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NDSU football will thrive in FBS because money talks, tradition walks
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- NDSU football will thrive in FBS because money talks, tradition walks
UPDATE: North Dakota State opened its FBS inaugural season with a comprehensive win over Jacksonville State in Week 0 of the 2026 college football season.
Let me see if I've got this straight, because I'm a little fuzzy on the particulars.
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The most successful FCS program in the modern era , and the third-largest oil producing state in the country have joined FBS football .
To this I say: What took so long?
North Dakota State has joined the Mountain West Conference in football beginning this fall, and if you're looking for some quick analysis, here it is: only Texas and New Mexico produce more oil than North Dakota, the black gold that can change everything in college sports.
Hello, private NIL.
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If there's one thing we've learned in this upside-down world of get yours, it's money talks and tradition walks.
North Dakota State Bison football runs out to the field for their semi-final game against the South Dakota State Jackrabbits on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, at Fargodome in Fargo, Nouth Dakota.
Indiana just won a national title . I still can't believe it, so I'm going to write it again: Indiana, lovable loser of Division I football for decades upon decades, found the perfect coach and won the whole thing.
And is now set up to take over the sport with an elite coach (Curt Cignetti), a billionaire booster ( Mark Cuban ) and the largest alumni base in college sports (800,000-strong).
Texas Tech, which never before won an outright major conference championship, won the Big 12 in 2025 with a school-record 12 wins. Only a quarterback playing with a broken leg kept the billionaire-fueled ― and black gold-infused ― Red Raiders from doing more damage in the College Football Playoff.
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Duke, my god, Duke, won the ACC with a $4 million-a-year quarterback . And Steve Spurrier wasn't the coach.
Why in God's green earth would North Dakota State not attempt to move up to FBS?
The Bison — that's pronounced Bizon , everyone — aren't competing against the Power conference heavyweights, they're competing against the rest of the Group of 6 for the one CFP charity spot.
That immediately changes the calculus of it all.
You're not banging heads with established programs, you're playing — ready for this? — Air Force, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Northern Illinois, San Jose State, UNLV, UTEP and Wyoming.
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I mean, really?
None of those nine teams would've won 10 of 15 FCS titles from 2011-2025. And more than likely, not more than one ― if that.
Four coaches (Craig Bohl, Chris Klieman , Matt Entz, Tim Polasek) won national titles at NDSU in that 15-year span, a line of succession that's almost unthinkable in this era of quick-change college football. The plan to win hasn't changed much from when Bohl built the beast, and Klieman perfected it.
They recruit players to fit their culture and system, and then develop them to reach their ceiling. Since 2020, eight NDSU players have been selected in the NFL draft.
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The 2025 national champion (that would be Indiana, everyone) had six. Six!
Vanderbilt had three, Duke had seven, and if you want me to continue this exercise in Power conference draft futility, we'll be here all damn day. Suffice to say, NDSU knows how to develop players.
Yet that point brings us to the intriguing intersection of culture and cash, the very thing that could dismantle what NDSU has worked so hard to build. Or make it even more dangerous.
Because if Polasek — an assistant for 10 years with the Bison before getting the job in 2024 and winning 26 of 29 games — can mold the valuable NDSU culture with a handful of impact starters from the transfer portal, this thing could get big. Quickly.
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Again, you're not reinventing the wheel, you're giving the hard-driving 18-wheeler a little more horsepower and a refined suspension with a handful of talented transfers. How do you get those transfers?
Oil money.
If Texas Tech can do it, NDSU sure can. Lubbock is in the middle of nowhere; at least Fargo is across the river from Minnesota.
Also, the middle of nowhere, but you get the point.
Money changes everything. It breathes life into recruiting efforts, and extends the arm of possibility. It can turn a wildly underrated college town into a hotbed of FBS college football.
Just like it did in Lubbock. Just like it will do in Fargo.
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It was only a matter of time before this inevitable happened. There was too much good going on at NDSU, and not enough challenge.
There's only so many times you can beat the brakes off everyone else, and still be satisfied to do it again the following season. Before the advent of NIL and free player movement, the climb to FBS made no sense for the team no one wanted to see on the nonconference body bag circuit.
NDSU has a 9-5 all-time record vs. FBS schools since beginning Division I play in 2004, including wins over Minnesota, Kansas State, Iowa and Iowa State. But think about this all-telling reality: the Bison have been playing FCS football for 21 years, and have been asked to play only 14 FBS guarantee games.
There was nothing to gain, and more than likely everything to lose for anyone playing NDSU. Now the FBS has to play them — at least, in the Mountain West.
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If things progress how NDSU has envisioned, the Power conferences will have to deal with Bison cash in the transfer portal, and in a perfect, oil-driven private NIL world, on the biggest stage of all in the CFP.
The most successful FCS program of our time, and the third-largest oil production state in the country teaming up in the new private NIL world of college football.
What took so long?
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB .
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NDSU football will thrive in FBS because money talks, tradition walks
