Before the FBS started the 12-team College Football Playoff, the FCS level of Division I football has provided playoff action for years but never an upset like Saturday’s shocker.
Unseeded Illinois State stunned No. 1 seed North Dakota State (12–1), the defending national champions and 10-time FCS champions, at the Fargodome in Fargo. The Redbirds rallied late for a 29–28 victory when quarterback Tommy Rittenhouse threw a 6-yard touchdown pass followed by a two-point conversion.
Time ran out for the Bison, winners of 10 national titles since 2011. NDSU has a 38–2 home playoff record in the dome, and the Bison haven’t lost an early-round playoff game since 1997, when the program was Division II. The Bison won eight national titles as a Division II program.
The Bison have also mostly dominated the FCS since moving up in 2004, with a 15-year streak of deep playoff runs and 11 national championship game appearances. NDSU has beaten eight FBS teams, hosted College GameDay twice, produced two quarterbacks in the top three of the NFL Draft, and developed hosts of NFL players in the past 20 years.
The Bison’s dominance of the FCS has begged the question if the program would move up to the FBS amid the seismic shift of conferences across the country. Because of Fargo’s remote location and NDSU’s budget, the Bison have yet to make the move, and no FBS Group of Five conference has come calling.
That includes the Mountain West, MAC, and Conference USA as plausible landing spots.
Numerous other FCS powers have left for the FBS since the 2000s, which hasn’t hurt the Bison’s bid for FCS dominance. Georgia Southern, which once had had the most FCS titles at six, moved up to the Sun Belt Conference in 2014 when NDSU’s dynasty was underway.
Since then, other national champions or runner-ups have moved up, such as James Madison, Sam Houston State, and Jacksonville State. Most recently, one of NDSU’s old conference rivals, Missouri State, moved up and reached a bowl game—the inaugural Xbox Bowl against Arkansas State.
NDSU plays in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, considered the SEC of the FCS. Illinois State, which faced the Bison in the 2014 national championship game, also plays in the Missouri Valley.
However, the Redbirds had a dismal streak going against the Bison—14 consecutive losses. Illinois State head coach Brock Spack, who has coached the team since 2008, remembers well his team’s loss to the Bison in the 2014 title game when the Redbirds fell short, 29–27. Minnesota Vikings quarterback Carson Wentz played for the Bison that year and rallied the Herd to victory.
NDSU head coach Tim Polasek wasn’t overly shocked by what happened, even with his team amassing five interceptions in the game. Polasek, who won a title in his first season, received a seven-year contract extension before the playoffs.
“Defensively, we played really well today,” he continued. “We just didn’t generate enough first downs.”
NDSU took it to the Redbirds right off the bat when Bison quarterback Cole Payton completed a 73-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Bryce Lance to start the game. The Bison offense tallied just 106 total yards of offense after that and a 28–14 lead as less than three minutes left in the contest evaporated.
“If there’s any shock, we have to cultivate opportunity on offense,” Polasek said. “Just not enough first downs. We have to take complete ownership of that offensive performance out there.”
Illinois State’s win shakes up the 24-team FCS bracket, which is down to the quarterfinals after Saturday’s games. The other top three seeds, however, remain alive—No. 2 Montana State, No. 3 Montana, and No. 4 Tarleton State, which upset Army this year.
