BILLINGS — Leon Costello got the call on May 24. And in the complicated and convoluted realm of college football scheduling, it was very unwelcome news.

On the other end of the line was Stephen F. Austin’s new athletic director, Michael McBroom, calling to let Montana State’s ninth-year AD know that he was breaking the home-away agreement the schools had. The first game is scheduled for Sept. 14 at Bobcat Stadium.

“They basically told me they were going to terminate the contract,” Costello recalled this week. “It’s the end of May and we’re going to be playing football in about three months. So there’s a bit of a panic.”

Home football games and the revenue they generate are the financial lifeblood of Montana State. The same is true for Montana down the road. The Cats and Griz need six home games per season to meet and fulfill their athletic budgets.

So the Stephen F. Austin snafu was a problem for the Cats. It left them with just five home games for the 2024 season — which was fast approaching.

“Giving someone three months to find a game, that’s really, really hard,” Costello said.

“I was frustrated. Really frustrated. The game had been on the schedule for five years. The timing was bad. But one of the things we’ve done best here over the last few years is when things don’t go your way, you try to turn them into a chance.”

In case of emergency, MSU adapted it.

This Saturday, the Bobcats host Mercyhurst, a first-year FCS program out of Erie, Pa. The Lakers compete in the Northeast Conference and begin a four-year NCAA Division I reclassification period.

They too wanted to add a game to their schedule and were happy to fill the vacated spot of Stephen F. Austin.

This week was originally supposed to be the first of two byes for the Bobcats in their 12-game, 14-week regular season. Instead, MSU was inactive last week. Saturday’s game against Mercyhurst starts at 1 p.m. in Bozeman.

Costello said Stephen F. Austin paid MSU a $150,000 buyout for terminating their original contract. For the two games with Mercyhurst, MSU will pay the Lakers a total of $275,000, Costello said.

Notably, MSU got help filling the open date for this season from Dave Brown, the developer and founder of the scheduling software Gridiron, which athletic departments across the country use to manage the complexities of putting together schedules.

According to Costello, Brown’s help to MSU was twofold.

“One of the reasons we were able to get this game was because we were approached earlier in the summer by (Brown) on behalf of Drake to move our scheduled game against Drake, which was supposed to take place in 2025, to 2027,” Costello said.

“As part of that, he had a replacement game for us, which was Mercyhurst (for 2025). And I said I’d be open to that. I had no idea it would pay dividends when this scenario with Stephen F. Austin came up. Obviously, we needed a game in ’24, and Mercyhurst as well.

“So we reached out to them again and they were more than willing to look at it and we came to an agreement. That’s what allowed us to move so quickly and schedule them for this week.”

Costello had suspected something was amiss with Stephen F. Austin in the spring when a member of the Lumberjacks’ football staff canceled the team’s reservations at a Bozeman hotel. When McBroom called, Costello’s suspicions were confirmed and the game was canceled.

Five days later, SFA announced it had accepted a bid to rejoin the Southland Conference as a full-time member beginning this year. It will spend 2023-24 in the FCS United Athletic Conference, a merger of the WAC and Atlantic Sun.

In the long run, the cancellation of Stephen F. Austin turned out to be a good thing for the Bobcats.

MSU’s return trip to Nacogdoches, Texas, to play SFA was scheduled for Sept. 13, 2025. But with that off the table, the Bobcats have the opportunity to add a seventh home game for 2025, which will be a matchup against San Diego of the Pioneer Football League on Sept. 13 of next year. Mercyhurst is scheduled to visit again on Sept. 20.

MSU’s other home games in 2025, as announced by the school on Tuesday, are South Dakota State (Sept. 6), Eastern Washington (Sept. 27), Idaho State (Oct. 11), Weber State (Nov. 8) and UC Davis (Nov. 15).

It’s the Bobcats’ first seven-game regular season home game since 2014 and helps offset the $275,000 Montana State is paying Mercyhurst for the back-to-back trips to Bozeman.

“We definitely made some lemonade out of the lemons that we were given,” Costello said. “You just don’t want to be in that position, but I think we’ve gotten to a positive space given the circumstances.”

With an overall record of 3-0 so far this year and the No. 3 ranking in the FCS Top 25 poll, the Bobcats are off to a strong start, including a valuable win over FBS New Mexico in Week 0.

This week’s Mercyhurst game also gives MSU a chance to move into the Big Sky Conference at 4-0.

“I think this year has probably gone as well as we could have hoped for,” Costello said. “The coaches are learning a lot about this team, and hopefully we can get through this week and hopefully put a W on the board, and then we’ll look ahead to conference play … I think non-conference has worked out about as well as we could have hoped for Big Sky play.”