North Dakota State’s 2027 recruiting class is filling out with players coming from familiar areas in a region where the Bison look to gain an advantage over other programs.
The Bison are the lone Group of Six conference FBS program in the Upper Midwest, and head coach Tim Polasek sees that as a big opportunity. Meanwhile, the current NDSU recruits are eager for a new era of Bison football after the program dominated the FCS for 15 years with 10 national championships.
“Obviously going from FCS to FBS, that’s a huge jump for them and their program,” offensive line recruit Jack Tabbert told the Fargo Forum’s Jeff Kolpack. “So me wanting to be part of the first class for their recruiting in the Mountain West, that opened a lot of doors for me to play with better competition. That helped a ton. But even them being an FCS offer would still have been in my consideration. I feel like NDSU is one of the best offensive line development programs in the country.”
NDSU recruited Tabbert from Pewaukee, Wisconsin, and he’s one of two offensive linemen in the 2027 class — the other being Carrington, North Dakota, native Andrew Matt. Rosemount, Minnesota, defensive lineman Jack Noonan received an offer from NDSU before the FBS move, but told Kolpack that things changed when that move became official.
“That just put the cherry on top for me,” Noonan told Kolpack. “Just a great program. I know they’re going to do a great job with FBS with their work ethic so I was excited for the challenge.”
Tim Polasek Makes Admission on Upper Midwest Recruiting
Polasek, who has been with the program for multiple years as a head coach or assistant, dealt with the Bison facing other FCS powers on the recruiting trail.
“The Upper Midwest has been and will be poorly recruited probably for one more year by G-6 schools,” Polasek said. “We’re kind of up here in the last five to 10 years duking it out with South Dakota State and UND is a good recruiting operation now. But we have to be conscious to stay true to our evaluation.”
SDSU, UND, South Dakota, and Northern Iowa provided competition for the Bison in the region for recruiting. Now, there’s no G-6 team between Wyoming and Northern Illinois, as Kolpack pointed out.
“I’m really looking forward to, can we create separation over time from some of the people that have been our recruiting rivals?” Polasek told Kolpack.
NDSU Building on Previous Approach
Polasek previously told On3 that the Bison have recruited like and prepared like a G-6 program years before becoming an FBS program in the Mountain West Conference. When talking with Kolpack, Polasek acknowledged that interest in the Upper Midwest recruiting field will increase and that going up against Big Ten and Big 12 schools will be a challenge.
“We want to make sure our evaluations tick up,” Polasek said. “We stay true to the evaluation with the character and what it takes to be a developmental guy, a guy who can have some staying power here and some stick-to-it-ness. And most certainly is there an uptick in the talent that we’re looking for? I really like the group we’re off and running with.”
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