North Dakota State had a chance to make a statement on Saturday. In a battle of two of the top Group of 6 teams in the country, NDSU took on UNLV with huge College Football Playoff implications.
Given the Bison’s schedule, they likely needed to run the table of this season undefeated to have a chance to get chosen for the CFP.
That’s the first part of what made Saturday’s result so painful.
UNLV topped NDSU 13-7, and with that North Dakota’s dreams of the Playoff in their first season at the FBS level probably withered on the vine.
The Bison had begun the season 5-0, but they won’t have a chance at any marquee wins the rest of the way — and if UNLV was also in the conversation at the end, the Rebels would now have that head-to-head result in their favor.
That’s not the only negative out of the weekend, though.
NDSU also has South Dakota State talking trash their way.
SDSU Disses NDSU
South Dakota State coach Dan Jackson joined a radio show in Sioux Falls on Monday and didn’t hold back.
He was asked how he thinks SDSU would perform at the FBS level, specifically in the Mountain West that NDSU is currently in.
The Jackrabbits are still down at the FCS level, the former Division I-AA.
Jackson called it like he sees it:
“I think we’d be at the top of that conference.”
He elaborated from there.
“When I watch Group of 6 games, I think we’d be at the top of it,” Jackson said. “… We can fill a 20,000-seat stadium. We play great football. Us and a lot of teams in our conference could be really competitive at the top with a lot of teams in the Group of 6.”
“I think we’d be at the top of that conference.”
After watching NDSU-UNLV, that’s how SDSU coach Dan Jackson answered the question about how well the Jacks would compete the Mountain West.
** LISTEN TO THE WHOLE CLIP FOR CONTEXT **
FULL CHAT > https://t.co/Fu6qbgoszV
#GoJacks https://t.co/cQiOrSTJbS
— Happy Hour with John Gaskins (@HappyHourwithJG) October 12, 2026
“Maybe the top 35 or 40 teams, there’s a bit of a gap, but after that, I think there’s a lot of things that go into how successful a program is,” Jackson said. “… One thing I will say is that the team that cares more will win most of the time.”
Context is Important
Jackson didn’t really go out of his way to put down North Dakota State — it just comes across that way given the fact that the discussion stemmed from NDSU’s loss to UNLV.
Still, of course Jackson is going to stick up for his guys and his program.
He does make a compelling case that a number of the best FCS teams would actually be just fine in FBS.
James Madison is a recent example of a team that moved up this decade and has already been great, including a CFP berth last year.
Whether or not SDSU would ever move up is a different discussion, but it’s clear they don’t see themselves as less than their big rival even though they now compete in different sub-divisions.
NDSU Dissed by SDSU After Season-Defining Loss in CFP Picture