THIS WEEK: It’s a battle of Top 10 teams this week when No. 2-ranked North Dakota State hosts sixth-ranked North Dakota at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5, at Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome (18,700). Both teams are atop the Missouri Valley Football Conference with 4-1 records overall and 1-0 in the league.
TICKETS: Tickets were sold out as of Monday, but some tickets are available through SeatGeek, the official secondary ticket marketplace of NDSU Athletics. Returned team tickets, if available, will go on sale Friday morning at 8 a.m. on GoBison.com/tickets.
TELEVISION: Saturday’s game will be televised on ABC stations statewide in North Dakota with Dom Izzo (play-by-play), Kyle Emanuel (analyst) and Sam Goetzinger (sideline) handling the call. The broadcast will also be available to ESPN+ subscribers on ESPN.com and the ESPN app.
RADIO: Statewide network coverage begins at 1:30 p.m. on all 25 stations across the Pioneer Seeds Bison Sports Network including Bison 1660 and 107.9 The Fox in Fargo with Sam Neidermann (play-by-play), Phil Hansen (analyst) and Noah Gindorff (sideline). Streaming is available on GoBison.com/allaccess and the NDSU Athletics mobile app.
WEEKLY SHOWS: Fans are invited to join the NDSU head coach Tim Polasek each Thursday night from 6:30 to 8 p.m. for the Bison Football Coaches Show live from Holiday Inn Fargo with host Sam Neidermann and other NDSU coaches and players. The show can be heard on Bison 1660 in Fargo, KSJB-AM 600 in Jamestown, KYCR-AM 1440 in Minneapolis, GoBison.com and the NDSU Athletics mobile app. On television, The Bison Football Show airs statewide each Sunday night at 10:35 p.m. on WDAY (Fargo), WDAZ (Grand Forks), KBMY (Bismarck) and KMCY (Minot).
THE SERIES: This is the 117th meeting between North Dakota State and North Dakota dating back to 1894, the 10th most played rivalry among current FCS programs. UND leads the all-time series 63-50-3, but NDSU has a 5-1 edge as Division I opponents since 2015. The Fighting Hawks won 49-24 last year in Grand Forks. UND has lost four straight in Fargo since a 12-6 victory in the 2002 Trees Bowl game.
LAST WEEK: North Dakota State opened the Missouri Valley Football Conference schedule with a 42-10 road win over 15th-ranked Illinois State last week. The Bison led 14-7 at halftime and opened up the game with touchdowns on their first four possessions of the second half. NDSU rushed for 307 yards, controlled the football for nearly 39 minutes, and went 10 of 13 on third down. Defensively, the Bison had five sacks while holding the Redbirds to eight net rushing yards and 4 of 12 on third down.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: North Dakota State had two players honored by the Missouri Valley Football Conference for the second straight week. Defensive tackle Eli Mostaert was named MVFC Defensive Player of the Week for the first time in his career after recording two of NDSU’s five sacks in the win at Illinois State. Running back CharMar Brown was named Newcomer of the Week for the second straight week after rushing for 100 yards on 17 attempts. Brown, who rushed for 126 yards against Towson, is the first Bison running back to rush for 100 yards in back-to-back games since Kobe Johnson in 2022.
IN THE POLLS: While NDSU has held steady in the national polls at No. 2 behind defending national champion South Dakota State, UND moved up two spots this week to No. 6 in the AFCA coaches poll and No. 7 in the Stats Perform media poll after a 72-35 home win over Murray State. This is the fourth straight week all four FCS programs in the Dakotas have been ranked among the Top 10. South Dakota moved up one spot to No. 4 in both polls this week.
TOUGH SCHEDULE: North Dakota State’s schedule currently ranks second toughest in FCS with 12 opponents combining for a 31-19 record (.620). East Tennessee State moved into the Stats Perform media poll at No. 23 this week with a 3-2 record including back-to-back road wins over Elon and The Citadel after the loss to NDSU. Colorado (4-1) has won three straight over Colorado State, Baylor and Central Florida heading into a home game this week with No. 20 Kansas State.
MILLER PASSES JENSEN: NDSU’s Cam Miller went 20-for-23 passing for 216 yards and three touchdowns at Illinois State last week. It was his 15th career 200-yard passing game, surpassing the school record held by Brock Jensen, who passed for 200-plus yards in 14 games from 2010 to 2013.
