North Dakota State has its first FBS season ahead, and Bison head coach Tim Polasek wants to get potential future recruits in the door well before the final years of high school.
Polasek recently announced NDSU’s upcoming youth football camp in June and billed it the “best FBS football camp in the Midwest.” The Bison became the only FBS program in the Dakotas and between Minnesota and Washington with the move up from the FCS. Polasek shared the camp details via X on Monday.
NDSU dominated the FCS level from 2004 to 2025 with 10 national championships in a 15-year span from 2011 to 2025. The Bison had only one losing season as an FCS program, and NDSU went 9-5 against FBS teams and drew College GameDay to Fargo twice.
An eight-time national champions in Division II and the College Division before 2004, the Bison have produced more than 49 NFL draft picks in program history.
Tim Polasek Addresses Recruiting Approach
For recruiting as an FBS program, Polasek sees it as a time to “invest in more” as the Bison build for the future.
Polasek described the plans with Bison Illustrated after the FBS announcement. The third-year NDSU coach has been with the program in various roles off and on since 2006.
“Regionally, there will still be good universities, and we’ll still be in those fights. But there’s a significant opportunity,” Polasek told Bison Illustrated. “We’re Group of Six now, not Power Four, but Group of Six. Regionally, you look around with Northern Illinois to the east, Wyoming to the west, Tulsa… maybe Missouri State. The point is, there’s a lot less in that gap that you’re competing against for players.”
“So I’m excited to sell our brand harder. In St. Louis, is there another level of player there? In Omaha, can we deepen what we already have? In Wisconsin and Chicago, we should be more attractive,” he added. “We don’t want to change everything, but there are a few areas we’ll invest in more.”
Tim Polasek Thrilled Over No Spring Transfer Portal
The NCAA did away with the spring transfer portal, and Polasek is happy about that, as Bison insider Jeff Kolpack of the Fargo Forum described. NDSU has lost key players in the spring portal before.
“Jill’s [Polasek’s wife] life is so much better,” Polasek told Kolpack. “It actually is not even a joke. My mental health and our approach around the kids, we are coaching these kids. We are back to doing the way we’ve always done it.”
College programs have dealt with the fluidity of players coming and going with the advent of the transfer portal in 2018, and it has only increased over the years. The January transfer portal alone takes a toll, but the spring portal added more challenges for programs.
Now, coaches such as Polasek have a clear picture of their teams going into the summer with workouts and preseason camps. The Bison start early, too, since they’ll open with Week Zero against Jacksonville State at the Fargodome on Aug. 29 — a rematch of the 2015 FCS championship game.
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