Jax State opens 2026 at NDSU — and the Bison aren’t your typical FBS newcomer

Jacksonville State opens the 2026 season Saturday at the Fargodome in Fargo, North Dakota — a Week 0 matchup against North Dakota State. Kickoff is 4:30 p.m. CT on CBS Sports Network.

Both programs were FCS powerhouses. Both are now FBS. One has spent three years proving it belongs. The other arrives with more pedigree than any FCS-to-FBS transition program in history.

The schools have announced a home-and-home series, with the return game scheduled for Sept. 22, 2029 at Burgess-Snow Field at AmFirst Stadium in Jacksonville.

NDSU isn't your typical newcomer

North Dakota State arrives at the FBS level unlike most transitioning programs. The Bison bring 10 national championships, 16 consecutive postseason appearances, a 9-5 record against FBS opponents and three first-round NFL draft picks from the last decade. The program posted a 12-1 record in 2025 and maintains a .900 win percentage over 15 years.

Notable NDSU alumni include Carson Wentz (No. 2 overall, 2016), Trey Lance (No. 3, 2021) and Grey Zabel (No. 18, 2025). The Bison have defeated ranked FBS opponents, including a 23-21 victory at No. 13 Iowa in 2016 — a distinction shared only with Appalachian State among FCS programs.

NDSU joined the Mountain West as a football-only member on July 1. While the Bison can play a full conference schedule immediately, bowl eligibility and playoff consideration do not begin until 2028.

The newbies can win — just ask Jax State

Jacksonville State's FCS-to-FBS transition is the blueprint. The Gamecocks have won nine games and made a bowl game in each of their three FBS seasons — one of just 14 FBS teams to win nine games in each of the last three years and one of five Group of 6 programs to do so, joining Tulane, Ohio, UNLV and James Madison. By 2024, they captured the Conference USA championship — a 52-12 dismantling of Western Kentucky at home. In 2025, they went 9-5 overall and 7-1 in league play, finishing as the conference runner-up and capping year one under Charles Kelly with a 17-13 win over in-state rival Troy in the IS4S Salute to Veterans Bowl.

James Madison's trajectory mirrors that path. The Dukes moved to FBS in 2022 with an 8-4 record, posted 11-2 with a Sun Belt championship in year two and became the first Sun Belt team to reach the College Football Playoff in 2025.

All three programs — NDSU, Jax State and JMU — dominated at the FCS level before advancing. Each built winning cultures that transferred. NDSU's distinction is scale: no FCS program has entered FBS competition with 10 national titles and 16 NFL draft picks since 2004.

A rivalry in the making?

Jax State leads the all-time series 2-1. The most recent meeting was the 2015 FCS Championship in Frisco, Texas — the Bison won 37-10, with Carson Wentz earning game MVP. That Jax State run — wins over Chattanooga in overtime, Charleston Southern and a 62-10 semifinal dismantling of Sam Houston State — proved the Gamecocks belonged on the national stage and helped accelerate the FBS move.

Jax State owns the earlier victories: a 31-7 win over NDSU in the 1977 Grantland Rice Bowl at Anniston and a 21-17 NCAA Division II quarterfinal.

Now both programs compete at the FBS level. On Saturday, they meet with something to prove — NDSU establishing its FBS credentials, Jax State demonstrating it has already arrived.

Where the Gamecocks stand heading in

Charles Kelly's team enters the season with unfinished business and significant roster turnover.

The Gamecocks return Caden Creel at quarterback — a redshirt junior from Fairhope who accounted for 2,590 yards of total offense last season (1,076 rushing, 1,514 passing) across 14 games. Creel had seven games with at least 100 rushing yards, tied with Navy's Blake Horvath for the most by any FBS quarterback. He had multiple rushes of at least 70 yards — the only Conference USA quarterback in the last 10 seasons with multiple 70-yard rushes in the same campaign. Kelly said three weeks into fall camp that the growth has been evident.

"I think our quarterbacks are seeing coverages a little bit better," Kelly said after the Aug. 14 practice. But with 73.8 percent of last season's receiving production lost to graduation and the transfer portal, finding targets beyond Deondre Johnson is the priority.

Johnson — 6-8, 220 pounds — led all FBS pass catchers in yards per reception (24.1) in 2025 with 30 catches for 724 yards and six touchdowns. Over the final seven games of the season, after developing chemistry with Creel as the starter, Johnson recorded 25 catches for 651 yards and all six of his touchdowns. He is the clear No. 1. Beyond him, the competition is open.

"We got to figure out who the six receivers are that we're going to play," Kelly said. "There's a lot of candidates and they flash. They got ability, but the best ability you can have is dependability and availability."

(For a deeper look at Creel's development and the offensive personnel, see the 2026 Jax State offense preview.)

The running back room has turned over, too. Cam Cook — who ran for 1,659 yards and 16 touchdowns in 2025 — transferred. Redshirt sophomores Khristian Lando and Jalen Likely are the returning backs in a room reshaped under running backs coach Thurman.

"We have a really deep room in my opinion," Lando said. "We have a freshman who's really good. We have most people who came in who are really good. We have some returners who are really good."

Likely's assessment: "I feel great. I feel like the way Coach Kelly got practice structured, I feel like it's really getting us game ready."

On defense, the secondary headlines the unit. Seniors Caleb Nix and Tre'Quon Fegans were both named to the Paycom Jim Thorpe Award preseason watch list — a 35-man national list honoring the best defensive back in college football. Only four other programs had multiple players on it: Georgia, Alabama, Oregon and Tulsa.

Nix earned First-Team All-Conference USA honors in 2025 with four interceptions, 191 return yards and a 93-yard interception-return touchdown at UTEP and a 45-yard fumble recovery touchdown against Delaware — a program single-season record. Fegans graded as one of the top cover corners in the Group of 6 per Pro Football Focus, yielding just 14 receptions on 39 targets with nine pass breakups.

(For the full defensive breakdown, see the 2026 Jax State defense preview.)

Defensive coordinator Brian Williams said the depth across the unit has been the standout through camp.

"The depth, the competition in each and every position room," Williams said. "I think the guys that have been around are not taking what they've done in the past for granted. The guys that are coming in are really trying to adapt and apply themselves to the way we do things."

What to watch

The Fargodome factor. NDSU's home venue ranks among college football's most hostile environments across all divisions. The Bison carry a 112-7 home record since 2010.

Creel's passing game. Jax State ran for 246.8 yards per game in 2025 — the passing game produced 162.0. With Cook gone and the receiver corps rebuilding, Creel's development as a passer is the variable that defines this team's ceiling. He has a chance to become just the fourth quarterback in Conference USA history to pass for 2,500 yards and rush for 1,000 in the same season, joining Jax State's Tyler Huff (2024), Liberty's Kaidon Salter (2023) and MTSU's Asher O'Hara (2019). Kelly says he is seeing coverages better. Saturday is the first live test.

The defensive front. Kelly praised the pass rush in camp two-minute drills: "I really felt like our defensive front was very intentional ... pass rush lanes, they pressed the pocket and affected the quarterback." Against an NDSU team navigating its first FBS game, that pressure could set the tone early.

Situation football. Kelly built fall camp around third down, red zone and two-minute scenarios — the moments that decide games. "The game is won on situations," he said. "It's how you play third down. It's how you play in the red zone, how you play two-minute."

Kelly described his approach to preparing this team through a single analogy — one that applies to everything his program faces on Saturday.

"When a pilot trains, he doesn't train when it's on autopilot and everything's comfortable," he said. "He trains when it's bad wind, an engine goes out, you got to land the thing. And that's the way we have to train."