A 14-2 national championship record last year. Reigning, defending and favorite again champions. This Valley football coach went first on the stage as the whole of the Missouri Valley Football Conference staged its first in-person Media Day. And drawing inspiration from a great like Texas’ Steve Sarkisian is always a good idea. It’s a Bison respecting a Longhorn.
That might sound like a wild metaphor, until you hear who said it and why. Because buried beneath the regional pride and salt-of-the-earth Midwestern ethos is a program with a blueprint most FBS teams would kill to replicate. North Dakota State head coach Tim Polasek didn’t waste time going deep during his session with 365 Sports. Offering not just a look under the hood of one of FCS football’s most dominant dynasties. But also tipping his cap to a certain coach down in Austin who’s quietly become a compass for program-building philosophy. “I think our program represents a great deal of tradition, a winning culture,” Polasek said.
“We have a saying around here. Better people make better Bison. And I think we represent that as well as anybody. We just won the academic award for the Missouri Valley Football Conference. And quite frankly, that’s kind of been a theme as we’ve improved and continued to try to win games. Our team GPA has always gone up.” Polasek has just won the FCS crown in his first year of coaching.
In the chaos of NIL arms race and the existential free-for-all of the transfer portal, Tim Polasek sees value in building things the old way. Brick by brick, lesson by lesson. He continued, “It’s everything you read in books and hear from leadership. I read this book called The One Big Thing. You’ve got to pick the one thing you want to be great at. But not too many people that achieve their full potential are weak in every other area. Socially, academically, and on the football field. For us, we want to compete and prove and be tough as hell and then we want to work to reach our full potential in all those areas. That’s the stuff we talk about. I just think there’s a direct correlation with, hey, do the next right thing.”
The recruiting numbers back this up. NDSU’s strategy isn’t built on flashy flips or NIL glitz. It’s about programs and that Bison DNA. “I gave some thought to that going into media days and I wanted to find a different angle to talk about it,” Polasek said. “It occurred to me. I was looking at our roster and thinking about the challenges out there in college football. We’re at 88%. 88% recruited North Dakota State players, high school players. I love it. We got a fighting chance. And that’s all you can really ask for. And we’re eager and we’re hungry. So I’m really excited about it. We’ve got 110 recruited North Dakota State Bison and we got 15 transfers.”
That’s no accident. That’s culture. That’s buy-in. And it’s no coincidence that a program that produced Carson Wentz and Trey Lance leads with humility. “We don’t spend a lot of time with recruits talking about, you’re the lifeblood of the program, you’re everything to the program. It’s actually quite frankly the opposite,” he said. “We talk about the DNA of our program, our institution, our athletic department. It’s always about the former Bison and really paying respects to how they did things. The standards that they’ve laid down. So you kind of got to earn the right to be a guy that gets to put the emblem on your helmet and the stripes.” No five-stars. No nonsense. Just a program whose success has been built on the long road.
The Bisons are ready for back to back championships
Texas may have inspired the blueprint, but North Dakota State has owned the execution. In 2025, the Bison are once again the hunted, not the hunters. Favorites to win it all again in the FCS ranks, the team is leaning into that pressure.
“I think as Bison at NDSU, I think that’s kind of always the mindset,” said standout WR Bryce Lance. “You know, everyone wants to take it on the Bison. I think every game that the Bison are in town, it’s kind of the Super Bowl. So I think it’s something that we’re used to, but also super excited for the opportunity as well.”
The championship target on their back is nothing new. But there’s a new man in the crosshairs of every opposing defense: QB Cole Payton. He’s replacing Cam Miller, last year’s national player of the year, and that’s no small cleats to fill. But Payton has already won over the locker room, and more importantly, his head coach.
“Cole has the belief and the trust of his teammates,” Coach Tim Polasek said. “He’s earned that. He’s one of our bigger, faster, stronger athletes. He can throw the football. I’m here to, I guess, tell everybody that he’s a capable thrower. He’s actually a 64% thrower for us right now in his time.” New QB. Same Bison mindset.
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