Bison06

Who knows how this all plays out, every school is doing their own analysis and making decisions on what they see as their best path to their goals. In my mind, jumping into the MW is logical. The teams who are leaving for the Pac12 were once a part of the MW, logic follows that may be an option for NDSU in the future if they continue to build and the FM area continues to grow. The FM area has had double digit growth for by decade for nearly it's entire existence. Will that continue? Who knows? I don't pretend to know what NDSU's long term goals are for the University or the Football team. But I do know that this step to FBS is a move that makes a lot of sense to me and could make even more sense as the landscape of college football continues to evolve. Can't make decisions about your future with today's landscape in mind. You're describing the status quo in 2026. I'm talking about a path forward that puts us in a spot where NDSU wants to be in 2050 and beyond.

Maybe true, yet it’s still likely to expand to 16 or 24 in the coming years. More games=More revenue The CFP has never been about the spirit of competition, I don’t see the member school turning down additional TV money from an expanded playoff field.

What about an expanded CFP? That seems more likely in the short term than this mythical second tier division that we’ve all been talking about for 15 years.

I should have been more precise with my words. There were UND fans that saw the move that NDSU made up to I-AA(at the time) and thought UND should make the move with them. There were plenty of others who ridiculed and said nearly the exact same things being said in this thread. "It's not a real step up in competition, current division is just fine and not being eroded away, NDSU will regret making this move etc" Regardless, the conversation in this thread is very similar to 2003-2004 and I'm just curious if history will repeat itself with NDSU leading the way(relative to it's historical peers) with the move and everyone else is critical while silently planning the same move.

I agree, it's very different now than back then with the level of investment. But, I think UND, USD, SDSU, UM and MSU are going to be paying very close attention to this move by NDSU. I predict that IF it goes well, they will find a way to make the move up.

Not sure if you’re old enough to have been around in 2004, but that is absolutely not the sentiment that existed back then. Fans of UND and USD were adamant that NDSU and SDSU were making a massive mistake and would never be relevant at the next level up.

This is so reminiscent of 2004. UND fans making fun of the move NDSU is making only to come to the same logical conclusion about D2 a few years later. I’m sure in 5-10 years when UND makes a move to FBS, you guys will continue to make the same comments.

Yeah, I’ve really been touting my resume by saying I know a lot of NDSU fans and talk to them regularly. What a braggart I’ve been.

What exactly were you implying with your comment? You implied that you also talk to ndsu fans and they tell a different story than the one I’m saying. If that wasn’t your intent, the only other logical reason to make your comment would be to let everyone know that you have friends who are ndsu fans. What was your intent?

You really thought you said something with this comment.

Oh how interesting and the ones you talked to say they aren’t bored and they are still showing up to games? How does you talking to fans who show up and are still interested in any way refute the fact that I know 100 people who used to be season ticket holders who gave them up for 5 years because they were bored with it?

Again, as an insider to NDSU football, I can assure you the boredom is real. I have many friends who have decided to renew their season tickets this year after not renewing them 4-5 years ago. The excitement for football in Fargo is as high this year as it was a decade ago. Will it sustain? That's the only question I have. Hard to convince you guys of something that is so obvious to me because I speak with lifelong NDSU fans on a regular basis and also people who became fans in the last 15 years. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.

Your comments are always so clever, funny and contribute so much to the conversation.

Noone who knows anything about football ever said something so stupid as "bring on bama". Casuals sure, but nobody serious. You might not be delusional enough, but you can be sure that there would be UND fans who would. All fan bases have their people who speak without really knowing what they're talking about.

Any fan base has their hardcore base and their casual fans. Casual fans are needed for all sports teams for revenue and butts in seats. Casual fans aren't as plugged into the details. Once we had won 10 championships and everyone who wanted to make the trip to Frisco had done it and in many cases multiple times, the luster wore off. The tailgate on a random September or October had lost it's cache for the "cool thing to do on a Saturday afternoon" in Fargo. We lost the casuals and even some of the hardcores who really just wanted to see quality football and knew that even though the team could potentially lose one or two games a regular season, NDSU was still making the playoffs so they would mostly check out until then. Sure, they'll check the score and maybe even watch a game or two on TV, but it was no longer an event to plan around. Like it or not, the teams NDSU will be playing now, are perceived as a higher level of competition by those casuals. People have heard of these schools, even if the people who are plugged into the actual game of football know that the MW schools aren't much of a step up from the MVFC. People have heard of UNLV, Hawaii, Air Force and they carry that brand recognition with them when they show up in the FargoDome. I also think you are underplaying how good NDSU still has been the last 6 years. 2021: 14–1 (FCS National Champions) 2022: 12–3 (FCS National Runner-Up) 2023: 11–4 (FCS Semifinals) 2024: 14–2 (FCS National Champions) 2025: 12–1 (FCS Second Round) In the minds of the casual fans, this 5 year run is still 3 trips to frisco and a loss in double overtime in a thriller that would have had them make the championship game 4/5 years. That's not a fall off by anyone's definition.

