North Dakota State Bison at Sacramento State Hornets
Sat Sep 19 · 9:30 PM CT
By Pablo SanchezUpdated 8d ago·2 min read
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North Dakota State brings 10 FCS titles and zero patience for a rebuild into Sacramento's brand-new FBS era.
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Best BetNorth Dakota State
NDSU's the more finished program here, full stop — 10 FCS titles in 14 years doesn't happen by accident, and the portal reload keeps that talent gap wide even in a transition year. Sacramento State is asking a brand-new staff and an unsettled quarterback room to beat that pedigree in the Hornets' first-ever FBS season. Back the Bison to win this one outright.
North Dakota State
+10 FCS national titles in the last 14 seasons
+Added 16 transfers including a Notre Dame corner
−Earliest FCS playoff exit ever this past December
−Nathan Hayes unproven as a full-time starter
Sacramento State
+First-ever FBS season brings fresh home energy
+HC Alonzo Carter has Mountain West title pedigree
−Entirely new coaching staff with zero continuity
−Crowded, unsettled quarterback competition entering the year
Both of these programs are living through the same identity crisis at once. NDSU left the Missouri Valley for the Mountain West, and Sacramento State bolted the Big Sky for the MAC, and on Saturday, September 19, they collide in one of the more unusual crossover games on the early-season slate — a fallen FCS blueblood testing itself against a first-time FBS program still figuring out who it is.
The gap in institutional memory here is real. NDSU has been doing this at the highest level of college football's lower tier for over a decade; Sacramento State is playing its first-ever FBS season after 33 years in FCS, and it's doing so under a brand-new head coach in Alonzo Carter, who was hired away from Arizona in December. Carter's got Mountain West title pedigree from his run at San Jose State, but building continuity in a matter of months is a different job than winning with it.
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NDSU North Dakota State
SAC Sacramento State
NDSU isn't walking in unscathed, either. The Bison's stunning early playoff exit last December — their earliest ever in the FCS playoff era — closed the book on the Cole Payton era, and now it's senior Nathan Hayes under center for the first time as a full-time starter. A transition year at quarterback against a first-year FBS opponent is exactly the kind of spot that can get sloppy in either direction.
North Dakota State Bison
Sep 12?@ Air Force—
Sep 5?vs Fordham—
Aug 29?vs Jacksonville State—
Sacramento State Hornets
Sep 12?@ Fresno State—
Sep 5?vs Mississippi Valley State—
Aug 29?@ Eastern Michigan—
Recent form.
Sacramento State's locker room looks almost nothing like it did a year ago. Brennan Marion went 7-5 and left after one season, and Carter walked into a quarterback room stacked with transfers — Carson Conklin, Jackson Sharman, Jaylen Patterson — with no clear starter settled from the reporting available. That's a lot of turnover to sort out before hosting a program with NDSU's pedigree in prime time at Hornet Stadium.
North Dakota State Bison
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Sacramento State Hornets
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
NDSU countered its own losses by working the portal hard, adding 16 transfers including a corner from Notre Dame and receivers pulled from Arizona and West Virginia. That's the kind of instant-impact reload a program with NDSU's resources can pull off even in a rebuilding year — and it's the biggest reason the Bison still look like the more finished product walking into this one, home-field newness for Sac State notwithstanding.
