North Dakota State

[rocket city poke]

Sources: North Dakota State joins Mountain West for football

FCS powerhouse North Dakota State has finalized an agreement to join the Mountain West Conference in football only starting in 2026, sources told ESPN.

www.espn.com

It’s happening, wow! $12 million is surprising too

They are doing football only. The entire athletic department budget at NDSU is $30 million. UW's budget is $55 million. Good argument UW could just stay in the MWC for football move to Summit with NDSU for all other sports and save $25 million. https://knightnewhousedata.org/fbs/mwc

 

[Douglaspoke]

Before Utah State moved into the MWC conference we thought of them as being a lower level, and now they have left the MWC to enter the PAC12......Wyoming is just a speed bump on the way to higher levels for so many schools... We used to be competitive with BYU at one time, and Utah and now look where they are and we are! We once played Arizona and Arizona St. in the same conference. Now CSU has moved along with Utah State.

and we would beat Arizona & A-state.

BIGHORN you are so right!

 

[OrediggerPoke]

They are doing football only. The entire athletic department budget at NDSU is $30 million. UW's budget is $55 million. Good argument UW could just stay in the MWC for football move to Summit with NDSU for all other sports and save $25 million. https://knightnewhousedata.org/fbs/mwc

How does Wyoming going to the Summit help us at all?!?!? NDSU is in the summit because it can bus their olympic teams to most conference opponents. The Summit would be MORE travel (to more obscure destinations) for Wyoming.

 

[307bball]

and we would beat Arizona & A-state.

BIGHORN you are so right!

I used to love reading articles in national publications that profiled Wyoming athletics.....smart media folks used to love keeping tabs on Wyoming. Those were the days.

 

[tnkl_42]

This is a cultural comedown for NDSU and not all that great for the MW. As a destination the Fargodome seats 18,700 and as for road games it's doubtful that many NDSU faithful will travel to places like El Paso, Laramie, San Jose or Colo Spgs. They lose some traditional rivals although I'm sure they'll keep their annual game vs the U. of North Dakota. The upside for the Bison is that now they can schedule a couple of higher-$$ OOC body bag games to help with revenue. And the TV revenue piece is better than what they had in FCS.

Meh all around.

NDSU likely will have SDSU join them next year imo. When the Dakotas began to jump from D2 to D1, NDSU went first and SDSU followed a year later, with UND and USD coming 4 years after that. Those two schools care far too much about the Dakota marker game and it sells far too many tickets for them to leave it dormant. I could maybe see NoDak jump in 5ish years but I think they'd be more worried about hockey, and USD won't. The DakotaDome is far too small and their fanbase struggles to fill it, only one game this year over 90% filled (hell they only had 39.4% capacity filled for the FCS first round game, and that probably had decent road fan turnout since Drake aint far down the road). Dakota Marker as a MW rivalry week game would be insanely fun and I'd be here for it

 

[McPeachy]

I used to love reading articles in national publications that profiled Wyoming athletics.....smart media folks used to love keeping tabs on Wyoming. Those were the days.

We could...mind you COULD...be a national darling. We are being held back by the AD, Prez, and BOT for starters.

 

[McPeachy]

NDSU likely will have SDSU join them next year imo. When the Dakotas began to jump from D2 to D1, NDSU went first and SDSU followed a year later, with UND and USD coming 4 years after that. Those two schools care far too much about the Dakota marker game and it sells far too many tickets for them to leave it dormant.

Wyoming & CSewe used to feel that way as well...not sure that NDSU moving to the MWC opens any doors for SDSU quite honestly. I guess we will see in a few years, but all bets are off these days in college sports for me, I hate the direction, and the shuffle.

 

[tnkl_42]

Wyoming & CSewe used to feel that way as well...not sure that NDSU moving to the MWC opens any doors for SDSU quite honestly. I guess we will see in a few years, but all bets are off these days in college sports for me, I hate the direction, and the shuffle.

The shuffle has gone past me as well, I do think a big difference between the dakotas and the border war is that now it's a subdivision between. Both UW and CSU brass can claim the game is equal since both are FBS and still scheduling, now that NDSU and SDSU are in different subdivisions, the game isn't equal and maybe won't even be played. These two have met every year since 1946 so while I can see them staying apart given where everything is, I doubt SDSU will let NDSU be "above them" for too long. I say within 3 years we get SDSU in the FBS, maybe not MW but D1-A for sure

 

[cowpoke pride]

I'm honestly (pleasantly) shocked that MWC got them.

 

[Midwest Cowboy]

I am amazed as to how Tom Burman and the MWC is constantly looking for teams that we can lose to! Now that is thoughtfulness..............

Before Utah State moved into the MWC conference we thought of them as being a lower level, and now they have left the MWC to enter the PAC12......Wyoming is just a speed bump on the way to higher levels for so many schools... We used to be competitive with BYU at one time, and Utah and now look where they are and we are! We once played Arizona and Arizona St. in the same conference. Now CSU has moved along with Utah State.

I am tired of the "excellence" BS that has been spread by Tom Burman for 20 years, the only thing he has done is to take a proud strong D1 program and watch us slowly devolve into a program somewhere between a FBS and an FCS level program.....

I am not at all disagreeing with your sentiment. I've been a loyal Pokes fan since 1995. We haven't been competitive with BYU since the late 1960's and Utah since 1990. That is a long time and its not fair to hang that on Burman. We haven't had a whole lot to cheer about since before TB. There's probably a lot of reasons for Wyoming being stagnant for 4 decades. Utah went from 1.4M people in 1980 to 3.6M people in 2025 (about 157% increase). Wyoming went from 469,557 in 1980 to 588,000 in 2025 (about 25%). Growth equals money. We probably align pretty well with the Dakota schools and Montana schools.

I can't think of anything negative about NDSU joining the MW. Yes, it would be cool to pick up some larger programs from surrounding states. But I like the regional aspect and I think I am good with NDSU. Wish we could pull from Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska...but we cant.