North Dakota State’s wait for an FBS conference invitation finally arrived in February when the Mountain West Conference came calling.
The Bison dominated the FCS with 10 national championships in 15 years, and that was despite losing head coaches to bigger programs. Craig Bohl, who started the dynasty, also started the coaching carousel in Fargo as he left for Wyoming in 2014 after just three championships.
It ultimately benefitted NDSU in the move up to the FBS since Wyoming athletic director Tom Burman saw the value in the Bison program when the Mountain West faced transition. Bohl told the Fargo Forum’s Jeff Kolpack that Burman “had a lot to do with pushing the Mountain West towards NDSU.”
The Mountain West needed solutions for 2026 and beyond when five programs left for the Pac-12. That included former top Mountain West programs in Boise State, Fresno State, and San Diego State.
Boise State made the first 12-team College Football Playoff field in the 2024 season, and the Broncos‘ departure weakened the Group of Six conference. The Mountain West only had Hawaii and UNLV left among conference contenders.
Adding NDSU gives the Mountain West a boost in talent and depth. The Bison expect to compete at a high level and reach the CFP if the NCAA lifts the two-year transition ban on postseason play.
Wyoming’s Tom Burman Showed Interest in 4 FCS Schools
Burman didn’t just promote the Bison as an option for the Mountain West. He also proposed NDSU’s top FCS rival, South Dakota State, and both Montana and Montana State as options.
SDSU beat NDSU once for an FCS title, and Montana State won the last FCS title in the 2025 season. Montana has won two FCS titles since 1995, and the Griz have a storied program that has long dominated the Big Sky Conference.
“When you look at South Dakota State, North Dakota State, Montana State, Montana, they’re different than the rest of the FCS,” Burman said during the “Nate Brown Show “in August 2025. “And for a school like Wyoming, it makes a lot of sense if there was a way that a few of those schools joined the Mountain West.”
“But it didn’t make sense for everybody in the Mountain West. And that’s why there wasn’t an opportunity for them to join. But in the long run, I think there will be a change,” Burman added.
NDSU Made the Jump In Time
There’s been speculation for a while that the Power Four conferences will break off from the Group of Six. Burman, who has been with Wyoming since 2006, told Brown that he sees it happening.
“And they, in my opinion, they’ll collectively bargain with student-athletes,” Burman said. “They will be employees, and those are budgets in the $250-300 million range. Then the rest of us will reconfigure where we are, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that allowed for the Dakotas and the Montana schools to make some decisions.”
When or if the remaining Dakota and Montana schools stay in the FCS or jump to the FBS in the near future remains to be seen. NDSU, meanwhile, can position itself for the coming years as an FBS program with unknowns remaining on how the Power Four conferences and Group of Six leagues will coexist.
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