The North Dakota State Bison lost the FCS National Championship game this year. Which is surprising when you consider that they have won 9 championships since 2011. In that time period they won 5 straight titles, and only failed to make the title game twice. With 15 current NFL players the Bison have more NFL talent passing through their program, they are just as talented as major FBS programs like Kansas State, and Indiana. Since they beat the 13th ranked Iowa Hawkeyes in 2016, talk of the Bison joining FBS has circulated. And teams like Jacksonville State and Abilene Christian have already made the jump, although they have never won any national titles. So what is holding back the Bison? The truth is that North Dakota State doesn’t really  want to join FBS, and here is the reason why. 

The Bison don’t have a conference to join

From a pure football standpoint the North Dakota State Bison don’t have a clear landing spot from a conference perspective. Located in the northern most part of the Midwest, there are very few FBS teams for them to compete against without traveling great distances. The Big Ten Conference is unafraid to expand, but they would never allow an FCS program to be called up into their ranks.

The Mountain West Conference appears to make the most sense but 3 of their programs stretch as far west as California. Colorado State University would be their closest opponent, and they are 800 miles away! Teams in the ACC travel up to 1000 miles away for games, but that is because they can make ACC money through their national television deals. The Mountain West just isn’t a big enough draw to make joining that conference worth so much effort. If North Dakota State were to join as independent, the problem would still remain, that their campus is just not located near any other FBS programs, and scheduling an independent schedule when 800 miles is your minimum travel distance is just not feasible, unless you are Notre Dame.

The Bison are at a disadvantage in FBS recruiting

North Dakota State has built an FCS dynasty by keeping all of their talent at home in the state. This works well at the FCS level to dominate, since with only 63 scholarships they only need to fill out a few key positions with out of state players to out-class their competition. And the Bison have done exactly that. Players like Trey Lance were imported from Minnesota in order to put the team over the hump. And as talented as the Bison are, they would be no more than a middle of the road team as presently constructed across all of FBS.

When you consider that NIL has further tipped the scales in recruiting, it is going to be a hard sell to convince a top recruit to go to Fargo, North Dakota. Especially when their alternatives are Los Angeles California, or even Miami, Florida. As successful as North Dakota State is at the FCS level, they are a no name in the FBS world. In Currently no recruit getting significant FCS attention will ignore them, but many who are getting Power Conference FBS interest will. And getting the top level FCS recruits will barely gave them the talent required to compete for any bowl game, much less than a National Championship.

FBS will not benefit their athletic department

College football is often talked about as if it functions outside of the larger conversation for college sports. But it does not. Football is just one sport amongst the fourteen that the college offers. To transition to FBS the college would first need to add two more sports just to reach basic compliance (all FBS members have to sponsor 16 sports or more). And of the sports that they currently have, most of their teams are middle of the road within the Summit League conference. No disrespect intended to the Summit League, but that is a legitimate step down from the Mountain West, or anywhere else the Bison could move to.

To run an FBS program effectively, it takes an intense financial commitment starting with normally expanding stadium seating, beefing up athletic department resources, and planning for travel to all conference competitions. If North Dakota State became a full member of any FBS conference, it would be nearly impossible for them to keep up with the financial cost to simply travel to and from games, unless at the very least their basketball programs and football programs were able to demand a strong profit. This does not happen overnight and there would be some dark days ahead for the athletic department’s financials, before things might even begin to work out.

 The Bottom Line

North Dakota State is an FCS powerhouse, and they could probably hold their own as an FBS football program in the lower half of FBS conferences right now. But that would not do much for them or their athletic department. People love to see a winner, and right now the Bison win a lot. Transitioning to FBS would undoubtedly change that. And by virtue of their circumstances, Fargo, North Dakota just isn’t strategically located in FBS territory. Conferences can continue to call and the Bison will continue to listen. But it is incredibly unlikely that anyone will be able to offer them a deal that is worth taking. And as 10 more teams prepare to make the jump to FBS in the coming years, it does appear that competition for the Bison will be few and far between. Even after this year’s championship loss… their dynasty, perhaps the greatest in modern college football history will continue.

KNOW THE GAME. WIN THE GAME.

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