This week it was announced that the University of Minnesota Golden Gopher football team had their schedule set through the 2025 season. When it was posted on the websites of the two radio stations I work at, KFGO.com and
740thefan.com
and posted to the station’s Facebook pages, NDSU fans came out of the woodwork to comment that Minnesota was scared to schedule Bison. I have one statement on that, “NDSU football fans, get over yourselves.”
Minnesota has scheduled home and homes with BYU, Colorado, North Carolina and Mississippi State. If you think one moment that the Gophers are ducking NDSU to play teams from the ACC, Pac-12 or the best conference in FBS football, the SEC you are completely delusional. The truth of the matter is that NDSU has FBS games scheduled for almost the next half decade against Oregon, Colorado and Arizona; so it is hard to match-up Minnesota and the Bison right now, unless the Bison wanted to play two FBS teams in the same season. While fans might like that idea, if they are being honest to the public and the fans, the administration and coaches don’t want to go through that gauntlet along with the Missouri Valley Football Conference schedule.
Minnesota has huge fish to fry, and what or if they play a FCS school from the Dakotas isn’t one of them. Yes, Bison football is huge around here, I love it myself and hope the team wins game after game year after year, but I am also realistic about things. Reality is, most people in the Twin Cities can’t remember if NDSU is in Grand Forks or if UND is in Fargo. They aren’t afraid to lose to NDSU out of embarrassment, because to be frank, whether they schedule, SDSU, a school from FBS conferences like the Sunbelt, MAC or Mountain West, it is embarrassing as heck, especially because it will mean a Big Ten lost to a lesser team at home. Losing to Northern Illinois or New Mexico State (and the Gophers did in 2010 and 2011), FBS schools who are supposed to be on a different tier than a Big Ten team is just as embarrassing as losing to NDSU; and yet they still schedule those teams.
Another thing that has been buzzing around is a false rumor that, “Oregon will buy the Bison out, they don’t want to lose to a FCS team.” Again, NDSU football fans, GET OVER YOURSELVES. This is not true, if they are bought out later this year it is not because the Ducks fear the Bison, it will be for business reasons.
As someone who cheers for them to win, I beg other Bison football fans to understand, you don’t have to make up these stories or rumors to justify NDSU’s football greatness. What has happened the last decade stands on its own for the Bison. Don’t embarrass yourself trying to prop up your favorite team on ridiculous and false narratives about other schools in the region. It makes you look silly.