HONOLULU — When perennial FCS football power North Dakota State officially joined the Mountain West Conference as a football-only member on Monday, Hawaii coach Timmy Chang had one immediate thought.

“(It’s like) when Boise made the step up to the WAC,” Chang said of the old Western Athletic Conference that he competed in for UH in the early 2000s.

NDSU, which won 10 of the last 15 FCS national championships, will play its first season as an FBS member in the MWC in 2026. There are now 10 football-playing institutions in the league, which has gone through a substantial overhaul with five members joining the Pac-12 this summer.

When the MWC had nine football-playing schools, the math was simple as every team would play everyone else with eight league games. In December UH received its notification of which teams it would see at home and on the road. But now the league must redo it; every school will miss one MWC opponent.

A Mountain West spokesperson told Spectrum News on Tuesday that “we hope to have the opponent matrix soon, followed by the 2026 MW schedule.”

The schedule is typically released in late February or early March.

It is about 3,800 miles from Honolulu to Fargo, N.D., a comparable distance to DeKalb, Ill., for Illinois State, another football-only member joining in 2026.

The Bison of NDSU play in the Fargodome, a 19,000-seat indoor venue. Fargo sits along the eastern border of North Dakota with Minnesota.

“Should be a fun environment when they come here,” Chang said after spring practice on Tuesday. “And when we go, there should be a should be a great environment.”

Boise State, a national contender at the Division I-AA (now known as FCS) level in the early 1990s, moved to I-A (FBS) in 1996. UH would beat the Broncos in 1996 under Fred VonAppen and in 1999 under June Jones in the programs’ first two meetings.

But from there, the narrative completely flipped as the Broncos got acclimated. BSU has won 16 of the last 17 meetings in the series, with the exception UH’s perfect regular season in 2007. Chang experienced how good the Broncos got in a relatively short amount of time in his playing career from 2000 to 2004, when Dan Hawkins led BSU.

“They were great program, like North Dakota State, and so it kind of has that similar view when I was playing in 2000,” Chang said. “It was very, very hard to beat (them). Tough Boise State years under Hawkins and then under Chris Petersen. And they really just kind of built that tradition. And you can see it carried over with Coach (current coach Spencer) Danielson.

“So North Dakota State will have a similar feel,” he added. “I think just for us, we’ve been in the Mountain West. We know the Mountain West, I think we’re comfortable in who we are and what we do and what we’re about. The style of matchups are gonna clash.”

The Bison went 12-1 in 2025, losing 29-28 at home in the second round of the playoffs to eventual runner-up Illinois State. They’re 9-5 all-time against FBS opponents.

“One of the concerns was, ‘Will NDSU be competitive?’” NDSU interim university president Rick Berg said. “I think we will. Unlike others, we’ve been preparing for this moment for years and years, and I think they’re going to be surprised when NDSU hits the Mountain West.”

NDSU must pay a $5 million reclassification fee to the NCAA for the move and a $12.5 million entry fee to the Mountain West, athletic director Matt Larsen confirmed at a news conference on Monday. Those costs will be privately funded by boosters and donors, Larsen said.

The Mountain West declined to detail to Spectrum News how it will distribute entry fee money to its existing membership.

In addition, the program will need more scholarships and staff support and a bigger travel and recruiting budget. NDSU also won’t be able to fully access conference or College Football Playoff revenue until 2032 after the current media rights contracts expire. But in a state with no major professional sports franchises, the Bison enjoy robust fan support in the growing Fargo area and from a proud network of alumni in the region. The university has about 9,700 undergraduate students this school year.

“There’s going to be an increase, and it’s going to be a significant increase, but we’ll get it to a level where we can compete based on dollars in Fargo, North Dakota,” Larsen said.

The Bison moved all of their athletic teams to Division I in 2004, after winning eight NCAA Division II football titles.

“The Bison bring a championship mindset and a bold vision for growth that aligns with the unwavering commitment to the excellence of the Mountain West. Their dedication to elevating the student-athlete experience — on the field, in the classroom, and throughout the community — will energize the Mountain West and help propel our football profile to new heights nationwide,” Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said in a statement distributed by the conference.

North Dakota State’s move will take effect on July 1, mirroring the departure Northern Illinois is making for football only from the Mid-American Conference. Texas-El Paso will become a full member for all sports starting with the 2026-27 school year, along with Hawaii, which was already playing football in the Mountain West. UC Davis, which will remain in the FCS, and Grand Canyon, which does not play football, will join the Mountain West for all sports except football.

The holdovers are Air Force, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV and Wyoming. Departing the Mountain West for the rebuilt Pac-12 starting in 2026-27 are Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State, a move that has pitted the two conferences against each other in court over exit fees.

NDSU will immediately play a full eight-game conference schedule but won’t be eligible for the Mountain West title game or the College Football Playoff until the 2028 season. For the next two years, they can only play in a bowl game if there aren’t enough eligible teams to fill all the spots, as Delaware and Missouri State were able to do in 2025.

North Dakota State will remain in the Summit League in other sports for now.

Note: The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.