FARGO — The early February press conference at the Sanford Health Athletic Complex announcing North Dakota State’s acceptance into the Mountain West Conference was finished and its participants — outgoing President David Cook, interim President Rick Berg, head coach Tim Polasek and athletic director Matt Larsen — scattered about the media room to do individual interviews with the locals. Larsen was chatting with a couple of us when he was asked about the risks of moving from the Football Championship Subdivision to the more expensive and challenging Football Bowl Subdivision.
“As this began to become real in recent weeks, President Cook and I talked often about the risks involved with making the move. They are real. But I’ll tell you the same thing I told him. Yes, there are risks involved with doing this, but there are risks in staying where we are, too,” Larsen said.
He was correct. He remains correct. He’ll be correct in the future.
So if you’re having the heebie-jeebies on July 1, 2026, over NDSU officially becoming a member of the Mountain West and FBS — a $17.5 million club with high costs ongoing forever — that is your salve.
Yes, there are potential dangers scattered on the road to the highest level of college football.
Will there be enough money? Will the Bison be good enough? Can they someday qualify for the College Football Playoff?
Will they remain relevant in college football? Will fans embrace the new league and opponents? Will fans be OK with being a small fish in the biggest pond instead of the biggest fish in the small pond?
Will fans welcome playing in bowls instead of having national championships for which to play?
All legitimate concerns.
NDSU’s 2026 football schedule with opponents, kickoff times and TV networks.
Troy Becker / The Forum
But, no, staying in FCS wouldn’t have been risk-free.
It would have been a safe play. It also would’ve been the wrong play.
Staying in FCS would’ve been riskier than moving to FBS.
The subdivision that was so good to the Bison is stale
and the fan base reflected it. What was once fresh and exciting became — right or wrong – boring. Fargo-Moorhead, North Dakota and western Minnesota were speaking with their feet and checkbooks. NDSU had one game with an announced crowd of more than 18,000 in 2025.
It was more than that.
There wasn’t a buzz about games any longer. Games against archrival South Dakota State got people excited, as did contests at FBS foes like Arizona and Colorado, but most of the rest were met with a growing apathy. Even playoff games were greeted with a collective “meh” the last several seasons. NDSU’s upset loss to Illinois State last year drew barely more than 10,000, which drew attention, but dwindling postseason attendance began in 2017 and was accelerating in recent years.
It wasn’t long before a playoff game attracted fewer than 10,000 fans.
“If we stay, what do our crowds look like in three years or five years? Do we have 6,000 in the dome for Murray State and Indiana State?” one NDSU staffer told me.
Former head coach Matt Entz first started pushing for a move to FBS in 2020, quietly at first and more openly later. One of his arguments was always that it felt like the Bison were on a treadmill, sprinting at full speed just trying to stay in place. The coaches felt it, the players felt it, the administrators felt it.
Everybody was working off their rear ends and going nowhere.
Entz also talked of donors who when asked for money would say, “What for? You win every game already.”
Everything just seemed stuck. There was only one place to go and it wasn’t forward.
That was the risk of staying in FCS — that nothing changed.
And 6,000 fans showed up for games.
FCS isn’t getting better or more competitive. Just the opposite. There are fewer schools in the subdivision willing to spend money on football than ever before. James Madison, Georgia Southern and Appalachian State aren’t coming back.
There are no guarantees FBS will solve all of NDSU’s issues. There is a chance the Bison are “chasing the dragon,” looking in vain for the magical high they had from 2011-2019 when the excitement was overflowing and the dome was rocking. Maybe the fans are just spoiled and will claim boredom with whatever teams NDSU’s plays.
It’s a risk, but one worth taking.
The bigger risk was staying in FCS and knowing exactly what the future looked like.
Mike McFeely is a columnist for The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. He began working for The Forum in the 1980s while he was a student studying journalism at Minnesota State University Moorhead. He’s been with The Forum full time since 1990, minus a six-year hiatus when he hosted a local radio talk-show.