Bison Game Day December 2, 2023

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BISON GAME DAY NORTH DAKOTA STATE

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2023

MONTANA STATE

►When: 2 p.m. (CST), at Bobcat Stadium, Bozeman, Montana ►TV: ESPN+ ►Radio: 1660-AM, 107.9-FM

BISON GAME DAY NORTH DAKOTA STATE AT MONTANA STATE

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North Dakota State celebrates its win against Sam Houston State to earn the 2011 NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision national title Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012, at FC Dallas Stadium in Frisco, Texas. That was the first Division I FCS championship for the Bison.

POWER IN FCS FOOTBALL HAS SHIFTED FROM EAST TO WEST The departure of key eastern teams and development of Big Sky and Valley teams creating divide

BY JEFF KOLPACK The Forum FARGO he NCAA Division I football realignment brigade continues to be a wild, wild west lifestyle, with Delaware the latest to have intentions moving from FCS to FBS. And in that regard, the balance of power has clearly shifted in much the same way Americans settled from east to west in the 1800s.

Head west, FCS, head west.

North Dakota State started the march, certainly, winning nine FCS national championships beginning in 2011. South Dakota State upped its game over the course of those years and the undefeated and No. 1-ranked Jackrabbits are gunning for two titles in a row this season.

The University of Montana was once the face of the Big Sky Conference, but in NDSU’s title tenure Montana State has increased its national exposure reaching Frisco, Texas, in 2021.

The Bobcats host NDSU at 2 p.m.

(CST) Saturday in the second round of the FCS playoffs at Bobcat Stadium, a facility that has seen growth much like the MSU program in general. Of the 16 teams remaining, the prohibitive favorites to reach the title game reflect a west-of-the-Mississippi River trend in the last decade.

Western-tilted teams SDSU, Montana, South Dakota, Idaho and Montana State make up five of the top six seeds.

The first reason is obvious: Most of the top teams in the eastern half of the U.S. have or are in the process of going FBS. “They were so tough to get past, thinking back eight, nine, 10 years ago,” said Montana State head coach Brent Vigen of the FCS departures. “At the same time, I look at the efforts and resources being put in the Big Sky and I think that’s changed in the last 10 years as well. You have to be invested to make the league deeper, make the

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David Samson / The Forum

North Dakota State and Montana State players, shown in the FCS title game at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, on Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022, squared off in the second round of the 2023 FCS playoffs on Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023, in Bozeman, Montana. competition better as the season goes along. I think there has been a real effort league-wide to raise the bar.”

Vigen said that’s been a constant point of discussion when the league’s coaches and administrators get together for meetings and talks. That said, the last Big Sky team to win a national championship was Eastern Washington in 2010, so the work is not done by any means.

“We’ve been fortunate to win a lot of games in this stretch but we’re still chasing that ultimate prize,” Vigen said. “We’re in this mix of 16 left and we want to find a way to survive and advance.”

Since the 1978 inception of Division I-AA, which changed its name to FCS in 2006, 26 of the first 31 national champions represented schools in either the east or southeast section of the country. It was bolstered, of course, by Georgia Southern winning six titles, Youngstown State claiming four championships in the 1990s and Appalachian State taking three in a row from 2005-07.

Montana represented a consistent threat to the eastern

domination of the subdivision, with the Grizzlies winning in 1995 and 2001 and finishing runner-up twice between those years.

As a result, the migration of programs moving up a division has been a slow, slow stranglehold on the quality of the FCS in the east. The Coastal Athletic Association has not only changed its name from the Colonial Athletic Association, but the CAA has been hard-pressed to equal the departures of Navy, Old Dominion, East Carolina, James Madison and to a certain extent Georgia State.

In 2022, the league added Stony Brook, North Carolina A&T, Monmouth and Hampton. This year, the league welcomed Campbell University.

The Southern Conference has been stripped just as strongly with Appalachian State, Georgia Southern and Marshall all moving up. VMI joined in 2014 and has finished last in the SoCon six times.

Wofford, once a perennial playoff team that played NDSU in the postseason in 2012 and 2017, has struggled since winning the

league in 2019. The FBS departures has led to a general overall perceived quality dip in the FCS. In 2012 and 2013, the FCS had 12 teams in the top 100 of the Sagarin Ratings, a power ranking of all D-I programs. This week, there are six.

