Can North Dakota State carry its winning pedigree to FBS?
FARGO, N.D. — On the jap fringe of North Dakota, pressed towards the Minnesota border and surrounded by lots of of miles of flat, open prairie, Fargo has lengthy existed in relative seclusion, identified for its punishing winters.
But over the previous 20 years, it has turn into residence to school soccer’s most dominant dynasty.
Beginning in 2011, North Dakota State received 10 FCS nationwide championships in 14 seasons below 4 totally different head coaches. As the Bison rose, the Fargodome — an 18,000-seat indoor stadium that opened in 1992 — turned one of many loudest and most intimidating environments within the subdivision.
Eventually, all that winning got here with a value.
The Bison turned so good that FBS groups have been more and more unwilling to schedule them. During the summer season, coaches would run into followers round city already speaking about their subsequent journey to Frisco, Texas — web site of the FCS nationwide championship sport — as if one other look have been inevitable.
Winning an excessive amount of is not a typical path to apathy, however over the previous few years crowds on the Fargodome had thinned. It had all turn into routine. NDSU had outgrown the extent it had spent years dominating.
At the identical time, different FCS applications stored transferring up. Recent offseasons introduced new rounds of hypothesis about when the Bison would do the identical. For a lot of the 2025 season, there was little purpose to suppose the speedy future can be any totally different.
NDSU went unbeaten throughout the common season earlier than a surprising 29-28 playoff loss to Illinois State. Then got here the standard roster churn: gamers left, others arrived and one other recruiting class had signed.
Then, on Feb. 6, reviews surfaced that NDSU was shut to becoming a member of the Mountain West.
Quarterback Nathan Hayes was skeptical.
“We’re kind of reading those Tweets like, this is just the same old thing,” he stated.
Then got here a textual content calling the gamers to a Sunday staff assembly.
Inside the Fargodome, athletic director Matt Larsen and coach Tim Polasek confirmed it: North Dakota State was transferring to the FBS.
“It was a big uproar,” Hayes stated. “Everybody was on their feet jumping, clapping, just thankful for the opportunity.”
The transfer was the fruits of twenty years of progress at NDSU and a school soccer panorama that had shifted in its favor. It additionally created a check: Whether the tradition and developmental mannequin that made the Bison the FCS commonplace can survive at a costlier, extra unstable stage of the game.
NORTH DAKOTA STATE had made this type of leap earlier than.
Long earlier than the FCS dynasty, the Bison have been already one of many dominant applications in small-college soccer. NDSU was voted the NCAA College Division nationwide champions in 1965, 1968 and 1969, then received 5 Division II playoff titles between 1983 and 1990.
By the early 2000s, although, college president Joe Chapman wished extra.
He wished to increase NDSU’s nationwide profile and believed athletics might assist. Moving the athletics division from Division II to Division I turned a part of that imaginative and prescient, with soccer enjoying in what was then Division I-AA, now referred to because the Football Championship Subdivision.
There was loads of skepticism about whether or not NDSU was prepared to make the soar.
“People up in the upper Midwest, they’re hardworking, modest people,” stated Craig Bohl, who arrived as soccer coach in 2003, simply because the transition was starting. “But the double-edged sword is sometimes they become so modest they don’t know what they can become. And so the challenge was convincing the naysayers that we’re capable of making this transition.”
Even Chapman had moments of uncertainty.
Chapman got here to see Bohl the evening earlier than NDSU performed at Montana. Montana was a longtime FCS energy, and Bohl remembered the president being “white as a ghost.”
“Can we just keep this thing close?” Chapman requested him.
Bohl had a special concept.
“Well, Joe, we’re fixing to win this deal,” he advised him.
NDSU did, beating the Grizzlies 25-24.
Under the NCAA guidelines in place on the time, NDSU was ineligible for the FCS playoffs throughout its reclassification interval.
“It was five years,” Bohl stated. “It was purgatory.”
Without a postseason, that transition interval made it troublesome for the followers to totally embrace the transfer.