MR. EFFICIENCY: Quarterback Cam Miller has passed for more than 200 yards in eight of NDSU’s last 11 games and has not thrown an interception in 216 attempts over that span. He leads the FCS in completion percentage (.783), pass efficiency (187.6) and points responsible for (86), and is third nationally with 9.9 yards per passing attempt.
LONG BALL: NDSU quarterback Cole Payton‘s 73-yard touchdown run at Illinois State is the longest play of the season for NDSU and the longest of Payton’s career, which includes TD runs last year of 61 against Maine, 65 against Northern Iowa and 70 against Eastern Washington. Payton led the Bison last year with 10 touchdowns going 20 or more yards.
OFFENSIVE LEADERS: North Dakota State leads the FCS in completion percentage (.756), ranks second in third down conversions (.569), total first downs (128) and time of possession (36:29), and third in team passing efficiency (179.9) in this week’s NCAA statistics. NDSU is fourth in the FCS for total offense averaging 463.4 yards per game, which is on pace to be the best season of total offense for the Bison since the 2019 team averaged 469.5 yards per game. Only four NDSU teams at the Division I level have averaged over 450 yards per game. The school-record is 474.6 yards per game by the 1969 national championship team.
NDSU Total Offense (since 2004)
471.7 ypg — 2018
469.5 ypg — 2019
463.5 ypg — 2007
463.4 ypg — 2024
457.5 ypg — 2013
RETURN GAME: North Dakota State’s punt return team ranks fifth in the FCS averaging 18.88 yards per return. Returners Jackson Williams and John Gores both have 67-yard punt returns this year and Gores ranks fourth in FCS with an average of 16.8 yards per return. Williams is 12th in the FCS with 28.0 yards per kickoff return including returns of 55, 44 and 35 yards.
BIG KICKS: Prior to his 54-yard field goal at East Tennessee State, Eli Ozick‘s 51-yard field goal on his first career attempt against Tennessee State was the longest field goal by a Bison kicker in eight years when Cam Pedersen hit from 52 yards in the 2016 season-opener against Charleston Southern. Ozick has booted 32 of 36 kickoffs into the end zone with 31 touchbacks helping the Bison limit opponents to just 52 return yards through five contests.
BISON PICKED SECOND: North Dakota State was picked to finish second in the Missouri Valley Football Conference behind two-time defending national champion South Dakota State. NDSU had 10 players on the MVFC preseason team. First-team picks were FB/LS Hunter Brozio, OT Grey Zabel, DE Dylan Hendricks, DT Eli Mostaert, LB Logan Kopp and S Cole Wisniewski. Second-team honorees were QB Cam Miller, TE Joe Stoffel, OT Mason Miller and K Griffin Crosa.
PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS: NDSU led the country with eight preseason FCS All-Americans selected by Stats Perform. NDSU DT Eli Mostaert, S Cole Wisniewski and LS Hunter Brozio were on the first team, QB Cam Miller, OT Grey Zabel, DE Dylan Hendricks and LB Logan Kopp were second team, and K Griffin Crosa was third team. The Missouri Valley Football Conference had 24 of the 106 preseason honorees, the most of all 13 FCS conferences.
AWARD CANDIDATES: North Dakota State has six players on preseason watch lists for national player of the year honors. QB Cam Miller is listed for the Walter Payton Award, presented annually to the FCS Offensive Player of the Year. Miller finished 11th in the voting last year. DT Eli Mostaert, LB Logan Kopp and S Cole Wisniewski are up for the Buck Buchanan Award, presented to the FCS Defensive Player of the Year. Kopp tied for 22nd in the voting last year. Kaedin Steindorf is on the FCS Punter of the Year watch list, and Griffin Crosa is on the preseason list for the Fred Mitchell Award, presented to the top placekicker among the FCS, Division II, III, NAIA and NJCAA.
NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS: North Dakota State is 84-6 against non-conference opponents since the beginning of its first FCS national championship season in 2011. Two losses were to FBS opponents (31-28 at Arizona in 2021 and 31-26 at Colorado in 2024) and two were in the playoffs to the eventual national champion (27-17 to James Madison in 2016 and 24-20 at Sam Houston State in 2020-21). Montana’s 31-29 double-overtime win in the 2023 FCS semifinals and 38-35 victory in the 2015 FCS Kickoff are NDSU’s only other non-conference loss the past 13 years.