Vigen became the MSU head coach in 2021, but efforts to raise the profile of Bobcat football were in motion before that. The football team unveiled the “Bobcat Athletic Complex” that year, a facility adjacent to the west end zone of Bobcat Stadium that houses the entire program, including locker rooms, meeting rooms, offices and sports medicine.

“Whether it’s the training room, strength training or nutrition, I think it’s been a huge jolt to this program,” Vigen said. “At the FCS level, development is the key. Certainly recruiting on the front end of that development is right there but I think we’ve been able to make some significant gains so we have a bigger, stronger, faster version of the Bobcats.”

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BISON NOTEBOOK

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North Dakota State defensive tackle Javier Derritt brings down Drake’s Dorian Boyland with help from linebacker Julian Wlodarczyk during the NCAA Division I FCS playoffs on Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023, at the Fargodome.

NDSU defense set for stern test against vaunted Montana State run game Montana State is the No. 2 rushing offense in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision

BY ERIC PETERSON AND JEFF KOLPACK The Forum FARGO

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he North Dakota State has been stingy against the run over its past six games, limiting opponents to 83.8 rushing yards per game during that stretch. Those stellar statistics are going to be put to the test this weekend.

Montana State has the No. 2 rushing offense in Division I FCS, averaging 293.4 yards per game. The Bison and the Bobcats play at 2 p.m. (CST) in the second round of the FCS playoffs at Bobcat Stadium.

“I’m proud of the way we’ve come together as a team and fought these last few weeks,” said Bison defensive tackle Javier Derritt. “We’ve had a lot of adversity this season and I think we continue to get better through that adversity.”

Running back Julius Davis and quarterbacks Tommy Mellott and Sean Chambers are the top three rushing threats in the attack.

Davis, a Wisconsin transfer, has rushed for 718 yards and six touchdowns on 104 attempts, averaging 6.9 yards per carry.

Mellott and Chambers have both rushed for at least 539 yards and are averaging at least 8 yards per attempt. Freshman running back Jared White has rushed for 514 yards and four touchdowns on 62 attempts.

“It all starts up front with us on the D-line, especially with us interior guys, holding the point of attack,” Derritt said. “You can’t be stuck on blocks, wrestling with guys and stuff like that. ... We’ve got to get off blocks, be really physical and get to the ball.”

Montana State has rushed for at least 211 yards in all but one game this season. The Bobcats were limited to 128 rushing yards on 23 attempts in a 24-21 road loss against Idaho in late October.

As a team, Montana State is

Forum file photo

Montana State quarterback Tommy Mellott (16) fires a pass against North Dakota State during the FCS title game Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022, at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas. Mellott has rushed for more than 500 yards this season in eight games to help lead a vaunted Montana State rushing attack. averaging a gaudy 7.3 yards per attempt.

“It’s a huge challenge, but we welcome the challenge,” Derritt said.

The Bison haven’t allowed more than 200 yards per game since a road loss at the University of North Dakota in mid-October.

Over the past six games, NDSU has limited its opponents to 2.7 yards per attempt.

The Bobcats, however, are statistically the best rushing team the Bison have face this season.

“We’ve got to get the guy on the ground ultimately,” Derritt said.

“We can’t miss tackles. That’s something that we work on every day as well. ... That’s the key to a championship defense. We know we’ve got to be able to tackle really well.”

Weather not expected to be a factor NDSU has the $54 million Nodak Insurance Football Performance

Complex, and when it’s not being used for other events, Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome for indoor practice space. But look for the garage doors at the Nodak Complex to be open this week to the adjacent outdoor practice field.

The temperature at kickoff for the playoff game at Montana State on Saturday is expected to be in the mid- to high-30 degrees.

At least it’s better than the last time the Bison played in Bozeman, when it was 17 degrees for the 2010 second-round game.

“We’ll get outside a fair number of times this week for some extended amount of time,” Entz said. “It’s something you have to deal with. I don’t make too big of deal out of it because everyone growing up played outside at some point. We all played outside when it was super cold and it didn’t seem to matter then so I don’t know why it’s going to mat-

ter now.”

The last time the Bison played a game in the mid-30s was last year at Southern Illinois. It was 35 at kickoff and the Bison prevailed 21-18. It was 39 with snow flurries when the Bison trounced Youngstown on the road in midNovember of 2021. NDSU also routed the Penguins in Youngstown 56-17 two years earlier when it was 39 degrees.

