North Dakota State to Join Mountain West As Football Member in 2026

After years of dominating at the FCS level, North Dakota State will finally make the jump to FBS—but it won’t come cheap.

On Monday, the Bison announced they had agreed to a deal to join the Mountain West as a football-only member in 2026.

To join the Mountain West—and a new level of college football—the Bison will have to pay close to $20 million. They owe the NCAA $5 million in application fees to jump from the FCS to FBS level. They’ll also pay the Mountain West about $12 million as an entrance fee, according to ESPN. 

The Bison have long been considered one of the top candidates to jump to the FBS level, having dominated the Missouri Valley Football Conference and winning 10 overall FCS championships since 2011. (One of their top FCS rivals, James Madison, made the jump to the Sun Belt in 2022, before the NCAA application fee rose from $5,000 to $5 million. Just three years after joining their new conferences, JMU appeared in the College Football Playoff this year.) However, the Bison won’t be eligible for the CFP or the Mountain West conference championship until 2028. They can only compete in a bowl game during that period if there aren’t enough bowl-eligible programs to fill bowl slots.

NDSU athletic director Matt Larsen called the move “historic” in a statement Monday. “Our football program has earned this opportunity through the sustained success and leadership of our student-athletes and coaches past and present,” he said. “Joining the Mountain West is an exciting new opportunity for our team to compete at the highest level, for our fans to see FBS opponents coming to Fargo, and for Bison football to reach a wider national audience through expanded television coverage.”

For the Mountain West, the deal will bring the conference’s football-playing members up to 10. The numbers will strengthen the conference after being raided by the Pac-12 in 2024, when it learned it would lose five members. (The two conferences remain embroiled in litigation over poaching fees stipulated in the football scheduling partnership in 2024.) The news also comes days after the Mountain West unveiled its next media rights package, which includes Fox Sports, CBS, the CW, and Kiswe.

“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,” commissioner Gloria Nevarez said. 
Though the possibility of NDSU joining the Mountain West wasn’t a new concept, talks between the parties ramped up last week, a source told FOS. The news of those talks were first reported by Yahoo Sports on Friday night, and a deal was finalized over the weekend. FOS confirmed that a deal had been finalized Sunday afternoon, just a couple hours before the Super Bowl kicked off.