Well, you can’t win them all. Though it would have been nice to see the Bison go undefeated on their quest of a six peat, that won’t be the case with the loss to South Dakota State this past weekend. This just goes to show you any given team can lose. That’s why you go out every day and give your all and fight day in and day out. The Bison can still get their sixth straight championship, but it won’t be easy.

North Dakota State are now ranked No. 4 in both the FCS Coaches Poll and STATS FCS Top 25. NDSU also fell to No. 3 in the Missouri Valley Football Conference behind SDSU and Youngstown State and one ahead of next week’s opponent of Western Illinois.

Next week’s game is a must win if the Bison want to finish off the regular season with hopes of winning the conference. With SDSU and YSU playing each other, being the top two teams in the conference, the Bison can’t afford to fall behind in the standings and try to play catch up for the rest of the season.

To go along with winning this week, the Bison need to win the next three. Northern Iowa and YSU are the next teams that NDSU will face after playing WIU. Depending on what happens with Indiana State and South Dakota, the Bison might have to win out to win the conference.

NDSU is going to need help if they hope to win the conference; however, it will be easier to determine what needs to happen once SDSU and YSU plays. YSU needs to win this one to make it easier for the Bison, but here is what needs to happen for the Bison. UNI is actually a big part of this. As stated, NDSU needs to beat UNI in a couple weeks, but UNI needs to beat WIU and SDSU to close out their regular season if NDSU wants to win the conference.

Say SDSU loses to YSU and UNI, it gives them two loses in the conference, and two more overall. They finish with a record of 6-2, 7-4. That’s if they win the rest of the games as well.

YSU beats SDSU, but loses to NDSU giving the Penguins a record of 7-1, 10-2. This is if YSU wins all their games besides NDSU.

NDSU needs to win out. That would give them a record of 7-1 in conference play and 10-1 overall. With two conference loses, that drops SDSU down and a win over YSU gives the Bison a share of the title. To fully claim the title, YSU needs to lose at least one more game.

Now this is the simplest scenario. Anything can happen, but the most important thing is NDSU wins out. Hands down that has to happen for a for sure shot. SDSU loses at least two more games. Losing to YSU for SDSU doesn’t need to happen but it will help a lot. SDSU just mainly needs to lose two more conference games so that the Bison have one more conference win than them.  YSU losing more games will definitely help for the Bison to be soul owners of the conference.