Montana
No. 4 South Dakota vs. No. 1 Montana State: Preview, how to watch, updates
8:12 pm, December 15, 2024
Here’s how to watch the 2024 FCS semifinal game between South Dakota and Montana State:
8:11 pm, December 15, 2024
Here are some of the top storylines and players to watch entering this year’s FCS semifinal game between South Dakota and Montana State.
Storylines
- How they got here
- South Dakota ended the regular season with plenty of momentum after knocking off North Dakota State in a top-five matchup. Once the postseason started, the Coyotes rallied past Tarleton State in an explosive second-round win before beating UC Davis without ever trailing in the quarterfinals.
- Montana State has dominated the competition all season long as the only undefeated team remaining in the FCS. The Bobcats haven’t played a close game in the playoffs after averaging 50.5 points scored and a 32.5 margin of victory in two games.
- Past matchups
- Montana State and South Dakota have only met once in the two program’s histories. The Bobcats won the lone matchup in 2008, 37-18.
- Coaching
- Two Coaches of the Year will meet in the semifinals. Big Sky Coach of the Year Brent Vigen will face MVFC Coach of the Year Bob Nielson. Vigen was also named the Eddie Robinson Award winner as the FCS coach of the year.
- What’s at stake
- South Dakota is in uncharted territory making its first-ever semifinal appearance. It’s only the fourth FCS playoff season in Coyote history. Meanwhile, Montana State is still chasing its 1984 FCS championship. The Bobcats have only made one return to the title game since (2021), the first year of the Brent Vigen-Tommy Mellott era.
Players to Watch
Here are some players to watch from South Dakota
- MVFC Offensive Player of the Year: DL Mi’Quise Grace
South Dakota All-MVFC Players
- 1st Team | RB Charles Pierre Jr.
- 1st Team | FB Travis Theis
- 1st Team | OL Joey Lombard
- 1st Team | TE JJ Galbreath
- 1st Team | DL Nick Gaes
- 1st Team | DL Mi’Quise Grace
- 1st Team | DB Dennis Shorter
- 2nd Team | OL Joe Cotton
- 2nd Team | OL Bryce Henderson
- 2nd Team | DL Blake Holden
- 2nd Team | LB Gary Bryant III
- 2nd Team | DB Mike Reid
Here are some players to watch from Montana State
- Big Sky Offensive Player of the Year: QB Tommy Mellott
- Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year: DL Brody Grebe
- Big Sky Freshman of the Year: RB Adam Jones
Montana State All-Big Sky Players
- 1st Team | QB Tommy Mellott
- 1st Team | RB Scottre Humphrey
- 1st Team | FB Rohan Jones
- 1st Team | OL Marcus Wehr (unanimous)
- 1st Team | OL Conner Moore
- 1st Team | DL Brody Grebe (unanimous)
- 1st Team | LB McCade O’Reilly
- 1st Team | DB Rylan Ortt
- 1st Team | PR Taco Dowler
- 2nd Team | OL Titan Fleischmann
- 2nd Team | OL Cole Sain
- 2nd Team | DL Paul Brott
- 2nd Team | LB Danny Uluilakep
- 2nd Team | DB Andrew Powdrell
- 2nd Team | P Brendan Hall
8:10 pm, December 15, 2024
South Dakota was ranked No. 3 and Montana State was ranked No. 1 in the FCS Coaches Poll and the Coyotes were ranked No. 4 and the Bobcats No. 1 in the STATS Perform Poll to close the regular season. Here’s how the programs stack up based on this season’s results.
