{"id":736492,"date":"2026-02-07T21:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T21:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/736492\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T21:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T21:05:10","slug":"north-dakota-state-in-talks-with-mountain-west-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/736492\/","title":{"rendered":"North Dakota State in talks with Mountain West conference"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                                                        <img width=\"760\" height=\"507\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/web1_ColoFB-1.jpg\" class=\"img-fluid h-100 w-100\" alt=\"RON CHENOY \/ USA TODAY \/ AUG. 29, 2024&#10;                                Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver Travis Hunter (12) pulls in a touchdown reception past North Dakota State Bison cornerback Jailen Duffie (17) in a 2024 NCAA football game in Boulder, Colo. North Dakota State is talking with the Mountain West about joining the conference as a football-only member, Yahoo Sports reported.\" style=\"max-height:600px;object-fit:contain;\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>RON CHENOY \/ USA TODAY \/ AUG. 29, 2024<\/p>\n<p>Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver Travis Hunter (12) pulls in a touchdown reception past North Dakota State Bison cornerback Jailen Duffie (17) in a 2024 NCAA football game in Boulder, Colo. North Dakota State is talking with the Mountain West about joining the conference as a football-only member, Yahoo Sports reported.<\/p>\n<p>North Dakota State is in a \u201cserious dialogue\u201d with the Mountain West about joining the conference as a football-only member starting next season, Yahoo Sports reported.<\/p>\n<p>The Football Championship Subdivision powerhouse\u2019s long-awaited move to the Football Bowl Subdivision could be finalized as soon as this weekend, according to Friday\u2019s report. The terms are reportedly still being hammered out, including a potentially substantial entry fee for the Fargo-based school to join the Mountain West.<\/p>\n<p>School officials said in statement today, \u201cNorth Dakota State University is regularly involved in conversations about the future of collegiate athletics, including conference affiliation. We are aware of media reports and will have no further comments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur focus remains on supporting our students, faculty and staff, and honoring our academic and research commitments as a student focused, land grant, research university, and communicating directly with our community when there is definitive information to share.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>North Dakota State would become the league\u2019s 10th football team for 2026, joining newcomers Northern Illinois and University of Texas-El Paso along with Air Force, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV and Wyoming.<\/p>\n<p>North Dakota State has won 10 of the past 15 FCS national championships, most recently in 2024. The Bison finished 12-1 last season, losing to Illinois State in the second round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>                        Don&#8217;t miss out on what&#8217;s happening!<\/p>\n<p class=\"email-form-blurb m-0\">Stay in touch with breaking news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It&#8217;s FREE!<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.staradvertiser.com\/tag\/uh-football\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More UH football coverage<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RON CHENOY \/ USA TODAY \/ AUG. 29, 2024 Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver Travis Hunter (12) pulls in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,49,48,5157,10664],"class_list":{"0":"post-736492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-sports-wire","12":"tag-uh-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116031386122988722","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}