North Dakota State’s move to the FBS leaves a big void for neighboring Division I teams in the Dakotas.
The Bison leave behind big rivals in South Dakota State, North Dakota, and South Dakota. While all three have enjoyed success in the FCS, an NDSU insider sees there will be much lacking — at least off the field — for the Bison’s neighbors.
“It will be extremely difficult for those schools to match the interest and media attention the Bison will garner now that they’ve moved up to the Mountain West,” the Fargo Forum’s Mike McFeely wrote in a mailbag on Thursday. “All eyes will be on NDSU, especially these first few seasons, to see if the Bison have success.”
“NDSU will be playing consistently better competition in bigger markets at a higher level. Period,” McFeely added. “They’ll take most of the oxygen. Period.”
How NDSU’s FBS Brand Will Dwarf Dakota Schools
The Bison joined the Mountain West Conference, and that Group of Six league features Hawaii, UNLV, Wyoming, Air Force and New Mexico among others.
It’s a far cry from the Missouri Valley Football Conference, where longtime FCS powers Northern Iowa and Youngstown State haven’t been looking like consistent powerhouses for years. That’s the bigger-name competition for SDSU, UND, and USD besides an occasional FBS game or a premier FCS team in non-conference action.
NDSU won’t have a Power Four team, but the non-conference matchup of Jacksonville State for the season opener will bring intrigue because of the 2015 FCS championship game between the two. Meanwhile, the Dakota FCS schools will have a big void on the schedule with the Bison gone.
“Yes, the Bison’s games against SDSU were a blast and with UND getting better under head coach Eric Schmidt, those games were going to be more interesting. But there were too many blowouts against vastly inferior programs — and that’s a problem now for the other programs,” McFeely wrote.
“Look at UND’s first seven games in 2026: Long Island, St. Thomas, Portland State, Nebraska, Indiana State, Murray State and Northern Iowa. Brutal,” McFeely added. “Only the Nebraska game will be remotely interesting. The rest are four-TDs-or-more foregone conclusions.”
Mountain West Shakeup Coming Again, Mike McFeely Says
The Bison making a home in the Mountain West could come with some major changes in the next decade.
McFeely explained that the conference could undergo changes after 2031 when the current College Football Playoff contract concludes, which will impact media deals. He calls it the “fault line” for the sport.
“That’s when things are going to shake up,” McFeely wrote.
He noted that independent college football analyst John Canzano believes that New Mexico and UNLV could join the Pac-12, as five former Mountain West teams recently did. While Canzano sees that happening sooner rather than later, McFeely believes the Mountain West will stay steady because of “grant of rights that limits their options to move,” signed by the remaining teams.
“Basically, if a Mountain West school moves to the Pac-12 that school’s home games could not be televised by Pac-12 media rights holders, which means it wouldn’t get a full share of media rights and the conference would lose the revenue from that school’s games,” McFeely wrote. “Not impossible that the Pac-12 would go ahead with that move to get, say, a UNLV. But it seems unlikely.”
North Dakota State Insider Throws Cold Water on Old Rivals