Part 1 of a 2-part article series from HERO Sports’ 1-on-1 interview with Montana State athletic director Leon Costello. Part 2 can be read here.
Leon Costello is measured when he talks about the future.
He does not dodge the big questions. He answers them without losing sight of what matters most to Montana State.
That is what makes his view of the athletic departments’ next chapter revealing.
Montana State is already operating from a position many departments would envy. Its football program has become one of the FCS’s standard-bearers, with regular playoff runs and national title appearances. Across the department, the Bobcats have added conference titles, all-sports trophies, and academic honors, while expanding facilities, staffing (over 20 new full-time roles since 2017), and revenue. The expectation now is to compete for championships.
And yet, when Costello talks about Montana State, he keeps returning to the same phrase.
“We’re absolutely not done at Montana State.”
That is the through line for what comes next in Bozeman.
For Costello, the future is not about sitting back and admiring what Montana State has become. It is about pressing forward on multiple fronts at once: facilities, staffing, student-athlete support, NIL, revenue sharing, and making sure every program feels like it has a real chance to compete for championships.
That is a particularly important point because Montana State’s success, in his view, is not supposed to be isolated to football. Football may drive the most revenue, and Costello is direct about the importance of that, but the goal is for the benefits of football’s success to flow outward across the department.
“When Bobcat Stadium is full on a Saturday and the football team is winning games, that is great for them,” Costello said of Montana State’s other athletic programs. “They also know the finances are going to trickle back to them as well.”
That understanding has helped shape a healthy internal culture. Coaches support football because they know what it means for the larger department. At the same time, they compete fiercely within their own sports because Montana State has built an environment where success in one program reinforces belief in another. Coaches share ideas. They compare notes. They ask each other how to handle difficult situations. The family feel, Costello described, is not just branding language. It is one of the ways Montana State has managed to sustain broad-based success rather than relying on a single flagship team to carry the whole identity.
Still, football remains central, especially when talking about what comes next financially.
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There are still renovations Costello wants to make to Bobcat Stadium. There are still investments to make on the NIL and revenue-sharing front. There are still ways he wants the department to mature operationally. And none of it happens without continued winning, continued sellouts, and continued momentum.
That brings up the obvious, bigger-picture question: if Montana State keeps winning at this level, does FBS eventually become part of the conversation?
Costello did not shut the door. He also did not force it open.
Given the timing of the conversation and the surrounding chatter about conference realignment, the question is unavoidable. Montana State is in a region where movement has occurred, and the ripple effects of changes elsewhere have been felt. But Costello’s answer was rooted less in labels and more in philosophy.
He said he wants to be in a place where winning is expected, not merely hoped for. He wants Montana State’s student-athletes and coaches in an environment where championships feel realistic across the board. Right now, Montana State is in a “very good place to do just that.”
“We have a home,” he said. “When you’ve got great programs, we’re always going to have a home.”
That line says a lot about how Montana State is approaching the future. Costello is not framing this as an institution that needs to jump at the next shiny opportunity just to prove ambition. The focus is on taking care of Montana State, continuing to build the department, and making the best decisions for the university and its athletic programs.
That does not mean ignoring the landscape. It means reading it without becoming consumed by it.
“We’re always going to keep an open eye on what’s going on around us,” Costello said. “There’s a lot of chatter … always.”
That same pragmatism showed up when the conversation turned to private equity in college sports, particularly at the FCS level and around the football playoffs.
At the moment, Costello said private equity does “not really change anything day to day for Montana State.” But he is open to ideas if they are rooted in improving the FCS championship experience.
That is the key distinction for him. The goal cannot simply be financial engineering for its own sake. The goal has to be making an already strong championship better for everyone involved.
And that, in Costello’s view, starts with a basic principle:
Winning should not hurt financially.
For a program like Montana State, which has repeatedly advanced deep into the FCS playoffs, postseason success is a point of pride. Hosting games is huge for the department, the fan base, and the Bozeman community. Home playoff games create atmosphere, create economic impact, and create a true home-field advantage. Montana State has embraced all of that.
But Costello also made clear that the current model carries real financial strain for some teams.
“I don’t want that championship to be a burden on any team or athletic department,” he said. “Winning should not be a financial deterrent.”
That may be the most important line in the entire future-facing conversation around Montana State.
Too often, fans see postseason football through the lens of the College Football Playoff, where money and media visibility live on a completely different scale. The FCS world does not work like that.
Schools must pay minimum bids to host playoff games regardless of their seed, guaranteeing payments of around $50,000 to $80,000 back to the NCAA. The NCAA also claims most of the ticket revenue (historically around 85%). As a result, schools can lose money hosting playoff games.
Deep playoff runs can be incredibly valuable competitively and emotionally, while also creating financial pressure for the institutions that make them. Costello’s point is that the system should better reward the very schools that help make the tournament a success, especially host institutions that stage games and bear most of the operational burden.
“It’s a great event for all involved, but there should be a closer look at how host institutions are supported so they can continue delivering a high-level championship experience,” Costello said.
That is where he sees room for change. Whether the solution comes through the NCAA, a new partnership model, or some form of private-equity involvement, Costello said he is open to listening. But the standard remains the same: does it make the championship better, and does it make winning more sustainable rather than more costly?
“As long as those conversations are rooted in making the championship better for everybody, then I’m open to listening to whatever the solution might be,” Costello said.
Montana State’s position is notable because it comes from a department successful enough to speak credibly about what the sport gets right and wrong.
The Bobcats are not commenting from the outside. They are living it in real time.
That is why Costello’s vision lands the way it does. It is ambitious without being reckless and open-minded without losing its footing.
Montana State is not done. Costello made that clear. There are more upgrades to make, more resources to build, and more ways to strengthen the student-athlete experience. There are more championships the Bobcats believe they can chase.
Whether that eventually leads to FBS is a question for another day. But if that moment comes, Montana State appears intent on meeting it from a position of strength.
For now, the path is simpler, even if it is not easy: keep winning, keep building, and make sure success at Montana State is more than a fleeting run.
Under Leon Costello, that has become the expectation.