| South Dakota | 2024 STATs | Montana State |
|---|---|---|
| 11-2 (7-1) | Record (Conf) | 14-0 (8-0) |
| No. 3 | FCS Coaches rank | No. 1 |
| No. 4 | FCS STATS Perform rank | No. 1 |
| 37.2 | Points per game | 41.3 |
| 16.6 | Points allowed | 17.0 |
| 441.9 | Yards per game | 496.1 |
| 219.8 | Pass yards per game | 187.6 |
| 222.2 | Rush yards per game | 308.5 |
| 312.5 | Yards allowed per game | 285.2 |
| 204.5 | Pass yards allowed per game | 181.0 |
| 107.9 | Rush yards allowed per game | 104.2 |
| QB Aidan Bouman 2,723 yds, 19 TDs, 4 INT |
Passing leader | QB Tommy Mellott 2,256 yds, 26 TDs,1 INT |
| RB Charles Pierre Jr. 1,187 yds, 15 TDs |
Rushing leader | RB Scottre Humphrey 1,325 yds, 14 TDs |
| WR Carter Bell 50 rec, 753 yds, 4 TDs |
Receiving leader | TE Rohan Jones 27 rec, 451 yds, 8 TDs |
| LB Gary Bryant III 101 tkl, 3 tfl, 2 int |
Defense | DL Brody Grebe 33 tkl, 9 sk, 7.5 tfl |
8:10 pm, December 15, 2024
Ye (the artist formerly known as Kanye West) is facing yet another lawsuit over allegations of unlicensed sampling — only this time, it’s centered on a video clip of the rapper’s infamous 2013 fight with paparazzi.
In a case filed Wednesday (July 15) in Los Angeles federal court, the celebrity news agency Bauer-Griffin claims that Ye, French Montana (Karim Kharbouch) and others used audio from the headline-grabbing incident in “Where They At,” released in 2024 off French’s Mac & Cheese 5.
The May 2013 video, which also features a pregnant Kim Kardashian, shows West charging at a photographer outside a Los Angeles restaurant and shouting “don’t take no photos” and a string of profanities: “All of you m*therf*ckers stop it, man!”
The clip appears prominently in the intro to Montana’s song — a use that the lawsuit calls “blatant and willful” copyright infringement.
“Given Mr. Ye’s history of numerous confrontations with paparazzi, the video was highly newsworthy,” the agency’s lawyers write in legal documents obtained and first reported by Billboard. “Listeners immediately recognized the audio sample that begins the infringing record as being copied from the video.”
Ye has been sued over a dozen times for allegedly using unlicensed samples and interpolations in his music, including a high-profile battle with Donna Summer. In May, he lost a jury trial over using an uncleared sample in an early version of the Grammy-winning “Hurricane” from Donda. He had testified at trial that he’s “very generous” about giving credit and compensation when it’s due, but that “a lot of people try to take advantage of me.”
In Wednesday’s complaint, Bauer-Griffin says the creators of “Where They At” showed no such respect to its rights in the video of the paparazzi incident, using it despite being well aware that sound recordings must be licensed when any amount is directly sampled into a song.
“In the music industry, copyrights are prevalent and well understood,” lawyers for the agency write. “Every defendant knew that they needed to have but did not have permission to use the audio sample.”
Reps for both stars did not immediately return requests for comment. The lawsuit also names as defendants producers Dem Jointz (Dwayne Abernathy Jr.) and BoogzDaBeast (Jahmal Gwin), as well Gamma, the label that released the song, and its distribution unit Vydia.
The confrontation at issue in Wednesday’s lawsuit was one of two high-profile scuffles with paparazzi that year for the rapper, who was then still known as Kanye West. Two months later, he clashed with photographer Daniel Ramos outside of LAX, resulting in a civil assault lawsuit that the star eventually settled two years later on the eve of trial.
As many celebrities have learned over the years, simply appearing in a photo or video does not give someone any legal rights to it. Ownership of such material is always retained by the creator — an inconvenient fact that has sparked lawsuits against Jennifer Lopez, Miley Cyrus and Dua Lipa.
It’s unclear who filmed the May 2013 incident, which happened outside a Beverly Hills restaurant minutes after the star had also been filmed accidentally banging his head into a signpost while trying to avoid other photographers. But the rights to the footage have been owned by Bauer-Griffin from the beginning: When TMZ first posted it at the time, it came with a watermark crediting the agency.
“The infringing record has been widely distributed on various streaming platforms, in flagrant violation of plaintiff’s exclusive rights under copyright laws,” Bauer-Griffin’s attorneys write. “Plaintiff brings these claims to vindicate those rights.”
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