FARGO — North Dakota State has agreed to join the Mountain West Conference for football only 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.
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.
NDSU will join the conference in August and compete in the Mountain West this fall. The Bison expect to have to find a handful of noncoference games for this year.
A press conference has been scheduled for Monday. The Bison players were told in a team meeting earlier Sunday.
The MW will now be a 10-team league, but is expected to remain with eight conference games.
The Mountain West 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 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.
Check back at Inforum.com for more on this developing story.
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.