“Our fans used to come to the Fargodome. It was like a Lutheran church,” Bohl stated. “It was quiet. They’d sit down, it was half full.”
Then, in 2006, the Bison made the 240-mile trek to Minneapolis and practically beat Minnesota, shedding 10-9 when a possible winning area aim was blocked as time expired. Thousands of NDSU followers traveled to Minneapolis and watched their staff go toe-to-toe with a Big Ten opponent. When they returned to Fargo, Bohl stated, one thing had shifted.
“It was a cultural change that we can seek higher ground,” Bohl stated.
NDSU lastly reached the FCS playoffs in 2010, its third season of postseason eligibility. A yr later, the Bison received their first FCS nationwide championship — and winning shortly turned greater than anybody coach.
Most school soccer dynasties are constructed and maintained by one or two coaches, however at NDSU, the wins stored piling up regardless of the teaching adjustments. Bohl received three straight titles earlier than leaving for Wyoming. Chris Klieman received 4 extra, then left for Kansas State. Matt Entz added two and is now the top coach at Fresno State. Current coach Tim Polasek received one other in his first season, in 2024.
“A lot of us coaches were along for the ride with some phenomenal players,” Klieman stated. “It was a player-driven program. I think that’s the secret sauce at North Dakota State.”
That mannequin additionally held up when NDSU performed above its stage.
From 2010 by way of 2016, the Bison received six straight video games towards FBS opponents — Kansas, Minnesota, Colorado State, Kansas State, Iowa State and then-No. 11 Iowa. After the Iowa win, NDSU was 9-3 towards FBS competitors. The Bison wouldn’t play one other FBS opponent for six years.
By then, NDSU had spent years proving it might beat groups from the extent above. The query was whether or not it might discover a manner to be part of them.
NDSU ATHLETIC DIRECTOR Matt Larsen’s introduction to the varsity got here in 2013. He was the athletics director at Stony Brook and consulting on the aspect when NDSU employed his agency to conduct an FBS feasibility examine. He spent a lot of the subsequent yr working with college officers on what a transfer would require.
Then NDSU athletic director Gene Taylor left in 2014. Larsen utilized for the place, bought the job and went from learning the query as a guide to being answerable for answering it.
His preliminary conclusion was simple: NDSU wasn’t prepared.
The soccer program had proven it might compete with FBS groups, however Larsen believed the services, staffing and infrastructure wanted to catch up. Over the subsequent decade, NDSU invested in these areas, culminating in a brand new indoor observe facility and efficiency middle.
By roughly 2023, the calculation had modified.
“We’re ready to do this now,” Larsen recalled considering. “If there’s an opportunity, we need to start being a little more aggressive.”
NDSU officers had explored varied prospects through the years, however transferring up required an invite from an FBS convention that made sense geographically, financially and institutionally.
Conference realignment dominoes had been falling for years, however they lastly tipped towards Fargo within the fall of 2024. That’s when Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State introduced they have been becoming a member of the Pac-12, forcing Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez to rebuild her league.
NDSU was an apparent college to contemplate.
But initially, the Mountain West was reluctant to contemplate faculties transferring up from the FCS.
Nevarez stated there have been political headwinds inside school soccer towards including extra FBS faculties. New members affected CFP income distributions, and the NCAA was nonetheless reviewing its reclassification guidelines. Plus, the price to transfer up had jumped from $5,000 to $5 million.
NDSU and the Mountain West had preliminary conversations roughly two years earlier than the transfer finally occurred. The Mountain West had 9 football-playing members and wished an excellent quantity. And in November 2025, Nevarez reached again out.
“From my perspective, North Dakota State was always on the board,” Nevarez stated.
Around the identical time, Larsen gave Polasek a intentionally imprecise replace about how conversations have been going. NDSU was undefeated and chasing one other nationwide championship whereas, behind the scenes, the potential for leaving the FCS was turning into more and more actual.
