The Mountain West is in serious dialogue to add FCS powerhouse North Dakota State as a football-only member starting this coming season

[disco]

Then don't go until you can grow up in all sports.

Either you're trolling like an idiot, or you don't realize that the Summit, the MWC and the B1G are all at the same level in sports other than football. The FBS/FCS split is for football only. So there is no "growing up." They are simply staying in a conference in their other sports that is more conducive to travel expenses. Having to send the baseball team to Hawaii might be a bit more than they want to spend.

 

[Some guy]

I appreciate your perspective and I respect your opinion, but the Fargo/Moorhead metro is about 275,000 and growing rapidly. Industry and commerce are bursting; unemployment is virtually nil. The entire metro is rabid Bison country, as is all of SE North Dakota and the greater part of west central Minnesota.

There's no place in North America better positioned to graduate into a major market.

 

[swede2]

Perhaps they have been saving their bullets, not making investments in the current stadium in anticipation of needing to replace it so why throw good money after bad save it for the new one?

They've tried to upgrade the Fargodome very recently and the city's voters have said "no."

 

[swede2]

I'm speaking to you as someone who hates NDSU and its fans, but who's spent decades living among them. Familiarity breeds contempt. I'm not wishing for this; I'm telling you that the school aspires to move up, they've been doing it, they plan to keep doing it, and I expect it to continue.

Everybody acts like I'm talking about tomorrow. How long were they FCS? 22 years. It's a long game. The state is growing, the metro area is growing, and the school is growing. There are more alumni and there's more money every year. The Fargodome opened in 1992, so it's already 33 years old. They won't play in a 19,000 seat stadium forever. TCU plays in a 53,000 seat stadium. I'd be surprised if, as an FBS school, NDSU can't match that 10-20 years from now.

The school isn't really growing and enrollment is down from all time highs and demographic trends aren't favorable. ND Board of Higher Ed is notoriously cheap. TCU and NDSU aren't great comparables.