“The cold is not something we’re scared of,” Derritt said.

“It’s football. Football is an outside sport. ... It’s not going to be a hindrance on us, we’re still going to play very hard.”

The most recent ultimate bad weather game was in 2017 at Illinois State, when it was raining at kickoff, turned to sleet by halftime and snow in the second half. NDSU outlasted the Redbirds 20-7.

NOTEBOOK on G5

BISON GAME DAY NORTH DAKOTA STATE AT MONTANA STATE THE forum | Saturday, december 2, 2023

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NOTEBOOK CONTINUED from G4 Bison linebacker Logan Kopp, from St. Louis, Mo., thinks the Montana State game will be about as cold as the Southern Illinois game last season, which he said the weather wasn’t a factor then.

“We’re ready to attack it no matter what Mother Nature brings us,” Kopp

said. “There are a lot of outdoor stadiums up in the north and successful programs play late into November and December.”

Besides, Kopp said playing at Montana State or Montana has always been a goal for him. It’s possible if the brackets play out in NDSU’s favor that he would have the opportunity to do both in December.

“It’s been a little bit of a bucket list to play in Bozeman or Missoula at some point in my career,” Kopp said.

best all-time winning percentage in the FCS playoffs at .918. Marshall (23-6) is ranked second at .793.

• The Bison are set to play an outdoor game for Etc. Etc. Etc. the third time this season • NDSU tied Georgia Saturday at Bobcat StadiSouthern for the most FCS playoff wins with last um. NDSU played outdoors at Missouri State weekend’s 66-3 victory and South Dakota State against Drake. The Bison during the regular season. have a 45-4 record in the • Montana State holds a FCS playoffs, including a 21-16 edge in the all-time 35-1 record in the Fargodome. The Bison have the series — which dates back

to 1914 — against the Bison. NDSU has won the past four games, all in the FCS playoffs. The Bison earned a 42-17 road victory against the Bobcats in the second round of the 2010 FCS playoffs in Bozeman, Montana.

• The Bison are set to play their 50th game in the FCS playoffs, making only their fourth true road trip against Montana State. NDSU has played 36

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games in the Fargodome and 10 neutral site games for the FCS national championship in Frisco, Texas.

• Since the FCS bracket expanded to 20 teams in 2010 and to 24 three years later, the Missouri Valley has had two teams in the round of 16 every year.

The five this year tie a record set in 2014 and the spring 2021 season.

“It probably saturates EAST TO WEST recruiting a little bit,”

CONTINUED from G2

A football indoor performance center is in the MSU master plan, something NDSU already mastered with the $54 million Nodak Insurance Football Performance Complex.

Indoor facilities are common in the Missouri Valley Football Conference with over half of the league teams — NDSU, SDSU, USD, North Dakota, Northern Iowa, Illinois State, Youngstown State — having inside practice access.

It’s probably not an irony that those seven along with playoff roundof-16 qualifier Southern Illinois, which has a relatively new stadium, finished in the top eight of the standings. Money and recruiting are proven success commodities.

Speaking of recruiting, the movement of FCS eastern schools to FBS could be working against the remaining FCS programs. There are only so many Division I prospects out there and the concentration of so many FBS programs in the eastern half of the country may be limiting the pool of players.

At least that’s a theory of NDSU head coach Matt Entz.

Entz said, “versus the West Coast there are not as many Group of Fives.”

Entz said there are maybe a couple of outliers in the FBS American Athletic Conference like the University of Tulsa, some Mountain West Conference schools and a few in the Mid-American Conference that recruit in the northern tier of the Midwest.

“I think you’re seeing a divide or maybe a separation between truly Power Five kids and then a Group of Five/mid-major high level FCS kids that everyone is battling for,” Entz said. “At that point, a full ride is a full ride and kids are making a decision based on what’s best for them at that time.”

Whatever the case, the Bison vs. Bobcats on Saturday promises to be the power couple of playoff games on Saturday. Stats Perform writer Craig Haley, who has covered the FCS for years, tweeted it “is arguably the most power-laden Round of 16 matchup” in the Frisco title era, which began in 2010.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack at jkolpack@forumcomm.com.

Twitter@KolpackInForum

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