BISON AT HOME: The Bison have a 191-29 record in the Fargodome, 33-6 at home against FCS Top 10 ranked teams, and winners of 84 of the last 86 home games over non-conference opponents. North Dakota State has a 35-1 record in the Fargodome during the NCAA playoffs and has won 17 straight home playoff games since the 2016 semifinal loss to eventual national champion James Madison. NDSU’s 32-game home winning streak September 2017 through April 2021 was fourth longest in FCS history.
CROSA ON RECORD PACE: NDSU’s Griffin Crosa is on pace to break multiple scoring records. Crosa, entering his fourth season as NDSU’s top placekicker and his sixth year overall with the Bison, ranks third in field goals made (46), second in PATs made (218) and fifth in total points (356). He is also within reach of the MVFC and NCAA FCS extra-points record of 261 set by NDSU’s Cam Pedersen from 2015 to 2018. His streak of 127 consecutive PAT conversions snapped in 2023 was the third longest in Missouri Valley Football Conference history. Crosa led the MVFC last season with 19 field goals, 70 extra points and 127 total points.
NDSU Career Points Scored
399 – Cam Pedersen, K, 2015-18
386 – Jeff Bentrim, QB, 1983-86
384 – Lamar Gordon, RB, 1998-01
362 – Griffin Crosa, K, 2019-23
359 – Adam Keller, K, 2011-14
NDSU Career PAT Kicks Made
261 – Cam Pedersen, 2015-18 (MVFC and FCS record)
224 – Griffin Crosa, 2019-23
191 – Adam Keller, 2011-14
NDSU Career FG Made
56 – Adam Keller, 2011-14
51 – Shawn Bibeau, 2006-09
46 – Cam Pedersen, 2015-18
46 – Griffin Crosa, 2019-23
42 – Aaron Pederson, 1998-01
FOURTH-YEAR STARTER: Quarterback Cam Miller has started 43 straight games for NDSU since the middle of the 2021 season. Miller has led NDSU to a 35-10 record as the starting QB, including two NCAA playoff games in the spring 2021 season.
RECORD SEASON: NDSU quarterback Cam Miller completed a school-record 72 percent of his passes last season going 208-for-289 with 19 touchdowns and four interceptions. That was the third best completion percentage in Missouri Valley Football Conference history. Miller set NDSU and MVFC records in 2023 with 23 consecutive completions against Central Arkansas (17) and South Dakota (6). He enters the North Dakota game with a streak of 11 games and 216 pass attempts without an interception.
TOP FIVE PASSER: North Dakota State’s Cam Miller is among the top five passers in NDSU history ranked third in passing attempts, completions and yards, and fourth in touchdowns. He also ranks first in career passing completion percentage (68.9%), third in pass efficiency (161.8), fourth in yards per passing attempt (8.9), and sixth in Bison history with 41 career rushing touchdowns, tying the Missouri Valley Football Conference record of 41 rushing touchdowns by a quarterback set by NDSU’s Easton Stick from 2015 to 2018.
NDSU Career Pass Attempts
1,124 – Brock Jensen, 2010-13
980 – Easton Stick, 2015-18
858 – Cam Miller, 2020-23
841 – Steve Walker, 2004-07
612 – Carson Wentz, 2012-15
NDSU Career Pass Completions
703 – Brock Jensen, 2010-13
598 – Easton Stick, 2015-18
591 – Cam Miller, 2020-23
534 – Steve Walker, 2004-07
392 – Carson Wentz, 2012-15
NDSU Career Passing Yards
8,693 – Easton Stick, 2015-18
8,598 – Brock Jensen, 2010-13
7,613 – Cam Miller, 2020-23
7,033 – Steve Walker, 2004-07
5,115 – Carson Wentz, 2012-15
NDSU Career Passing TDs
88 – Easton Stick, 2015-18
72 – Brock Jensen, 2010-13
60 – Steve Walker, 2004-07
57 – Cam Miller, 2020-23
45 – Carson Wentz, 2012-15
NDSU Career TDs Responsible For
129 – Easton Stick, 2015-18
107 – Brock Jensen, 2010-13
98 – Cam Miller, 2020-24
88 – Jeff Bentrim, 1983-86
85 – Kevin Feeney, 1995-98
NDSU Career Total Offense Yards
11,216 – Easton Stick, 2015-18
9,838 – Brock Jensen, 2010-13
9,449 – Cam Miller, 2020-24
7,230 – Kevin Feeney, 1995-98
7,144 – Steve Walker, 2004-07