In case you’ve been living in a ditch that doesn’t get radio frequency or Wifi, the Big 12 is potentially looking to expand. Or not. It sort of depends on the week. It’s more fickle than a high school relationship, but either they will or won’t … that’s for sure.
What it gives the world is an unlimited amount of columns about who fits into the Big 12, in which sports (football only?) and how it relates to the rest of the teams. And, of course, what Texas thinks about it.
Which begs the question … does Texas like anything about North Dakota?
While it won’t happen and frankly, doesn’t have a snowballs chance in hell of even generating a phone conversation betwixt the two, if you’re some cagey young intern in the Big 12 offices, you may as well get your name out there and suggest North Dakota State of the FCS as a damn good partner option for expansion.
While jumping FCS to Power 5 would be unprecedented, if you look at this from a 5-10 year arc, why not NDSU? Clearly, the FCS is getting to be old hat for the FIVE TIME defending champs. Since 2011, they have a 94 percent winning percentage. Only one of those title game victories was a 1-possession game.
And think of this wild statistic: since 2010, the Bison have gone 6-0 against FBS competition, including three wins over Big 12 teams. That … ahem … is the same number of wins Kansas has over Big 12 teams in the same time frame. And, um, they play nine Big 12 teams per year.
Obviously, the every-week grind of playing FBS competition comes with a heavy toll, especially for a school whose enrollment is under 15,000 in a sparsely populated state not known for it’s high school football … but then again, how many writers are Rivals and Scout deploying to North Dakota to actually watch games.
The lands could be lush, and we’d never know.
The Bison have had this wild success across two different head coaches and multiple different quarterbacks, too, including this season, where they’ve clipped two tough FCS teams and a top-15 FBS foe in Iowa with a new starter. Folks, it’s not one class, one staff, or anything else.
It’s one program that has found something special and isn’t going away anytime soon. The last-second win over Iowa in Kinnick ranks as their most impressive pelt on the wall, and easily the most unexpected seeing as they’d been engaged in two overtime battles with FCS foes prior.
They had 13 more minutes of football possession, nearly 130 more yards, and held Iowa to 1.4 yards per carry on 25 rushes. This is against the Big Ten West favorite, a team that went to the Rose Bowl last season and was within one loss to Michigan State of playing in the CFB Playoff. They had nine more first downs. Folks, this was a domination that was validated by a field goal kick, not some fluke, fortunate final drive that no one saw coming.
What’s clear is that NDSU is getting better, and in a one-game vacuum, is easily able to compete with highly talented teams at the FBS level. Though the property of transitive opponents is rubbish for the most part, Iowa played rival Iowa State a week earlier in a game where you throw out the records typically, and destroyed them.
It’s not one of those stories that rolls through to the upper crust of everyone’s though processes during the season, and as things roll on towards November and we get obsessed with Heisman talk and playoff odds, we tend to forget some of the unique things that happened earlier on.
But make no mistake, NDSU is doing something very, very special, and not many folks are taking notice of just how incredible an FCS team posting 6 straight wins over FBS foes is.
If the Big 12 is really looking to make a splash in expanding, why not NDSU? So grab a bottle of Old Camp and take a swig before a Friday staff meeting, Big 12 intern. It’s the best idea you’ll have had yet.
