{"id":739271,"date":"2026-02-09T02:21:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T02:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/739271\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T02:21:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T02:21:19","slug":"north-dakota-state-football-news-bison-joining-mountain-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/739271\/","title":{"rendered":"North Dakota State football news: Bison joining Mountain West"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>North Dakota State football spent Saturday in \u201cserious dialogue\u201d about <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/ncaa-football\/mountain-west-in-serious-dialogue-to-add-north-dakota-state\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">potentially joining the Mountain West Conference<\/a>. Now that&#8217;s become a reality.<\/p>\n<p>ESPN College Football insider Pete Thamel revealed NDSU <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PeteThamel\/status\/2020601477312717212?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">making the elevation<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/tag\/super-bowl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Super Bowl<\/a> Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNorth Dakota State has agreed to a deal to join the Mountain West in football only for 2026. The school is expected to pay nearly $12 million to join the league, which is in addition to the $5 million it will pay the NCAA to move to FBS,\u201d Thamel posted on the social media website X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>The Bison rise as the latest team to become involved in conference realignment.<\/p>\n<p>What Mountain West looks like with North Dakota State joining<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3623433\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Tim-Polasek-of-NDSU.jpg\" alt=\"North Dakota State Bison head coach Tim Polasek calls out in the second half against the Colorado Buffaloes at Folsom Field.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\"  \/>Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>The realignment cycle rearranged the MWC.<\/p>\n<p>Gone will be traditional powers San Diego State, Boise State and Fresno State. Colorado State and Utah State also join those three into the new Pac-12 Conference effective 2026. The conference will keep Oregon State and Washington State but also is adding Lonestar State representation with Texas State joining.<\/p>\n<p>Now what does the MWC look like ahead of the &#8217;26 season?<\/p>\n<p>San Jose State and Hawai&#8217;i will remain. Same with Air Force, New Mexico, Wyoming, Nevada and UNLV. But now UTEP leaps from Conference USA and over to the MWC. And the Miners aren&#8217;t the only newcomer here.<\/p>\n<p>MAC powerhouse Northern Illinois is another jumping ship \u2014 handing the MWC additional Midwest representation.<\/p>\n<p>But now NDSU hands NIU a Midwest neighbor. Yet the Bison bolting out of the Big Sky looked to be in the works for awhile.<\/p>\n<p>NDSU is the renown national powerhouse in the Football Championship Subdivision realm \u2014 with 10 national titles since 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Former Bison coaches have moved onto the MWC. Past NDSU national champion Craig Bohl led Wyoming including recruiting Josh Allen. <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/ncaa-football\/usc-football-news-lincoln-riley-lose-key-coach-fresno-state\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Matt Entz took over at Fresno State<\/a> this past season and went 9-4.<\/p>\n<p>This move looks bound to ignite <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/tag\/college-football-recruiting\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">College Football Recruiting<\/a> efforts for NDSU in the elevation to FBS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Dakota State football spent Saturday in \u201cserious dialogue\u201d about potentially joining the Mountain West Conference. Now that&#8217;s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[16074,7,49,48,505],"class_list":{"0":"post-739271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football-recruiting","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-super-bowl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116038290317999170","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739271","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=739271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}