North Dakota State Makes History With First Bowl Eligibility

Nevada lined up for a 57-yard field goal on the last play of the first half Saturday, and the kick never had a chance against North Dakota State. Jackson Williams caught the miss and raced the length of the Fargodome for a touchdown; the Bison never trailed again, and a 31-17 win made them bowl-eligible in their very first season as an FBS program.

The win moved the Bison to 6-1 overall and 3-1 in the Mountain West, according to the school. Seven games into life at the top level of college football, the program that won 10 FCS national titles is playing like it never noticed the setup.

A kick-Six, a fumble scoop, and Nathan Hayes

The Nevada game was weird from start to finish, and the Bison were the team that handled weird better. NDSU trailed 11-0 before scoring 19 points in the second quarter, with quarterback Nathan Hayes running for one touchdown and finding Mekhi Collins for a 21-yard score to take a 12-11 lead.

Williams then turned the field goal miss into a 100-yard kick-six and finished with 251 all-purpose yards. After Nevada scored in the third quarter, defensive tackle Keenan Wilson forced a fumble on the two-point try, and defensive end Matthew Stenbroten scooped it up and ran 74 yards for two points of his own.

Hayes went 19 of 25 for 153 yards and two touchdowns, and Marion Moore intercepted two passes in front of 18,261 fans. A defense that held Wyoming scoreless two weeks earlier did not allow a point in the fourth quarter.

North Dakota State got its postseason door opened in June

None of this would have counted for much a year ago. FCS schools moving up used to sit out two years of FBS postseason play, but the NCAA Division 1 Cabinet scrapped that ban in June, which made North Dakota State and Sacramento State eligible for bowls right away.

Matt Larsen, the NDSU athletic director, did not promise anything when the rule changed.

“I think if you ask our players, coaches we just want the opportunity to earn,” Larsen told Valley News Live in June. “We’re not guaranteed anything yet, but we have the opportunity to earn some postseason competition so that was really important.” 

The Bison earned it fast, and the price of admission was steep. NDSU agreed to pay the Mountain West a $12.5 million entry fee. Under the league’s newer TV package, it can collect a reduced linear media-rights share, 75% of a full member’s cut in year one and up to 85% in year two. The membership deal also requires the school to raise its football budget to at least the league average if it finishes below .500 in conference play

The school has gone all in on the money side, too. NDSU raised $25 million from 4 donor conversations in Arizona, according to Sports Illustrated, and athletics director Larsen expects the football budget to roughly double within two years of the move.

The Bison are not done climbing

Bowl eligibility is a nice milestone, but it looks like the floor for this team. The only loss came 13-7 at  UNLV, a game in which the Bison threw three interceptions. North Dakota State has beaten both Air Force and Wyoming, the two teams tied with it in the standings. The Bison won 38-32 at Air Force and shut out Wyoming 28-0, two results that would have been called upsets in August.

If the Bison win out, they could even reach the Mountain West title game, and a home date at the Fargodome is possible depending on the remaining standings and tiebreakers. The membership deal also pays a $1 million bonus for a College Football Playoff appearance, a clause that looked like fine print in February and looks a lot more interesting now.

The players never treated the jump like a big deal. Senior receiver Mekhi Collins told Sports Illustrated around the FBS opener against Jacksonville State why the Bison expected to belong.

 “I think from our perspective,  there’s no difference playing FBS, which, truthfully, I don’t think there should be,”  Collins said. “You might see a couple of faster guys at the skill positions, but a lot of the positions it’s about the same strength-wise,  speed-wise.” 

The Mountain West rebuilt after departures to the relaunched Pac-12, and adding a program that went 9-5 against FBS opponents as an FCS team looked like a smart bet on paper. Tim Polasek, the third-year NDSU head coach, takes the Bison to New Mexico on Saturday with a 4-0 record at the Fargodome, where no FBS opponent has figured out how to win yet.