Still, Polasek put the percentages at solely 5 or 10%. NDSU had been linked to FBS conferences earlier than, and he did not need to assume something.
The Bison appeared effectively on their manner to FCS title No. 11 after they have been shocked by Illinois State. There was virtually nothing constructive in regards to the loss for Polasek, nevertheless it gave him and Larsen an opportunity to rally their greatest monetary supporters about an FBS transfer.
NDSU had been spending roughly $7 million to $8.5 million yearly on soccer. Larsen estimates the FBS model will value about $13 million to $15 million — when scholarships, further workers and participant income sharing are included.
Over a number of weeks in December and early January, Larsen stated NDSU acquired sufficient cash in donations and pledges to verify the transition was viable.
“It just kind of reaffirmed that, ‘Hey, this is the right decision. It’s the right time,'” Larsen stated.
But Polasek was drawing curiosity from different faculties. Larsen remembers the 2 of them sitting in a Fargo pizza place speaking by way of what Polasek’s contract would possibly appear to be if NDSU remained within the FCS — and what it’d appear to be if the Mountain West deal occurred.
At one level, Larsen made his pitch.
“I want you to bet on NDSU,” Larsen advised him.
If NDSU wasn’t within the FBS a yr later and that was finally the place Polasek wished to coach, Larsen advised him he would assist him get there.
Polasek stayed.
By the center of January, Larsen thought the MW transfer had turn into extra probably than not. But negotiations have been nonetheless transferring backwards and forwards over points such because the convention entry price, media rights distributions and whether or not NDSU would start FBS play instantly in 2026 or wait one other yr.
“There were days where, ‘Oh, this isn’t going to happen,'” Larsen stated. “And then the next day I’m like, ‘All right, I think we’re getting closer.'”
Ultimately, each side had the identical motivation.
“They wanted us and we wanted them,” Larsen stated. “How do we find a way to make this work?”
NDSU agreed to pay the Mountain West a $12.5 million entry price, with $7 million due up entrance and 5 annual funds of $1.1 million after that, with different provisions to guarantee NDSU remained suitably financially dedicated. That was as well as to the $5 million NCAA reclassification price required to transfer from FCS to FBS.
NDSU made the choice with the expectation it could not instantly be eligible for the postseason.
Four months later, the foundations modified.
In June, the NCAA eradicated the postseason ready interval for groups reclassifying from the FCS to the FBS, making NDSU instantly eligible for bowl video games and the College Football Playoff.
For this transition, there can be no purgatory.
THE MOUNTAIN WEST that NDSU joined barely resembles the convention that existed a number of years earlier.
Its 10 soccer members — Air Force, Hawai’i, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota State, Northern Illinois, San José State, UNLV, UTEP and Wyoming — give the league a footprint that stretches from DeKalb, Illinois, to Honolulu, Hawai’i.
For NDSU, that represents a dramatic enlargement of its soccer world and, with that, an unlucky trade-off.
North Dakota State and South Dakota State have performed 118 instances, making the Dakota Marker top-of-the-line rivalries within the FCS. With NDSU transferring to the Mountain West, the sequence — together with common video games towards North Dakota and South Dakota — is on hiatus.
Larsen stated NDSU plans to schedule an FCS opponent most seasons and can be open to bringing again one in every of its former Dakota rivals, although these video games would probably have to be performed in Fargo. (FBS groups virtually by no means play highway video games towards FCS opponents.)
If the lack of acquainted opponents was one value of the transfer, the rise in publicity was one in every of its clearest advantages.
Last season, the Bison had one regular-season sport on nationwide tv. This yr, 10 of their 12 video games are scheduled for nationwide tv.
“I think we all thought that there would be an uptick in just visibility,” Larsen stated. “But the level at which it has been, I think, has been exponential.”
The first month prompt the soccer transition itself may not require a lot of an adjustment interval.
In its FBS debut, NDSU hosted Jacksonville State, a program that made the identical transfer three years earlier, and received 33-7 in entrance of 18,573 on the Fargodome.
