The 2023 season certainly wasn’t a bad one for North Dakota State football. Given the recent history of the program, however, the Bison didn’t reach expectations.

This year, new head coach Tim Polasek takes over the NDSU program with the usual expectation of winning a national title in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). That journey will start in Boulder.

This summer, BuffZone will preview each of Colorado’s opponents for the 2024 season and in this first installment, we look at NDSU, which visits Folsom Field on Aug. 29 in the season opener.

A year ago, NDSU went 11-4, lost in overtime of the FCS semifinals and finished No. 3 in the final FCS poll. That’s a great year for most programs, but it was the most losses for the Bison since 2010 and just the third time in the past 13 years that they fell short of the FCS title game.

The Bison are once again a main contender for the national title, however. In a couple of early-season rankings, NDSU sits at either No. 1 or No. 2.

“Moving forward, I think we have everything in place that we need to be very successful, to win every game that is on our schedule,” Polasek said in his introductory press conference in December. “That is difficult, very difficult, but we have everything in place.”

A Division II powerhouse in the 1980s and 1990s, the Bison took a couple of years to gain their footing in FCS after moving up in 2008. They went 3-8 in 2009, but went 9-5 and reached the FCS quarterfinals in 2010.

In 2011, NDSU won its first FCS national title, kick-starting a string of five consecutive championships and nine in 11 years from 2011-21.

Along the way, NDSU also became a dangerous opponent for teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). From 2010-16, the Bison won six consecutive games against FBS opponents, all on the road, including an upset of No. 11 Iowa in 2016.

Polasek was on the staff for several of those great seasons and big wins, including as offensive coordinator in 2016. It’s not lost on him the opportunity in front of NDSU when it comes to Boulder in August.

“Just fired up,” he said in a recent interview with WDAY-TV. “I can give the coach speak, ‘Ah, it’s just another opponent.’ Nah, it’s one of these potential landmark games or opportunities for us and for our kids to be on national TV. We’ve got to be open to the idea of going to the deep end of the pool this fall camp so we can play very relaxed, very free and very aggressive on that opportunity that we get on that Thursday.

“This is an FBS game. At NDSU, we’ve cherished these moments. They’ve led to a lot of great stories, a lot of unbelievable experiences for our fan base. It wouldn’t matter who we were playing first, but maybe it adds just a little tick (that it’s Colorado). This is going to be cool. I’m looking forward to it. We’ll be prepared as a staff; our players will be prepared so that we can enjoy it.”

NDSU lost some weapons on offense but returns starting quarterback Cam Miller and two offensive linemen. On defense, the Bison return three first-team all-conference players and one second-team all-conference performer.