Photo courtesy Josh Lynnes.
THIS WEEK: Fifth-ranked North Dakota State (3-0) visits 10th-ranked North Dakota (2-1) in the Missouri Valley Football Conference opener for both teams at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 2, at the Alerus Center (12,283) in Grand Forks. Both teams, along with fellow MVFC member Northern Iowa, are coming off bye weeks as the rest of the conference opened play last weekend.
THE SERIES: This is the 114th meeting between North Dakota State and North Dakota dating back to 1894. It is the 10th most played rivalry among current Football Championship Subdivision members. UND has a 62-48-3 lead in the all-time series, but NDSU has won all three meetings as Division I opponents in 2015, 2019 and 2021, all in Fargo. This is NDSU’s first trip to Grand Forks since 2003, the last season of Division II football for the Bison. UND won that game 28-21 in overtime, and the Bison are 0-2 in the Alerus Center including a 19-7 loss in the building’s inaugural season, 2001, which drew a stadium-record crowd of 13,500.
Most Played Rivalries (Current FCS Members)
156, Lafayette-Lehigh, since 1884
142, Yale-Princeton, since 1873
136, Yale-Harvard, since 1875
131, William & Mary-Richmond, since 1898
126, Penn-Cornell, since 1893
124, Yale-Brown, since 1880
123, Harvard-Dartmouth, since 1882
120, Harvard-Brown, since 1893
119, Montana-Montana State, since 1897
113, North Dakota-North Dakota State, since 1894
34 STRAIGHT AFTER OPEN WEEKS: North Dakota State has won 34 straight games after open weeks in the regular season and postseason including last year’s 23-20 win at Northern Iowa. The streak includes 19 home games, seven road games and eight national championship games in Frisco, Texas.
CONFERENCE OPENERS: North Dakota State has won 10 straight Missouri Valley Football Conference openers since 2011 and the Bison are 10-3 in conference openers since joining the MVFC in 2008. NDSU is 5-3 when opening MVFC play on the road.
BACK-TO-BACK ROAD GAMES: North Dakota State has back-to-back road games on the schedule twice this season, including this week’s game at North Dakota. The Bison won back-to-back road trips in conference play five straight seasons before splitting its only back-to-back road trips last year losing 38-14 at Southern Illinois before bouncing back to beat Missouri State 25-0.
ON THE ROAD: North Dakota State has a 44-5 record in true road games since 2011, and that record is 54-5 including 10 neutral site games over the same span. NDSU’s 2-2 road record in the spring season of 2020-21 was the first time since 2010 the Bison have lost multiple road games.
UND HOME WINNING STREAK: North Dakota has won 12 straight games at the Alerus Center, which is the third longest active home winning streak in the FCS behind James Madison (19) and Eastern Washington (18) and ahead of Montana (11) and Alcorn State (11). NDSU owns two of the top 10 all-time FCS home winning streaks at 32 games (4th, 2017-20) and 26 games (9th, 2012-15).
ROLLING INTO CONFERENCE PLAY: North Dakota State enters conference play undefeated for the 10th time in the past 11 years after sweeping through its non-conference schedule with a 3-0 record against Albany, Valparaiso and Towson. The Bison are 32-1 in their pre-conference games since 2011 with the only loss coming in the 2015 season opener at 12th-ranked Montana, 38-35.
150th STRAIGHT WEEK: This is the 150th straight week North Dakota State has been ranked in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 dating back to 2010. The Bison are currently ranked fifth in both the Stats Perform media poll and American Football Coaches Association coaches poll. NDSU has been ranked in the AFCA poll for 154 consecutive weeks. NDSU started the season ranked third in AFCA poll and fourth in the Stats Perform poll.
TOP 10 ROAD GAMES: North Dakota State has an 8-6 record in true road games against FCS Top 10 opponents since 2004, not including NDSU’s 2003 win as a Division II program at third-ranked Montana. The Bison are 6-2 in their last eight Top 10 road games.
NDSU Road Games vs. FCS Top 10 (since 2013)
9/28/2013 at #6 South Dakota State (W, 20-0)
10/3/2015 at #5 South Dakota State (W, 28-7)
9/9/2017 at #6 Eastern Washington (W, 40-13)
10/14/2017 at #8 Youngstown State (W, 27-24 OT)
11/4/2017 at #8 South Dakota State (L, 21-33)
10/5/2019 at #6 Illinois State (W, 37-3)
10/26/2019 at #3 South Dakota State (W, 23-16)
5/2/2021 at #4 Sam Houston State (L, 20-24)
NO. 1 RUSHING ATTACK: North Dakota State ranks No. 1 in the FCS this week averaging 348.3 rushing yards per game. The Bison are the only team in the FCS over 300 yards per game on the ground and also lead all of Division I with 7.92 yards per carry (ahead of the school-record pace of 6.41 set in 1988 and nearly equaled in 2018 and 2019). Only Air Force of the Mountain West Conference is better than the Bison averaging 357.2 rushing yards over four games. NDSU has four running backs averaging over six yards per carry in TaMerik Williams (9.1), Jalen Bussey (9.0), Dominic Gonnella (8.2) and Kobe Johnson (6.1), plus fullback Hunter Luepke averaging 11.5 yards on eight carries and quarterback Quincy Patterson’s 5.2 average on 22 carries.
BISON NO. 2 IN DEFENSE: North Dakota State ranks second in the FCS allowing just 4.3 points and 196.7 yards per game. Princeton leads the country with back-to-back shutouts of Lehigh and Stetson and only 145.0 yards allowed over its first two contests. The Bison and Tigers are the only two teams allowing less than 200 yards per game, and Montana is the only other FCS team allowing less than 10 points per game ranked third at 7.0 ppg. NDSU is ranked first in third-down conversion defense allowing just 17.5 percent followed by Princeton at 18.5 percent.
*Courtesy Ryan Perreault, NDSU Athletics
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