Two weeks later got here a extra significant check.
NDSU went to Colorado Springs for its first Mountain West sport and beat Air Force 38-32. The Bison led 35-13 within the second half earlier than holding off a late Air Force rally, giving NDSU its first convention win as an FBS program.
Then got here a sport that illustrated how in another way the highway to the FBS can look.
NDSU and Sacramento State are the one two applications transitioning from the FCS this season. But whereas the Mountain West pursued NDSU, it handed on Sacramento State, which finally landed within the MAC as a football-only member.
On Sept. 19, NDSU and Sac State met at Hornet Stadium, and the expertise hole was robust to miss.
NDSU scored touchdowns on its opening drive and on a fumble return 4 performs later, led 21-0 after the primary quarter and finally received 31-10. The Bison left California 4-0 and are already thought-about a Group of 6 playoff contender.
Hayes, a fifth-year senior in his first season because the Bison’s beginning quarterback, has seen the distinction simply by opening his cellphone.
“It is kind of a hard thing when you go on your phone and you’re getting a bunch of notifications from Twitter or Instagram and seeing things, big names in the media world kind of tweeting about us,” he stated.
That publicity is a part of what NDSU wished. The FBS label can open recruiting doorways that have been tougher to push by way of earlier than. National tv places this system in entrance of extra recruits, followers and potential donors. And the Bison now have a direct path from winning their convention to enjoying on school soccer’s greatest stage.
But that visibility cuts each methods.
The basis of NDSU’s dynasty was constructed round discovering gamers greater applications missed and growing them. An offensive lineman would possibly arrive too gentle to play instantly, spend two or three years including weight and power, then turn into an all-conference participant — and even an NFL prospect.
That mannequin is tougher to maintain now. NDSU’s finest gamers may have extra publicity towards FBS competitors, they will switch with out sitting out and staying in Fargo might imply turning down important cash elsewhere as soon as they show themselves.
“When a really good offensive lineman or a defensive lineman or somebody has that chance to go make a seven-figure deal and go into the transfer portal and go somewhere else, that’s what worries all of us in college athletics right now,” Klieman stated.
And the higher NDSU performs, the extra sophisticated it might turn into.
“Unfortunately now the college game is about who can win the race to maturity year by year and who can win the race to maturity the fastest,” Polasek stated. “Where we used to just be — we still are — we used to just be an engine of development … and that’s being challenged daily in college athletics.”
Polasek stays dedicated to recruiting highschool gamers and growing them internally, whereas utilizing the portal extra selectively to change departures or fill speedy wants. But even the kind of developmental prospect NDSU recruits might have to change. As an instance, Polasek stated a 235-pound lineman who as soon as might have been given a number of years to develop would possibly now want to arrive at 250.
NDSU outgrew the FCS. Now it’s time to discover out if the mannequin that bought it there can evolve quick sufficient to hold tempo with an ever-changing FBS.
NDSU’S FIRST MOUNTAIN West residence sport will deliver its previous and future collectively.
The Bison will host Wyoming on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET, CW) for homecoming, a matchup that has already picked up a nickname across the league: the “Bohl Bowl.”
Bohl constructed the inspiration of the fashionable NDSU dynasty, winning three straight nationwide championships earlier than leaving Fargo after the 2013 season to turn into Wyoming’s coach. He spent the subsequent 10 seasons in Laramie earlier than retiring after the 2023 season.
Bohl’s connection to each applications stays private. He nonetheless lives in Laramie, and his son is on the Wyoming workers.
“Both programs are near and dear to my heart,” Bohl stated. “The fabric of the people in the two states are very similar and culturally football is important to both institutions.”
Bohl arrived in Fargo as NDSU was making its first transfer up and helped show this system might succeed at the next stage.
More than a decade later, Wyoming will enter the Fargodome as one in every of NDSU’s convention friends.
The coach who helped show NDSU was able to its final leap will probably be watching from the stands because the Bison start the subsequent one.