North Dakota State looks bowl-bound instead of College Football Playoff-bound after a second Week 8 loss.
The Bison fell 21-16 to New Mexico on the road, but the Herd will at least cap the first year of FBS play with a bowl matchup. ESPN projects the Bison for the Hawaii Bowl, and ESPN’s Mark Schlabach has the Herd slated to play Texas State.
NDSU and Texas State last met in the 1981 Division II national championship game when the Bobcats were known as Southwest Texas State. The Bobcats won that game handily, 42-13, over the Bison in McAllen, Texas.
This year’s Texas State squad has a 4-3 record and a 2-1 mark in Pac-12 play. The Bobcats have wins over Colorado State, Utah State, North Texas and Incarnate Word this season.
It could be a good bowl matchup for the Bison and a chance to avenge a national title loss from 45 years prior.
NDSU, Texas State Have Historic Coaching Ties
Late former NDSU head coach Jim Wacker coached the Bobcats team, which put away the Bison with a 28-0 second half. Ex-Bison head coach Don Morton led that team to the program’s first Division II title game in the playoff era. NDSU previously won the NCAA College Division via a poll in 1965, 1968 and 1969.
Wacker coached the Bison from 1976 to 1978 before his stint with SW Texas State from 1979 to 1982. He led the Bobcats to back-to-back national titles before he moved up to coaching in the FBS at TCU and Minnesota between 1983 and 1996.
Morton, who coached the Bison from 1979 to 1984, brought the Herd back to the title game in the 1983 season and won it. He previously coached under Wacker at NDSU as the backfield coach from 1977 to 1978.
NDSU made the title game in three of Morton’s four seasons at the helm, and the Bison won at least 10 games every season of his tenure. It launched the Bison Division II dynasty of the 1980s, which eventually led to moving up to the FCS and dominating that level with 10 national titles in the 2010s and early 2020s.
NDSU, Texas State Found Their Way to the FBS on Different Timelines
SW Texas State moved to the FCS, formerly Division I-AA at the time, in 1984, and the Bobcats enjoyed success at that level. The Bobcats reached the semifinals in 2005 and won the Southland Conference title in 2008.
NDSU was just getting started in the FCS at the time as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference, and the Bison had won the Great West Conference the previous two seasons at 10-1 at the time.
NDSU’s dynasty took off in the 2011 season with the first of 10 national titles after a four-year wait of ineligibility due to NCAA transitioning rules.
Texas State meanwhile joined the FBS in 2012 as a member of the WAC and switched to the present-day school name in 2013. The Bobcats moved to the Sun Belt Conference in 2013 and joined the Pac-12 in 2026, amid the conference’s reshaping.
NDSU kept rolling through the FCS, and rumblings of an FBS move finally came true in February 2026 with a Mountain West Conference invitation. The Bison have fit right in with a 6-2 start, and the Herd could still make the conference title game with some help after the New Mexico loss.
If Schlabach’s bowl projection comes to pass, the Bison and Bobcats will meet again for the first time since 1981. It could become more frequent in the future as a non-conference matchup or if the Bison were ever to move over to the Pac-12.
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