Crimson Tide at Fargodome in September of ‘26
Bison football has been one of the most dominant programs across the country for the greater part of the last 60 years. North Dakota State has a great deal of championship pedigree, especially in the last decade-plus, as they’ve won nine national championships and appeared in another over the past 12 seasons at the FCS level.
While the Bison have been the cream of the crop in the Football Championship Subdivision of Division 1 football, the Alabama Crimson Tide has a similar story for themselves at the FBS level winning six titles since 2009. Now, the two top teams in college football at their respective levels will square off against one another for the first time ever.
North Dakota State Athletic Director Matt Larsen said, “Alabama has been heralded as the kings of college football for quite some time now. We’re thrilled that we get the opportunity to play this historic program.”
Many Bison fans may be very skeptical of this as they usually are of many things nowadays, but let’s not lose track of the NDSU’s recent FBS success. North Dakota State is 9-4 all-time against FBS schools. One of those wins though, as many may remember, was a 23-21 win against #13 Iowa back in 2016. However, the Nick Saban-led Tide is a whole new level of football.
We were not able to contact Coach Saban for a comment and will therefore allow him to focus on his program and avoid the ‘rat poison’ of the media.
However, former Bison linebacker Jabril Cox said in a tweet, “My Bison about to get a real taste of the SEC. #Rollherd #GeauxTigers.”
Cox, who played for NDSU from 2016-2019, transferred to LSU for the 2020 season before getting drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Since the Herd already filled their 2023 and 2024 schedules with an FBS matchup against Colorado in the latter of the two, the two-game series will have to wait until 2025 and 2026. The Bison are also slated to play at Oregon in 2028, which was rescheduled from 2020. The 2025 season is already filled with a 12-game schedule against FCS schools and now the Herd will travel to Tuscaloosa late that season on November 15 at 11 a.m. as Assistant Athletic Director Ryan Perreault announced on Monday.
Alabama’s annual game against an FCS team the week before the Iron Bowl will now be against the Bison for those two years. Unfortunately for them, now they’ll face a potentially competitive opponent rather than a 3-8 team from the SoCon as they did in 2019.
Perhaps the biggest news of all is that in September 2026 the Crimson Tide will come to Fargo. The game on September 13 will be nationally televised on ESPN2 at 2:30 p.m. Those 19,000 seats are sure to be sold within just seconds so you’d better be ready to pounce when they are released.
“We’re excited and we sure hope we’ll have the support of our fans and students,” Bison Head Coach Matt Entz stated. “But again, we’ve got to make sure we’re locked in and ready to go come game day because it’ll be a tremendous challenge for our football team.”
Possibly, this may help the attendance numbers which have fallen in recent years Hopefully, this can prevent the early exits at halftime unless, of course, the game is a blowout…. which is very well possible.
“This is a results-driven program, but I’ll be proud of the guys if they put in the effort and compete,” Entz claimed. “We know the talent of the program coming in, but we haven’t built this football team on excuses.”