FARGO — North Dakota State football has agreed to join the Mountain West Conference in 2026, according to NDSU Athletic Director Matt Larsen.
The Bison are heading to the Division I FBS conference after dominating FCS for the past 15 seasons, including 10 national championships. There is no exit fee upon immediately leaving the Missouri Valley Football Conference, where the Bison won six outright titles and shared it five other times. They will remain in the Summit League for all other sports except wrestling, which is in the Big 12 Conference.
NDSU signed a contract to join the Mountain West late last week. The Mountain West signed the agreement Sunday, according to Larsen, making the move official. It will be spendy, with a $5 million transition fee to the NCAA for FBS membership in addition to a $12.5 million fee to the Mountain West, all of which sources say will be privately raised.
A press conference has been scheduled for Monday. The Bison players were told in a team meeting earlier Sunday, with sources indicating the announcement was met with a loud approval. NDSU has been in talks with the league on and off for the better part of the four years university president David Cook has been in office. The recent move to membership only got serious in the last couple of weeks, however.
The Mountain West will now be a 10-team league, but teams are expected to play eight conference games each year. The league will undergo a transition this year. Five of the current 12 football members — Boise State, San Diego State, Utah State, Colorado State and Fresno State — are leaving to join the reconstituted Pac-12 Conference.
That leaves UNLV, New Mexico, Air Force, Hawaii, Wyoming, Nevada and San Jose State as legacy members. They will be joined by new additions, NDSU, Northern Illinois and Texas-El Paso for 2026.
Northern Illinois was added as a football-only member in 2025 and UTEP was invited as an all-sports member in 2024. Both will officially become Mountain West members on July 1. The Bison will make it 10 football-playing members.
None of the Mountain West members have posted their league football schedules, but the slate is expected to be finalized in the coming weeks. It’s not certain if NDSU will hold on to any of its current nonconference games, but the expectation is at least one FCS game will be on the table. NDSU had four non-Valley games scheduled: at Incarnate Word (Texas), home against Tennessee State, at Central Arkansas and home against Austin Peay (Tenn.).
Current FBS regulations calls for a two-year ban from reaching the 12-team College Football Playoff or being bowl eligible, although there is a stipulation in the second year that if there aren’t enough teams that reach the mandatory six wins for a bowl game that NDSU could be considered.
It’s significantly less than the five-year reclassification the athletic program went through when it moved from Division II to Division I beginning in 2003. NDSU was not eligible for the FCS playoffs until 2008. That was done in conjunction with South Dakota State, but NDSU is going solo on this move with no other FCS schools being part of the discussion.
As part of opting in to the NCAA vs. House settlement last summer, the Bison can allocate up to 105 full scholarships for football, but it’s doubtful they’ll go beyond the old FBS maximum of 85. The FCS maximum was 63, although with the ability to use partial scholarships, around 85 players last season were on some sort of financial aid. FBS doesn’t allow partials, meaning all scholarships now will be full rides.
The Bison football roster is not expected to change before next season. The players are currently in winter conditioning with spring football beginning in March.
The announcement comes on the final weekend for President Cook, who is leaving for the same post at Iowa State. Former North Dakota lawmaker and Fargo businessman Rick Berg is the interim president until a successor is named, which is expected before football season begins.
NDSU’s departure from FCS means regional rivalries with South Dakota State and the University of North Dakota are over for the time being. The Missouri Valley Football Conference will still be in good shape with nine remaining members, with the others being South Dakota, Youngstown State, Northern Iowa, Murray State, Southern Illinois, Indiana State and Illinois State. Missouri State left for FBS and Conference USA after 2024 and Western Illinois departed for the FCS Ohio Valley Conference in 2023.
Former veteran Bison assistant coach Nick Goeser, who was part of all 10 national championships, was one of the first to comment on social media. “Congrats to NDSU! I had my doubts this day would happen,” he tweeted. “So happy for the administration, coaches, and players to take on this new challenge. Hoping this revitalizes the community and fan base. Can’t wait to watch that first FBS game.”
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.
