The Mountain West conference announced North Dakota State University as its newest football-only member on Feb. 8. The Bison will be the third new addition to the conference for the 2026 football season, along with Northern Illinois University and the University of Texas, El Paso.
This was a major pickup for the Mountain West conference after losing six of its best performers to the Pac-12.
“Rising tide lifts all boats,” Nevada Athletics Director Stephanie Rempe said. “They’re a strong school that’ll come in and elevate our football league… Plus, I get to go to Fargo [North Dakota].”
North Dakota State made the move to the FBS after winning 10 of the last 15 FCS national championships.
“It was almost like it was too good of an opportunity to pass up,” Rempe said. “So then it was, do they make us better? Is it financially beneficial to us, and is it doable? And I feel like we checked each of those boxes.”
The Bison were added as a football-only member of the conference, a phenomenon that is becoming more and more common in the current collegiate landscape. Northern Illinois is also a football-only member.
“Of course you want a clean X number of spots, X number of championships, everybody’s in the league,” Rempe said. “Even when the Pac-12 was, you know, in their prime, they still had affiliates… So it’s not uncommon, but each [school] is looked at very specifically.”
