North Dakota State Football to Pay Hefty Price to Make Jump to FBS, Mountain West

North Dakota State, the most successful football program at the FCS level, will move up to the FBS, joining the Mountain West Conference ahead of the 2026 season. In totality, the move will cost the university $17 million, with a Mountain West entrance fee of $12 million in addition to the $5 million that it now costs for programs to move up in the NCAA, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger previously reported on talks between the two sides, stating that the eight-figure entrance fee was a major negotiation point.

The Bison have been a force at every level in which they’ve competed on the gridiron. The program won eight national championships at the Division II level from 1965 to 1990. NDSU jumped to Division I and the FCS football level in 2004, claiming its first national title at that level in 2011. It was the first of five consecutive FCS national titles for the Bison, who would add to the trophy case in ‘17, ‘18, ‘19, ‘21 and ‘24.

Alongside rivals like North Dakota, South Dakota, South Dakota State and this year’s upstart Illinois State, North Dakota State helped make the Missouri Valley Conference one of the most competitive in college football. Now, they’ll look to take a leap as member of the Mountain West, a league looking to establish an identity after losing many of its most impressive members to the rebuilding Pac-12 conference. Adding a dynastic program like the Bison, who have proven they can compete with FBS programs numerous times over the last few years, is a solid step forward.

The move is expected to be a football-only jump for North Dakota State, with the rest of the Bison programs expected to remain in the Summit League.

How the Mountain West Conference football membership looks with addition of North Dakota State

NDSU will become the 10th football-playing member of the Mountain West, joining eight existing programs and Northern Illinois, which has a similar arrangement after leaving the MAC and parking the rest of its sports in the Horizon League. With many of the Mountain West’s existing members leaving for the Pac-12, here is what the league looked like in 2025, and what league membership will be in ‘26.

(Teams in italics are leaving for the Pac-12, teams in bold are new additions for 2026, * indicates football-only members.)

2025	2026
Air Force	Air Force
Boise State	Hawai’i
Colorado State	Nevada
Fresno State	New Mexico
Hawai’i	North Dakota State*
Nevada	Northern Illinois*
New Mexico	San José State
San Diego State	UNLV
San José State	UTEP
UNLV	Wyoming
Utah State
Wyoming

UTEP is the only school joining as a full-time member from a different FBS league, leaving Conference USA—its home since 2005—to join the Mountain West.

What Pac-12 membership will look like in 2026 after poaching from the Mountain West

The Pac-12 was hollowed out by the last major round of conference realignment. The Big Ten was the initial aggressor, grabbing UCLA and USC and later Oregon and Washington. The Big 12 added Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah in the wake of those moves, while Cal and Stanford made the geographically confounding jump to the ACC.

Oregon State and Washington State, sitting on a pile of exit fee money from their former conferencemates, reformed the Pac-12, with the league to be reborn as a Group of 6 conference in 2026. Most of the new members come from the MWC, but the Pac-12 also added fast-growing Texas State from the Sun Belt and brings in basketball power Gonzaga as a non-football-playing member.

(Teams in bold are new additions for 2026, * indicates basketball-only member.)

2026 Pac-12 membership
Boise State
Colorado State
Fresno State
Gonzaga*
Oregon State
San Diego State
Texas State
Utah State
Washington State

Other affiliate Pac-12 members for non-revenue sports as of 2026 include Arkansas-Little Rock, Cal Poly, Cal State Bakersfield and Northern Illinois (men’s wrestling), Dallas Baptist (baseball) and Southern Utah (women’s gymnastics).

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