Embrace the “unrealistic expectations”: Bison fans should enjoy the inaugural year of FBS and keep dreaming big things for NDSU
By Joshua A. Swanson
On September 28, 2002, the mighty Augustana Vikings of the North Central Conference made the short drive up I-29 from Sioux Falls to the Fargodome and did something they hadn’t done since John F. Kennedy was President. When the final horn sounded at 9:35 p.m., they had beaten the Bison, handing North Dakota State their lunch, 23 – 6, before an announced crowd of 10,260 fans in NDSU’s NCC home opener. I sat in the first or second row of the student section for that one. It was ugly. The game had all the excitement of the then-popular and omnipresent Nokia cell phones that boasted five ringtones and the ability to store over 100 numbers. Good thing Chubs and the Turf were still serving up tall ones after what was, interestingly enough, an inflection point in Bison football history.
Walking away from the Dome that night, nobody—even this green and gold glasses-wearing homer—could’ve predicted that 24 short years later, the Bison would be the toast of college football, playing their inaugural season in the Football Bowl Subdivision, better known as the FBS. The same FBS that’s home to Notre Dame, Ohio State, Miami, Southern California, Alabama, and, well, you get the point. That’s what winning 10 FCS Championships in a 13-year span, hosting ESPN’s iconic College GameDay twice, playing on national television dozens of times, beating the likes of Kansas State and Iowa on the road, having SportsCenter visit campus a couple more times, and churning out a bevy of NFL Draft Picks, including five straight quarterbacks being drafted, will do for you.
Next up. Finish as the highest ranked Group of Six team, commonly called the “G6” in reference to the six FBS leagues consisting of the Mountain West, American Athletic Conference (AAC), Conference USA (CUSA), Mid-American Conference (MAC), Pac-12 Conference (reconstituted with new member schools) and Sun Belt Conference, and NDSU will find itself in the 12-team College Football Playoff field with the aforementioned likes of the Fighting Irish, Buckeyes, and Crimson Tide. Think that’s far-fetched? To paraphrase the iconic mascot head-wearing Lee Corso of GameDay fame, the guy who marched a live baby Bison out of the Fargo Theater on national television a few years back: Not So Fast, My Friend! Last year, James Madison, the same JMU that NDSU beat twice in the FCS Championship games in January 2018 and 2020, was one of the 12 teams in the CFP, falling to Oregon in the First Round, despite scoring 34 points. The head coach of the James Madison team the Bison bested 28 – 20 for the 2019 FCS Championship? Some guy named Curt Cignetti. Google him.
The expectations, however, couldn’t be any more different this go-round for the moonshot move to the Mountain West and FBS compared to when NDSU announced its departure from the NCC to what was then called Division I-AA in 2002 and later the Great West Football Conference in 2004. “New era, lower expectations” was the headline of an August 26, 2003 column in The Forum. For kicks and giggles, I was curious what informed and educated folks had to say about the Bison stepping up to FCS when it happened. Though The Forum’s online archives are a bit murky, it looks like Mike McFeely penned this column about the “new era” back in August 2003, in real time, when Craig Bohl and Gene Taylor forever changed the trajectory of North Dakota State with the single biggest decision in school history. To be clear, this isn’t snark or casting shade. As I said, leaving the Dome after that Augustana game in September 2002, anybody talking about NDSU jumping to FBS in the near future, and having an opportunity to play in a 12-team playoff with household names like Texas, Georgia, and, yes, Notre Dame and Ohio State, would’ve been laughed out of the room. No, this column aptly summarized a widely held belief at that time.
Here’s how that 2003 column explained expectations for NDSU’s move to FCS:
For the first time since Darrell Mudra took over an 0-10 program in 1963, there are no expectations on the Bison coach. Well, almost none. Bohl must avoid complete incompetence, steer clear of scandal and win, oh, five or six games. If he does that, this season should be considered a success. … Combine the current state of affairs with NDSU’s impending move to Division I-AA and Bohl’s job through the first several years of his tenure becomes one of marking progress more than measuring success strictly by wins and losses. The Bison will not be allowed to go 2-9, for sure, but if the signs of building are there—along with some victories — Bohl will be excused. Expectations, frankly, will be a little more normal. Or at least a little less abnormal. Die-hard Bison fans will find this hard to swallow, but in a perverse way last season [2002, where the Bison finished 2 – 8] might have been a good thing. Finally, all the unrealistic expectations can be buried. The current Bison coaches and players won’t have to live every day with what happened in the 1980s.
So much for burying unrealistic expectations. After all, it was another South Dakota team, the University of South Dakota, whose head coach, Dave Triplett, had prophetic words following NDSU beating his Coyotes 27 – 7 for the 1986 NCAA Division II National Championship, the third national title for the Bison in a four-year span. “I wish to hell they would get out of Division II,” said Triplett after the game. “They can go wherever they want.”
Is there a lesson to learn from our recent history in moving divisions? You bet there is. Embrace the unrealistic expectations, hug them dearly, cheer like hell every Saturday at the Fargodome, and do what you do, Bison Nation. Leading up to the first-ever FBS game at the Dome against Jacksonville State, Bison head coach Tim Polasek harkened back to doing what NDSU has always done to be successful in the course of winning 18 national championships and 35 conference titles in FCS and Division-II since 1964. “I hope our players hear me on this; there is no added pressure,” Polasek said. “The expectations have always been very high here. Good, clean, tough football is going to win out,” adding, “We’re not going to need some out-of-body experience to have a really successful year.” Amen, coach. Amen! Everybody up for the kickoff. The March Is On!
