FARGO — Ready, set, bowl eligible. North Dakota State will no longer have to concern itself with a two-year postseason ban as a result of joining Division I FBS.
The NCAA Division I Cabinet on Wednesday reaffirmed a stance taken by the Division I Football Oversight Committee and repealed the two-year probationary period for schools making the transition from FCS to FBS.
“It’s exciting and it’s a relief in a lot of ways too,” said NDSU athletic director Matt Larsen. “The ability for our guys to compete right away and earn their spot so really happy for them.”
It means the Bison will be able to compete in a postseason bowl game if they become bowl eligible, which normally requires at least six victories. They’ll also be eligible for a Mountain West Conference championship, would get a 100% reimbursement for playing in any conference bowl game or the College Football Playoffs, a $1 million bonus for reaching the CFP and 50% of CFP and bowl game revenue paid to Mountain West members.
Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor, a member of the Oversight Committee, told The Forum last week that the increased financial commitment of schools making the FBS jump was reason enough to repeal the two-year probation. The fee has gone from $5,000 that Jacksonville State paid in 2023 to $5 million what NDSU and Sacramento State paid this year.
“It’s a huge financial commitment and that’s where to me the rule doesn’t make sense anymore,” said Bison head coach Tim Polasek. “If you can be FBS up and running and ready to go, you have a league and you paid your dues, you should be playing ball immediately. Some in the past, the entry fee to move up, wasn’t at the price it is now so the transitional phase made sense. I’m not saying the old rule is bad but where it’s at today, this makes total sense and I know our football team will be extremely excited to have that postseason opportunity like we’ve had.”
NDSU will face Jacksonville in its season opener Aug. 29 at Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome. The Gamecocks are coming off consecutive nine-win seasons after going through a two-year postseason probation in 2023 and 2024.
“This schedule is no joke, we have to go 1-0 against Jacksonville State and we’re going to start going there right now,” Polasek said. “Jacksonville State is what’s on our mind and we have to try and win that game but this is huge from a retention standpoint of the team.”
In addition to the fee to the NCAA, NDSU paid the Mountain West $12.5 million and forfeited media financial distributions until 2032.
“I think the things that were in place when the rule was enacted 20-some odd years ago, things have just changed,” Larsen said. “One of them being the financial commitment, the application fee and the other being the portal and trying to maintain rosters.”
Maintaining a roster was on Polasek’s mind, saying bowl eligibility is important for more than just this season. His first thought was with the second year of the probation and retaining players for another year of no postseason opportunities.
“I just think it would be really hard for some guys not to be bowl eligible or playoff eligible for two years,” he said.
Now they won’t have to worry about it, which is a big deal to players like quarterback Nathan Hayes. He’s in his final year of eligibility and Wednesday’s news means he won’t have to go through a postseason dead period.
“We’re not in it just to compete with the Mountain West, we’re in it to compete with the entire United States,” Hayes said. “Come end of the season, we want to be hoisting that Mountain West trophy and then we want to know where the next game is. That’s our goal. Even if that band hadn’t been lifted, that would have been our goal.”
The legislation means Sacramento State, which is joining the Mid-American Conference this season, will be immediately bowl eligible and the University of Delaware and Missouri State, which declared for FBS status last season, will only serve one-year penalties. On the whole, the two-year ban turned out to be not as biting for MSU, Jacksonville and James Madison. All played in a bowl game during their probationary period because there were not enough six-win bowl eligible FBS teams.
Missouri State lost 34-28 to Arkansas State in the Xbox Bowl last season. The Bears first asked for the waiver after going 6-3 in their first nine games.
Jacksonville State was selected for the 2023 New Orleans Bowl and defeated Louisiana 34-31. James Madison, a former NDSU FCS playoff foe, made the FBS move in 2022 after losing to the Bison in the FCS semifinals in 2021. The Dukes went 11-2 in 2023 and played Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl, losing 31-21.
Larsen, in an interview with The Forum a month after the Mountain West invite, had hopes the two-year rule would face scrutiny. A week later, Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez, while in Fargo, pledged to work “arm and arm” with NDSU to at least obtain a waiver of the rule.
“I’ve given the NCAA a ton of credit the last couple of years as I think they’re modernizing rules and what rules need to be adjusted, tweaked or changed,” Larsen said Wednesday.
Jeff Kolpack, the son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he’s covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995. He has covered all 10 of NDSU’s Division I FCS national football titles and has written four books: “Horns Up,” “North Dakota Tough,” “Covid Kids” and “They Caught Them Sleeping: How Dot Reinvented the Pretzel.” He is also the radio host of “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” April through August.