By admin 
The Bison have been here before, thundering through California’s capital with a runaway football team.
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This happened when North Dakota State was adding to its growing legacy, nearly 60 years ago, that included triumphant stops in Sacramento.
The Bison won Camelia Bowl games at Sacramento City College’s Hughes Stadium to cap the 1969 and 1970 seasons, stampeding past Montana both times. The 1969 Bison bunch went 10-0 and was named small-college national champion, and the ‘70 group went 9-0-1.
On Saturday night at Hornet Stadium, the Bison defeated Sacramento State, 31-10, in a meeting of college football’s two newest members to the NCAA Division I FBS ranks, the highest classification in the sport.
A national ESPN audience and a crowd of 13,322 could see that the Bison were every bit as good as advertised in the first quarter alone, an FCS juggernaut that is 4-0 this season and poised to challenge for the Mountain West Conference. It was 21-0 after the first quarter and 28-0 in an instant after that, as North Dakota State continues to roll along on a wave of years of sustained momentum, including winning 10 FCS national championships in the previous 15 seasons.
North Dakota State went 9-5 against FBS teams during its dominating FCS run and went 198-22 overall from 2011 through 2025.
Neither team scored in the third quarter, when much of the crowd hit the exits, and Sac State finally found the end zone in the fourth quarter. The Hornets scored their first touchdown since their 52-0 home-opening effort over Mississippi Valley State on Sept. 5, a 21-yard strike from Jackson Sharma to Onterrio Smith Jr., the former Folsom High School star who has had a strong junior season. Fresno State beat Sac State 49-3 last week.
Sharman was gritty, taking hard hits but bouncing back each time. He passed for 238 yards. For the Bison, Nathan Hayes passed for 210 yards and a touchdown, and DJ Scott and Myles Mitchell each ran for scores.
Sac State (1-3) remains a work in progress, but the growing pains include some welts and bruises to an already thin team that in the past two games has been without its preseason offensive leader in quarterback Carson Conklin and defensive leader in linebacker Derek Houston, both out with injuries.
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The Hornets roster includes 73 new players from last season and a new head coach in Alonzo Carter, who knew this season would present a steep climb up in class. The Hornets anticipated competing one final season in the FCS this season, but a spring invite to the Mid-American Conference was welcomed news but with the underlined theme that this will take time. And in this sport, opponents don’t allow for a grace period.
The only other meeting between the Bison and Hornets was in 1988, in an NCAA Division II national semifinal, won by North Dakota State, 42-20. That was considered Sac State’s finest team until the 2019, 2021 and 2022 Hornets teams won Big Sky Conference championships under coach Troy Taylor, a run of success that thrust the Hornets onto the FBS radar.
Carter said he was impressed with his team’s grit in the second half, saying “it could have really gone sideways, really quick, but it didn’t.” He said his team has to play “clean football” and cannot afford turnovers, of which the Hornets had three on Saturday.
“It’s a loss,” Carter added. “I never come in here and ask for a participation ribbon, a pat on the back, a high five. I’m also a realist. We’re in the process phase with our program. I was really impressed with how we played the second half, the effort.
“Athletically, we can play with any team on our schedule. We don’t have the depth to spot good teams like North Dakota State two or three touchdowns. We’ll get this thing turned around. I’m excited about what we can do.”
Added Sac State defensive back Amari Wallace: “We could have played better. We got stronger in the second half, and we didn’t fall down.”
Sac State on Sept. 25 plays Massachusetts (3-0) in the Hornets’ first home MAC game.
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