North Dakota State football to join Mountain West in 2026, per report
North Dakota State football to join Mountain West in 2026, per report
Ehsan Kassim, USA TODAY NETWORK Sun, February 8, 2026 at 10:12 PM UTC
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North Dakota State is moving up in the college football world.
According to ESPN's Pete Thamel, the Bison have agreed to a deal to join the Mountain West Conference, in football only, for the 2026 season. The school is expected to pay nearly $12 million to join the league, and will pay the NCAA another $5 million to the NCAA to move from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).
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Thamel reported the deal is expected to be announced on Monday, Feb. 9. With NDSU moving to the MWC in 2026, that'll bring the league's total to 10 teams.
The Bison have won 10 of the last 15 FCS football championships and were the No. 1 seed in the 2025 FCS playoffs before losing to fellow Missouri Valley Football Conference team Illinois State in the first round. The Redbirds advanced all the way to the 2026 FCS Championship game where they fell 35-34 in overtime to Montana State.
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Of note: NCAA bylaws prohibit teams making the jump from FCS to FBS from competing in bowl games or conference championships for two years. That's why James Madison teams that went 8-3 in 2022 and 11-2 in 2023 were ineligible to compete for the Sun Belt Championship or bowl games, as they were in their first two years competing in the FBS.
There are exceptions to the rule: James Madison and another FCS-to-FBS program, Jacksonville State, both became bowl-eligible in 2023 after it was determined there were not enough teams eligible for bowl season that year.
The addition of North Dakota State to the conference aids a league that lost Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State to the Pac-12 in the latest round of NCAA realignment.
Despite the mass departures, Air Force, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV and Wyoming all opted to stay in the conference. Hawaii is joining the league as a full-time member, while UTEP will join as a full member during the summer. Northern Illinois and NDSU joining as football-only members will bring the total to 10 teams.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NDSU to join Mountain West Conference for football only in 2026
Source: “AOL Sports”
