North Dakota State has been one of the most dominant football programs in the FCS for the past two decades, and now, it is looking for new challenge. It is going to get it.
The program is expected to announce this week that it is making the jump from the FCS up to FBS, joining the top level of college football.
North Dakota State joining Mountain West Conference for 2026 season
According to a report from ESPN on Sunday, North Dakota State will be joining the Mountain West Conference as a football-only member for the 2026 season, and it will be paying a substantial price to do so.
Along with the $5M it has to pay the NCAA to make the move to the FBS, it will also be paying $12M to the Mountain West for membership into the conference.
The Mountain West has been one of the conferences most significantly hurt by conference re-alignment in recent years, losing Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Utah State and San Diego State to the Pac-12.
The new-look conference will not only feature North Dakota State, but also Northern Illinois, UTEP, Air Force, Hawai’i, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV and Wyoming.
It is certainly not one of the power conferences in the FBS, and it is going to be fascinating to see how North Dakota State does in its move.
The Bison have won 10 of the past 15 national championships in the FCS and have consistently done well against FBS teams, including a win over then-No. 13 ranked Iowa State back in the 2016 season.
They went 12-1 during the 2025 season, losing in the second-round of the FCS playoffs.
The best-case scenario for North Dakota State, and one that certainly seems to be within reach, would be to follow the path of James Madison. When the Dukes made their jump to FBS in 2022 with Curt Cignetti as head coach, they immediately started putting together winning seasons, going 8-3 in their Sun Belt debut season and following with 11-2, 9-4 and 12-2 campaigns. The latter resulted in them making the 12-team College Football Playoff.
North Dakota State is starting from an even higher point as a program and is also in a very winnable conference. There is a chance for this to work, and potentially work quickly.