What is your evidence that fan disinterest isn’t real? I’m an NDSU fan and talk with NDSU fans all of the time, they were bored. In many cases, they were not renewing season tickets, they were not tailgating, they took a “I’ll plug back in once the playoffs start” approach to the team. It was very real.

For someone not discounting NDSU's success, you sure do a solid job of spending the rest of your post discounting their success. I travel everywhere in the US for work, it isn't just north Fargo thinking NDSU football has become a name people recognize in football circles as a high quality brand of football. I think you should buy the bored fans "schtick", its very real.

I agree with what you are saying, but you could even put 95% of of G2(as you appropriately name it) schools in this category also. Boston College,California (Cal),Duke,Georgia Tech,Louisville,Miami (FL),NC State,North Carolina (UNC),Pittsburgh,SMU,Stanford,Syracuse,Virginia,Virginia Tech,Wake Forest,Illinois,Iowa,Maryland,Minnesota,Nebraska,Northwestern,Purdue,Rutgers,UCLA,USC,Wisconsin,Arizona,Arizona State,Baylor,BYU,Cincinnati,Colorado,Houston,Iowa State,Kansas,Kansas State,Oklahoma State,TCU,Texas Tech,UCF,Utah,West Virginia,Arkansas,Auburn,Florida,Kentucky,Mississippi State,Missouri,Oklahoma,South Carolina,Tennessee,Texas A&M,Vanderbilt. Quick google of schools that have yet to make the CFP. Many of which have no reasonable reason to think they ever will. Playing football can't just be about winning the national title, otherwise 90% of the teams wouldn't field a team.

I literally said, "you don't go from FCS to P4 overnight", you quoted and bolded it. You're hatred for NDSU has blinded you to the brand recognition that NDSU has gained nationally in the last decade. Any objective viewer realizes NDSU is viewed favorably by people nationally who know football. Through my work, I'm in touch with a lot of former DI football players throughout the country, NDSU is known.

Sure

I think even without NDSU that is still true

I agree with you that the MVFC is better than the MAC

I’m sure there are many uneducated football fans who think it’s a massive step up. I’m not one of them, so I can’t speak for them. Also, MVFC in my mind is head and shoulders above every other conference in the FCS. Not indicative of the quality of play at the FCS level at large. As an example, LIU is an FCS school and if UND had kept the pedal down, that game could’ve been 80-0. Not a shot at UND, who I have a ton of respect for, but LIU is not a school that takes football seriously. There are many of them in the FCS and it got to the point where at times it was embarrassing for a school that takes football seriously to be associated with schools like that. USD against CCSU is another example. I know there are some relatively bad teams in the G6. Some of them are in the mountain west even, but they still are fully funded with scholarships and carry the DI-FBS designation, which means they will be for the most part a step up from the vast majority of FCS games. Outside of the traditional powerhouse programs. NDSU will no doubt have some growing pains and some humbling moments in this transition, some of our fans could use some humbling. But FBS is where NDSU belongs, I wish we had made the move a decade ago.

Financially, I agree. But you don’t go from FCS to P4 overnight. I have to assume many G6 teams who see football as primary, would love to be a part of the P4 long term, but that isn’t an easy transition. I see NDSU as a regional powerhouse who has gained some national recognition for their sustained success. Unless something drastic changes with population in the upper Midwest, NDSU should always be playing at the “second level” of college football. When NDSU moved to FCS, I don’t think the split between, at the time, G5 and P5 was as big as it is today. It was seen more as one I-A divisions, though there was still the haves and the have nots. Nowadays, FCS has transitioned into a true 3rd tier in my mind. G6 is now what the FCS From the late 90’s/early 2000’s was. We’ll see what the future holds, but FCS has seen most of its historically great teams leave and to me, no longer fit the identity NDSU has for itself. I think the Dakotas and Montana teams fit a similar mold, though NDSU seemed to separate itself from that crew in terms of support for football in the last 15-20 years.

Does that linebacker play offense too? That was an ass whooping, one player wasn’t making a difference, especially not at that position.