Reusse: North Dakota State joins long list of former FCS powers to move to FBS

There will be endless memories of the FCS era for North Dakota State fans who populated the Fargodome for two decades, and No. 1 on that list could be the national semifinals against Georgia Southern on Dec. 14, 2012.

The Bison were at Georgia Southern’s 5-yard line with three minutes left, facing fourth-and-goal and trailing 20-16. Coach Craig Bohl said, “Let’s go,” and Brock Jensen reached the end zone on a quarterback draw.

The Bison held on for a 23-20 victory, then blew the doors off Sam Houston State 39-13 in the title game in Frisco, Texas — which became known as “Fargo South” over the years as the Bison made regular appearances to claim a championship. Mobs of North Dakotans made the drive to fill the stadium and the cheaper motels.

“That Southern game still gets talked about here,” said Mike McFeely, a Fargo Forum sports columnist. “Jensen’s TD — that’s still known as ‘Fourth Down and Frisco.’"

In 2014, Georgia Southern left FCS and moved to FBS, where it has regularly played in obscure, yet ESPN-televised bowl games. Sam Houston also moved to FBS, although not until 2023.

As Georgia Southern was leaving in 2014, NDSU was winning another FCS title — although this one required a 39-32 shootout victory over Coastal Carolina in the quarterfinals. Coastal left for FBS in 2017.

The Bison were back in Frisco for the 2015 title game and manhandled Jacksonville (Ala.) State 37-10. Jax State moved up to FBS in 2023.

Cignetti would go 0-2 in playoff games vs. NDSU, and then James Madison would leave for FBS in 2022. The coach would later become more famous after arriving at Indiana in 2024.

Georgia Southern. Sam Houston. Jax State. Coastal Carolina. James Madison.

All good rivals for NDSU come playoff time. All gone to FBS, along with lesser schools.

The FCS became the championship of The Plains and Mountains with NDSU, South Dakota State, Montana and Montana State as the four most powerful programs once James Madison headed upward — all the way to getting blown out in the opening round of this season’s 12-team College Football Playoff for the big boys.

If you’re going to fight the battle of the Plains and Mountains and you’re NDSU, you might as well do it for a full schedule, and throw in an occasional trip to Hawaii.

Simple enough: The Football Championship Subdivision is not what it used to be — even if the 12-0 Bison bowed out with a second-round loss to Illinois State in the 2025 playoffs in an all-time miracle loss.

There were only a couple of games within the Missouri Valley Conference that Bison fans still considered must-see. There were only 10,000 or so in the Fargodome when NDSU gave up that two-touchdown lead late in the playoff game against Illinois State.

McFeely was asked how long it took coach Tim Polasek to recover from the loss. “He’s such a forward-looking, on-to-the-next-thing person, I think he recovered better than you’d guess,” McFeely said.

Especially when the next thing on the burner was a move to FBS — something that NDSU was working to keep under wraps, even though this was about Year 5 of speculation.

Grant Olson, an all-time great Bison linebacker from 2010 to 2013 who is now Polasek’s defensive coordinator, said:

“Nobody asked me, and why would they? I’m an assistant coach. And I love pouring football into young men, see them grow and develop as people and players right in front of your eyes.

“That’s it.”

Polasek said when the players were told Sunday that this was happening, they leapt up and gave athletic director Matt Larsen and others a raucous standing ovation.

“We have unique personalities on this team, but as a group, they are ultra-competitive,” said Olson, a former Wayzata High standout. “They want this.”

Olson started coaching full-time as a graduate assistant for Bohl (the first leader of the Bison’s FCS dynasty) at Wyoming in 2015. He was at Indiana State for two years, then came back to Fargo as the linebackers coach for Matt Entz.

Except: “That Illinois State loss … that was a shocker. It left a major chip on my shoulder. I wanted to right that wrong. That won’t happen. So, congratulations to Illinois State."

On to spring drills, spring practices.