North Dakota State is the greatest FCS program ever and the most strictly dominant program all of Division I football’s ever had. That was true even before the Bison beat Eastern Washington on Saturday to make it seven FCS championships in eight years.

The Bison are great for what they are, and imagining them in FBS is little more than a fun hypothetical. When they’ve beaten FBS teams (whom they’re 6-0 against since 2010), plenty of fans and media outlets (present company included) have tried to figure out how they might do in DI’s upper division.

Right now, NDSU is No. 19 in the all-DI Sagarin ratings, which cover 255 teams across FBS and FCS. That doesn’t include what will likely be a minor post-championship adjustment.

So, I wondered: How would each of the 130 FBS teams from 2018 do against the best team in the championship subdivision? This list tracks sort of closely with the current 130-team S&P+ ranking, but I’ve made some subjective adjustments here and there.

1. Would be significant favorites against NDSU, with a wide athleticism and talent disparity

Alabama

Clemson

Georgia

Oklahoma

Ohio State

Michigan

Notre Dame

LSU

Florida

Penn State

Texas A&M

This group includes most of the Blue-Chip Ratio teams, whose last four signing classes have been made up of at least half four- and five-star recruits. All of these teams are New Year’s Six-caliber or close enough, and they have so much speed that North Dakota State should have a hard time keeping up.

It’d be silly to preclude NDSU from having any chance at all to compete against anyone here except Bama and Clemson, but these would be uphill climbs (if Ball State can challenge a team on this list, then surely the FCS champ can).

2. Should probably beat NDSU, but who the hell really knows?

Texas

Auburn

Miami

USC

Washington State

West Virginia

Oklahoma State

Texas, Auburn, Miami, and USC are all loaded with talent, but three of those four were mediocre or worse this year, and the other lost to Maryland.

WSU, WVU, and Oklahoma State are just CHAOS TEAMS, and it seems like they could either blow out the Bison or get into a weird struggle. OSU was 4-1 straight-up as an underdog this year, and I have no idea if the Pokes should be underdogs or favorites in a meeting with NDSU.

3. Awesome non-powers that might only be slight favorites against NDSU



Appalachian State

UCF

Fresno State

Boise State

Utah State

Army

These teams play in what amounted to non-power conferences in 2018 (yes, including the Pac-12), but S&P+ says all of them were top-30 teams, except for Army, which it has down at No. 75. Still, the Black Knights won 11 games and almost beat Oklahoma, and the triple-option factor makes it extra hard to guess how the Bison would do against them.

4. The final score would be 9-6, and it could go either way

Washington

Mississippi State

Utah

Stanford

Northwestern

Nebraska

Michigan State

Cal

TCU

Wisconsin

These would be positively brutal games to watch. Let’s just move on.

5. Recent NDSU “upset” victims that could definitely lose to NDSU again

Iowa

Kansas State

Minnesota

Iowa State

These are four of the six FBS teams to play and lose to NDSU this decade. Any of them could beat the Bison, but they’ve also all shown they could lose to them. The 2018 version of K-State probably would lose to them, so it’s a good thing the Wildcats are now hiring NDSU’s head coach. Iowa, Iowa State, and Minnesota are harder to figure out.

Kansas and Colorado State are so bad, you have to scroll down farther to find them.

6. On the fence

Missouri

Memphis

NC State

Cincinnati

Syracuse

Georgia Southern

Virginia

South Carolina

Troy

Kentucky

Oregon

This is the most middling group here, for me. All of these teams had fine seasons. None is anything near a juggernaut, and most of them lost games to teams you’d generally expect North Dakota State to beat. The only team here that didn’t is Missouri, and the Tigers lost to multiple teams that seem like fringe cases against the Bison.

7. Would probably lose to NDSU

Texas Tech

Marshall

UAB

BYU

Temple

Arkansas State

Toledo

Purdue

San Diego State

Duke

North Texas

Ohio

Buffalo

Florida State

Tennessee

Most of the teams on this list got run off one field or another at some point. Some of them, like UAB and Buffalo, had great years in conferences NDSU probably could have won. All of these teams were capable of putting together good games, and I bumped up the talented rosters at FSU and Tennessee to be part of this group. But these teams trend toward just OK (except when Purdue is playing Ohio State), and NDSU is a lot better than just OK.

8. Would really probably lose to NDSU

Houston

FAU

Arizona State

Pitt

Boston College

Maryland

Indiana

Georgia Tech

Baylor

Ole Miss

Wake Forest

Virginia Tech

Vanderbilt

Arizona

Miami (Ohio)

Eastern Michigan

Middle Tennessee

Southern Miss

There’s some talent and some quality wins within this group, but all of these teams are deeply flawed in some way or another. A few of them have just horrible defenses, and it’s easy to envision the Bison running 45 times for 5.5 yards per carry and controlling the ball for 42 minutes of clock time in a 21-10 win.

9. If you’re below this line, NDSU would probably embarrass you

NIU

Wyoming

USF

Nevada

FIU

Tulane

UL Lafayette

Colorado

Louisiana Tech

Air Force

UCLA

Arkansas

North Carolina

SMU

UL Monroe

Western Michigan

Old Dominion

Tulsa

Navy

Hawaii

Illinois

New Mexico

Texas State

Western Kentucky

UNLV

ECU

Charlotte

UMass

Coastal Carolina

South Alabama

Rutgers

Ball State

Liberty

Akron

Kent State

Central Michigan

Georgia State

New Mexico State

Oregon State

San Jose State

UTSA

Bowling Green

UTEP

Rice

UConn

Colorado State

Kansas

Louisville

North Dakota State would be liable to blow the doors of any of these teams. Try to imagine 2018 North Dakota State going up against 2018 Louisville and not keel over in laughter. You can’t.