FBS or FCS? The Difficult Decision

“Should North Dakota State be an FBS program?” This was a question for football head coach Chris Klieman in his postgame press conference.

“No, we like it right where we are at in FCS,” Klieman responded.

And Klieman is right. With the big win 23-21 over the Iowa Hawkeyes last Saturday, the question was bound to come up.

The Bison have only lost three games to FBS opponents since moving up from Division II. The win streak against the FBS has extended to six. With five straight national championships, is it time for the jump?

Avid college football fans will know that the Big 12 is looking for new members. The Big 12 also happens to be the conference North Dakota State wrestling competes in. It all makes sense.

Hold your horses. The move to FBS would not be a good idea at this point.

The question Bison Nation needs to ask themselves is this: Would you rather keep winning FCS championships, or be an (above) average side in FBS?

While the win over Iowa proves that the Bison can compete with the top teams in the nation, there is a difference in doing so week in and week out.

It is just something about all sports, any team can win on any given day. In reality, upsets are just the improbable happening, not the impossible.

ESPN’s Football Power Index gave the Bison a 9.1 percent chance to beat Iowa. So you are saying there was a chance?

The thing is though, could they win with those odds all year long. The Bison are currently the biggest winners in Division I in the last five years, with 74 wins since 2011. Alabama comes in second, nine wins behind the Herd.

Is it really worth giving up all of those wins? Bison fans love winning and they have been spoiled lately. At some point, the wins were dry out, even possibly slightly. Then there is the effect this will have on game attendance. Yes, the Fargodome will be sold out regardless, but that is another issue.

One of the biggest things that is holding the Bison back is the darling Fargodome. It is an absolutely great place to play in, but it is simply too small. For hypothetical reason, lets say NDSU joins the Big 12. The Fargodome has less than half the capacity of the conference’s smallest stadium (TCU’s Amon G. Carter Stadium, 45,000).

An expansion to the Dome would be needed, and that offers up even more issues. If the Bison were forced out of the Dome for a season, where would they play? The old home in Dacotah Field can’t cut it.

And how would the expansion be funded? Maybe with some of the money NDSU gets from winning championships. There is no way to buy all the attention NDSU has gotten for winning five straight championships into numbers.

Besides, in many eyes outside of Fargo, NDSU is still that plucky little FCS team that can cause an upset. There is not a lot of things more loved in American sport culture than the underdog. Given, NDSU can’t really be considered an underdog an any game anymore, but we do now have a title along the lines of “Giant Slayer”. No matter what happens in the next four years, when the Bison roll into Eugene, Oregon to take on the Ducks, they will still be underdogs.

Let’s not forget another part of the excitement of FCS, playoffs. Playoffs are the most exciting time of the year no matter what sport. FBS has a playoff system, but it is nowhere near that of the FCS.

At the end of the day, NDSU has proven that it can play with very good FBS teams. Yet, why would we want to give up what we have? If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.

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