LAS VEGAS — North Dakota State has beaten FBS teams often enough to make another upset feel like an inadequate ambition. The Bison went 9-5 against them while playing in the Football Championship Subdivision, winning six straight from 2010 through 2016. Now Tim Polasek has to prepare for what those celebrated Saturdays never required: come back the next week and do it again.
“Can we really stack up week in and week out rather than just winning one FBS game here and there?” Polasek said.
For a program that built its reputation on FCS championships, the first Mountain West season also changes how fans should judge the result. Polasek wants room for that adjustment without giving up the ambition that brought NDSU here.
“We’re going to have to be careful about how our fan base and how we look at what a successful season looks like, because in the past, if you didn’t hang a banner, it was a failure.”
“We’ve been through a transition before going from Division II, with a lot of success, to Division I,” Polasek told The Scarlet Standard.
“I think this is unique in its own way because of some of the changes that are still going to come in college football.”
NDSU announced the move Feb. 9, leaving less than seven months between accepting the invitation and the opener. Football alone is moving to the Mountain West. The university kept its Summit League membership for most other sports and its Big 12 wrestling affiliation.
In the university’s announcement, athletic director Matt Larsen identified two tangible benefits for supporters: FBS opponents coming to Fargo and a wider national television audience.
Polasek has coached at Iowa and Wyoming as well as NDSU and sees FBS membership as important access while the College Football Playoff and the sport keep changing.
“The reality is you’re either in the FBS or you’re not,” Polasek said.
“I wonder what that is really going to look like come 2029 and 2030.”
Polasek said the Bison have fully entered the expanded scholarship structure, increased coaching salaries and added staff positions. Facility improvements remain among the targeted needs as they recruit against Mountain West and other FBS programs. Those investments give NDSU more support for the full season of deeper rosters it is about to face.
“We’re in position to be competitive, and it’s super exciting,” Polasek said.
Hayes takes over as the personnel changes
Nathan Hayes is positioned to take over at quarterback after backing up in 2025, appearing in 10 games and throwing four touchdown passes. Polasek described a competitive dual-threat player with a strong arm. The offseason helped identify what Hayes likes to run and what he can execute against different coverages.
Hayes’ preparation has been a gradual climb through the depth chart. He did not play during his 2022 redshirt season, appeared in three games without a pass or rushing attempt in 2023 and began 2024 as the third quarterback. An injury to Cole Payton moved him into the backup role for the last eight games that year. Familiarity with the program has accumulated even though the passing sample remains small.
His 2025 line was 25 completions in 44 attempts for 381 yards, four touchdowns and one interception. The work included a 68-yard touchdown pass to Mekhi Collins at Tennessee State, 118 passing yards against St. Thomas and a 34-yard rushing touchdown against Northern Iowa.
“The key to offensive football is not forcing concepts that we like as coaches down the quarterback’s throat,” Polasek said.
“What do they like to play? Can they play it versus all coverages? Does it have answers?”
He will not have receiver Bryce Lance, who had consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons and 25 touchdown catches across them. Polasek expects several receivers to replace the production.
Lance’s final season helps explain the size of that receiving job. He caught 51 passes for 1,079 yards and eight touchdowns in 2025, averaging 21.2 yards per reception. His production was not limited to one opponent: he topped 100 yards in four games, including a career-high 159 against Southeast Missouri State and 131 against Northern Iowa.
The year before, he caught 75 passes for 1,071 yards and 17 touchdowns. NDSU therefore loses both an established way to finish drives and a receiver who repeatedly created long gains. Replacing his catches by committee would still leave the staff needing someone to supply those larger plays. Polasek’s expectation of shared production puts responsibility on the entire receiving room without naming a successor before camp.
Collins caught six passes for 159 yards and two touchdowns in 2025 while playing in 11 games and missing two because of injury. He had a larger workload in 2024, with 16 catches for 303 yards, including four receptions for 119 yards against Mercer in the NCAA quarterfinals. That history gives the Bison an experienced receiver to evaluate for more work after Lance’s departure, even though Collins has yet to carry a comparable season-long volume.
The offensive line also lost accomplished players through the portal but returns enough experience to try several combinations in camp. Polasek wants the five who communicate and work best together, which may not simply be the five best individual talents.
“It’s all about the connectivity and how they play together more than the individual talent,” Polasek said.
Keeping the recruiting base, adding new places
Recruiting still begins with the prospects’ interest in being coached and improving. Film and position-specific measurements matter, Polasek said, alongside the shared values that make a player want to develop within the program.
“When we say we’re looking for the program’s best future Bison, it has to come down to some shared core values,” Polasek said.
“Do they want to improve and be coached? The film is the film and the measurables are the measurables, but those things have to be there.”
“If you don’t have $30 million to pay your team, you’re probably wishing you had more,” Polasek said.
He is uneasy with promises of compensation before a player has earned a role, while recognizing that athletes should share in the value they create. He wants to recruit families that value education and see reasons to stay for several years.
“We’re going to stay focused on recruiting young men and families that value education,” Polasek said.
“If they value the degree, they’re going to be there for three and a half or four years.”
The Upper Midwest and the areas NDSU has recruited for decades remain the base. Polasek sees Mountain West membership adding opportunities in Las Vegas, Denver and Scottsdale-Phoenix, with Dallas and Tampa continuing as targets.
“It would be a natural fit if we could maybe get a kid every year out of the Vegas area,” Polasek said.
“Can we drop back into Scottsdale like we used to because it would be easy for parents to get to games?”
The last FCS season offers a demanding comparison inside the program. NDSU finished 12-1 and went 8-0 in the Missouri Valley, averaging 41.1 points while allowing 13.0. Its offense gained 7.3 yards per play to opponents’ 4.2. The Bison arrive with recent evidence of sustained dominance at their previous level, not merely an old reputation.
That is the team NDSU fans are bringing with them into the Mountain West: an offense that averaged 212.6 rushing yards and 238.8 passing yards per game.
The defense has its own part in protecting the transition. NDSU intercepted 19 passes in 2025 while its quarterbacks threw five. Taking possessions away helped the Bison put their offense back on the field, but those results do not promise the same supply of opportunities in the new league. Hayes and the rebuilt groups around him have to function when the defense cannot keep reproducing last season’s takeaways.
A full season of the new test
The transition schedule includes 12 games, eight in the Mountain West and four outside it, with travel across several time zones. Jacksonville State visits Aug. 29, Fordham the next week, and the first league game is at Air Force on Sept. 12. UNLV hosts NDSU on Oct. 10.
For future schedules, Polasek favors a Power Four opponent, a comparable FBS program and potentially an FCS game. The conference’s new difficulty does not make him want weak nonleague games.
“You better have a solid strength of schedule,” Polasek said.
“In a perfect world, you’d play a Power Four. We’ve always kind of wanted to do that anyway. Then you find another nonleague game that’s like-minded or at a similar level, and I don’t think we would be opposed to continuing to carry an FCS game.”
Guarantee money will enter those decisions, but Polasek does not expect it to determine every choice.
“I don’t know if necessarily we’ll focus on the paycheck as much as we’ll focus on the football game,” he said.
I would not ask NDSU to stop expecting championships. A program that has spent years demanding banners should bring that ambition with it. I want to see how Hayes responds after the first hard Saturday, which receiver becomes dependable when Lance is no longer there and whether the line keeps working together when a better defense makes it struggle. The Bison have already shown they can beat an FBS team. Now they get the season they wanted, with another one waiting the next week.