North Dakota State showed FBS potential before ever hoisting an FCS national championship trophy.
In 2006, NDSU came a point shy of two wins over FBS teams, 20 years before the recent move to the FBS. The Bison went 10-1 that season and beat Ball State 29-24 and came up shy against Minnesota, 10-9, on a missed field goal at the end of the game.
NDSU put together a dominant 10-1 season again in 2007 with two FBS wins, including a 44-14 blowout of Central Michigan and a convincing 27-21 win over Minnesota. The Bison still couldn’t participate in the playoffs that year because of the NCAA’s transition postseason ban at the time, and NDSU’s bid to be in a bowl game fell short.
NDSU joined a rare group of FCS teams to beat multiple FBS teams in the same season. None of the previous FCS powers to move up to the FBS have done it. Portland State in 2015 and the Citadel in 1992 are the only two other FCS teams to pull that feat in the past 34 years.
NDSU has shown hints of going big for decades, and the early success against FBS teams was just another step in the process. The Bison were king for decades in Division II with eight national championships, and the opening game of the Fargdome against Pitt State was enough to draw interest from ESPN, per Bison Illustrated.
Bison Kicked Down the Door in FCS
NDSU closed out the Division II era with an upset of No. 2-ranked FCS powerhouse Montana in the final season before joining the FCS. The Griz have pulled FBS upsets before, but NDSU took terrorizing FBS programs to a greater level than any FCS program before.
NDSU had a 5-3 record against FBS teams before the program’s first FCS title in Jan. 2012. As the Bison won national championships, and the FBS upsets mounted along the way.
It became so routine, that the Fargo Forum’s Jeff Kolpack noted how the Bison didn’t even look overly excited after a 2012 win over Colorado State. That said, the excitement was there in upsets of Kansas State, Iowa State and Iowa, which led to an exodus of FBS teams scheduling the Herd.
NDSU went six years without an FBS game, and it fortunately didn’t hurt recruiting too much as the Bison kept developing NFL talent and winning national titles. Arizona narrowly escaped the Bison in 2022, and Colorado did likewise in 2024, as head coach Deion Sanders didn’t hold back on how tough a game the Bison play.
The Mountain West Conference welcomes an NDSU program that is more than ready to compete at the highest level, and FBS coaches around the country are quite aware.
NDSU’s Potential Based on Prior FBS Upsets
While NDSU never surpassed Appalachian State’s upset of No. 5 Michigan in 2007, the Bison had a few convincing FBS wins, and the Bison could easily make noise in the FBS for years to come.
NDSU beat Kansas State in 2013, a year after the Wildcats won the Big 12, and the Bison rallied late for a 24-21 victory in Manhattan, Kansas. The Bison also beat a No. 13-ranked Iowa squad 23-21 in 2016 at Iowa City, for the program’s highest-ranked upset ever.
Those upsets came during the first half of the FCS dynasty, and NDSU’s recruiting will likely improve compared to that era, which bodes well for more big FBS wins. NDSU had a 9-5 record overall against the FBS during the FCS era, and the Bison had a 3-1 record against Group of Six teams in that span.
The first big test arrives this season where the Bison will finally play an FBS schedule instead of being a feared FCS power playing an FBS team once every few years. Realistically, NDSU will be highly successful in the Mountain West and will likely beat some Power Four teams in the coming years, at least in bowl games. An upset in the College Football Playoff is an outside possibility someday, too.
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