By admin 
In football, coaches remind the troops that game day is a chance to shine, to block and tackle with passion and purpose, and to knock the guy in front of you on his fanny.
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So wake up with chin straps fastened and mouthpieces in place.
Sacramento State’s team, to a man, understands who and what is invading Hornet Stadium on Saturday night on ESPN, a thundering herd of buffalo rooted in tradition in the form of the North Dakota State Bison. And it’s more than just two newcomers to the NCAA Division I FBS battlefield after decades toiling at the second-tier FCS ranks.
It would not be fair to compare the football programs because North Dakota State has won most all of its “tale of the tape” efforts over the decades. The Bison, to be sure, have been elite, and they are rightly celebrated as football heroes in Fargo as a sparkling example of sustained success.
Sacramento State started its football program in 1954 and has a trophy case that includes seven conference championships, the first three coming in Division II in 1964, 1966 and 1986. The school needed a student referendum vote in 1995 to help finance football— otherwise the program would have been eliminated, much like others in California in that era.
The Hornets in 1993 moved up to Division 1-AA (now called the Football Championship Subdivision, or FCS). The program’s heyday was winning Big Sky Conference championships in 2019, 2021 and 2022 under coach Troy Taylor, ushering in a time of program national rankings, sellout crowds and new optimism.
Those achievements jump-started the school’s effort to secure an invitation to join the Mid-American Conference months ago on a five-year commitment.
The Bison? You have a moment to digest all of this? They thunder to a different beat and stand as one of the storied programs in college football.
“Oh, they have my attention,” Sac State coach Alonzo Carter told The Sacramento Bee on Thursday morning. “You’re talking about one of the premiere programs in college football, any level, period. They’ve earned the right to sit in that seat, to be in the FBS. We’ve got to get into the ring and expect to trade blows. We know what’s coming.”
North Dakota State fielded its first football team in 1894, when Grover Cleveland was in the White House. The Bison have won 37 conference championships, the first in 1925, and they have reached the playoffs 39 times. They have won an NCAA-record 18 national championships, including 10 at the FCS level from 2010-2024. They are 3-0 this season in their first show at the highest level of the game as something of a no-brainer entry into the FBS and the Mountain West Conference.
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The Bison are deemed by coaches and media to be the top team in the Mountain West this season because their rolling momentum has not slowed down a bit. The Bison since 2011 are a gaudy 189-21. They have had the gall to stumble to three losing seasons since 1964, the last coming in 2002, the program’s final season in Division II. The Bison have recovered nicely.
North Dakota State can write a thesis on elite football. Sac State experienced this first hand and aim to go toe-to-toe Saturday in an effort to show it belongs in the same ring.
Sac State’s finest Division II team was the 1988 group that lost at North Dakota State in a national playoff semifinal. The Bison, naturally, won the championship that season, the program’s fifth in a seven-year span. The teams will play in Fargo next September.
Sac State’s growing pains
Sac State is a work in progress, sitting at 1-2 with a competitive 28-17 opening loss at Eastern Michigan in a Mid-American Conference opener, a home 52-0 romp over FCS-level Mississippi Valley State and a crushing, error-filled 49-3 setback at Fresno State, led by former North Dakota State head coach Matt Entz.
The Hornets have 73 new players on the roster this fall after 74 newcomers graced the roster in 2025 under one-and-done coach Brennan Marion, now the offensive coordinator with the Colorado Buffaloes. North Dakota State has remained stable with not near the amount of roster turnover.
“I am not naive,” said Carter, Sac State’s coach. “It’s going to take time. We’re developing this program to be great. But the bottom line is that even in this developmental stage for our program, we have to play clean football. We can’t have penalties — procedural, unsportsmanlike, pass interference in the red zone — and that’s all 100% correctable. North Dakota State can care less about what we did against Fresno State. We’ve moved on. We’re talking only about Saturday and what’s next.”
North Dakota State (3-0) at Sacramento State (1-2)
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
On air: ESPN, ESPN 1320 AM Radio
Of note: In beating Air Force in a Mountain West Conference opener last week, multiple North Dakota State players earned conference accolades. They include: Nathan Hayes for Offensive Player of the Week after passing for 228 yards and two touchdown (and he ran for one). Kicker Drew Klein was the Special Teams Player of the Week, and Myles Mitchell was the Freshman of the Week after rushing for two touchdowns.
Sac State and Fresno State played to a 0-0 tie in the first quarter before the host Bulldogs scored 32 in the second quarter in finishing the game with 542 yards of total offense. Against Fresno State, Ontario Smith Jr. led the Hornets in receiving for the second time this season.