to never be a head coach again — a la the sentiments expressed last year by USD's Bob Nielson and in December by Kansas State's Chris Klieman in their retirement announcements. There is a lot to unpack. The Happy Hour host plays the highlights of the presser, then turns it over to a pair of Montana alumni guests who have a deep following and passionate fandom for the Griz.

Last year, South Dakota women's basketball coach Carrie Eighmey led the Coyotes to an 11-20 record (5-11 in the Summit League) in her first season, mostly with players she inherited from her predecessor. The Nebraska native, adept at turning sagging programs into national tournament qualifiers (Hastings in NAIA, then Nebraska-Kearney in Div. II), drilled down on her roster, signing a slew of transfers from all over the country. All five of this season's starters and each of USD's top seven scorers came from another school, including point guard, leading scorer, and Denver transfer Angelina Robles, who led the Yotes to a 73-54 breakthrough win over three-time defending league champion South Dakota State on Saturday. There's a method to Eighmey's roster-building madness similar to Curt Cignett's at Indiana that led to a College Football Playoff national championship: Experience and fit. Four of those top seven players are seniors who have logged in multiple full seasons of college hoops from all levels. Eighmey does a deep dive into how and where she found all the players that have powered the Coyotes to a 16-7 record and 7-2 mark in the Summit League, good for second place with seven regular season games remaining. Hint: It wasn't willy nilly. Eighmey has "types" that fit her style, and she explains how the winning and chemistry have all come together in such a short time.

Is Bad Bunny a bad idea for a Super Bowl halftime show? Well, who better to ask than two middle-aged white guys whose preferred genre is (shocker) rock 'n' roll? Actually, lots of people are better to ask, but you may be surprised to hear how Sioux Falls Live's Matt Zimmer and John Gaskins feel about the Grammy Award winning performer taking global TV's biggest stage of the year on Sunday. Will their thoughts on Summit League basketball, college sports tampering, and both the Vikings and Twins firing their general managers surprise you? Well, hit that play button and find out, bucko. Even if you don't, the two still talked over Tuesday afternoon libations at Gateway Lounge in Sioux Falls, and they talked as if nobody was listening anyway. That's kind of the premise of the five-year-old weekly show. Hence, the name "Nobody's Listening Anyway." Some micro-topics: * What do we make of Saturday's SCSC doubleheader in Vermillion — with the USD women beating SDSU for the first time since the Dawn Plitzuweit era four years ago, then the Coyote men's M*A*S*H unit taking first place North Dakota State to overtime? * Can the somewhat-middling Jackrabbits men and women make a February charge and/or a Summit League Tournament surge? * NDSU men's coach Dave Richman and Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney are finally speaking out about agents illegally "tampering" with their current players * How much is Kevin O'Connell to blame for the Vikings roster and quarterback busts of the past year that led to Kwesi Adofo-Mensah's firing? * Zim takes another swing at the pathetic Pohlad ownership of the Twins

Things have been shaken up in Summit League men's and women's basketball as teams brace for the final seven games of the conference slate. North Dakota State's men and women are both 9-0 and two games ahead of their closest contenders. On the women's side, the two contenders tied for second place are three-time defending champion South Dakota State and South Dakota. The Coyotes convincingly put another dent in the Jackrabbits armor on Saturday, two weeks after the Bison ended SDSU's 67-game conference win streak. How has USD risen from the ashes of a seventh place finish (5-11) last season to beat its in-state rival for the first time in eight games? Why are the Jacks as vulnerable as they have been since Dawn Plitzuweit stalked the USD bench? Happy Hour's host wrote about this in a recently-published Sioux Falls Live column. Summit League TV game analyst, a 15-year veteran who called Saturday's game, has his answers and puts a finger on the Bison dominance so far in 2025-26. Newitt also tries to make sense of the USD men taking NDSU to overtime, which is the Bison's closest threat to losing a league game so far. How are Coyotes remaining competitive (4-5 in league) without the services of several injured players, including leading scorer Isaac Bruns, who is out for the season with a foot injury? What can the Jackrabbits do to emerge from a scrap heap in the middle of the standings and look like the "team to beat" they often are in Sioux Falls come March? Meanwhile, the Minnesota Vikings and Minnesota Twins both fired their general managers on Friday. What does 28-year Minnesota Star Tribune sportswriter LaVelle Neal make of these moves, particularly a Vikings organization that has whiffed the last few drafts and has plenty of egg on their faces now that Sam Darnold — the quarterback they refused to pay $100 million to sign back — has led the Seahawks to the Super Bowl?

Things have been shaken up in Summit League men's and women's basketball as teams brace for the final seven games of the conference slate. North Dakota State's men and women are both 9-0 and two games ahead of their closest contenders. On the women's side, the two contenders tied for second place are three-time defending champion South Dakota State and South Dakota. The Coyotes convincingly put another dent in the Jackrabbits armor on Saturday, two weeks after the Bison ended SDSU's 67-game conference win streak. How has USD risen from the ashes of a seventh place finish (5-11) last season to beat its in-state rival for the first time in eight games? Why are the Jacks as vulnerable as they have been since Dawn Plitzuweit stalked the USD bench? How are Coyotes men remaining competitive (4-5 in league) without the services of several injured players, including leading scorer Isaac Bruns, who is out for the season with a foot injury? What can the Jackrabbits do to emerge from a scrap heap in the middle of the standings and look like the "team to beat" they often are in Sioux Falls come March? Happy Hour host John Gaskins answers in the Monday John-o-logue. Meanwhile, the Minnesota Vikings fired their GM on Friday. Was it the right move?