Mountain West Basketball: Examining 8 potential candidates for expansion
By Joey Loose
North Dakota State
Conference realignment changes what we’re used to seeing in these collegiate conferences. To some people, adding an FCS school might seem like a bit of a reach to expand the Mountain West, but this is no ordinary FCS team. North Dakota State has clearly made its mark as a member of the Missouri Valley Football Conference, while basketball’s progress in the Summit League is nothing to snuff at either.
Football-wise, it would be interesting to see the role North Dakota State would play in a new Mountain West. The Bisons have won eight of the last ten FCS national championships and are clearly a program ready for the challenge of FBS play. On the other side, the basketball program has been solid since joining the Summit nearly fifteen years ago, appearing in four NCAA Tournaments and winning a flurry of conference titles. The MWC would be a step up, but it’s not as big a leap as you’d think.
North Dakota State is the perfect addition to the conference if you’re willing to consider schools not already entrenched in the FBS. Geographically, they aren’t too far from the other teams and do push the conference more into the Midwest. Heck, one intriguing result of this move would be former NDSU football coach Craig Bohl seeing his old team again as the current coach at Wyoming.