UND will host Sacramento State in FCS first round
Nov. 19—GRAND FORKS — The UND football program will have at least one more game in the Alerus Center this season.
The Fighting Hawks were announced Sunday as part of the 24-team FCS playoff field. UND hosts Sacramento State of the Big Sky Conference at noon on Saturday.
The game will be streamed online on ESPN-Plus.
UND will play in the FCS playoffs for the fourth time in five years. The Fighting Hawks are 1-4 all-time in the FCS playoffs.
UND was able to land a home game based on a financial bidding process, a process that came under fire a year ago when UND financially outbid Weber State but the game was placed in Ogden, Utah, because the committee broke precedent by awarding Weber a home game because it said the Wildcats were nearly a Top 8 seed and UND was one of the final teams in the field.
That decision was didn't sit well with Missouri Valley Commissioner Patty Viverito, who vowed to fix the process.
"Whatever the process is, we're going to do what needs to be done," UND athletic director Bill Chaves said. "The ability to submit a bid ... everyone would love to be the Top 8 so you don't have to play this weekend. That's what you're striving for. Absent of that, you want to make the field and having a home game will be a huge deal.
"There are 128 FCS schools and only seven have made the playoffs four of the last five years. So has Sac State. It'll be an interesting game at the Alerus Center. We know we have a good team coming in this week."
The winner of UND and Sacramento State (7-4 overall) will advance to play at No. 3 South Dakota at the DakotaDome in Vermillion in the second round. The Hawks lost just 14-10 last week in Vermillion.
If UND were to advance beyond South Dakota and another unseeded team were to advance, the hosting process returns to bids, something Chaves experienced while athletic director at Eastern Washington.
"In that case, one team didn't submit a bid," Chaves said. "You learn along the way you don't know what's going to happen. The one thing we know is we can't be at home the second week of the playoffs if we aren't a seed. At the end of the day, you have to submit bids all along the way. There's so much parity. I think South Dakota State has earned what they've earned. Montana has been on a great run these last eight weeks but everyone else feels like if you go on a run you give yourself a chance to play at home."
Attendance for the first round of the FCS playoffs is always a challenge as it falls on Thanksgiving weekend. The only time UND has hosted an FCS playoff game on Thanksgiving weekend (UND beat Missouri State during the pandemic-impacted 2021 spring season), the Alerus Center drew 9,837 in a 27-24 loss to Richmond in 2016.
"I'll be interested," Chaves said of the expected crowd. "I think we go into it and approach it like — we obviously want a packed, sold-out Alerus. We also know we didn't know we were playing at home until an hour ago. We're also around a holiday where people have plans. All that said, we talk about these things in the offseason. We have to put our team in the best position to advance. Playing at home gives us that opportunity."
Chaves is in his first season on the regional advisory committee for the FCS playoffs, a position offered to him by Viverito, who was looking to replace the departing David Herbster of South Dakota.
Serving on the regional committee often leads to a spot on the national committee, Chaves said. The regional committee serves the Big South, Pioneer League and Missouri Valley.
The national committee, chaired by Montana athletic director Kent Haslam, met in Indianapolis this weekend to decide the bracket.
Chaves said the regional committee's work ends the week before the end of the regular season.
With a 22-21 last-minute win over Illinois State in the regular-season finale on Saturday at the Alerus Center, the Fighting Hawks, ranked No. 13 in the last Top 25 poll, moved to 7-4 on the season. Sacramento State lost to UC Davis in the regular-season finale.
The Missouri Valley Football Conference was awarded two Top 8 seeds with South Dakota State receiving the No. 1 overall seed and South Dakota seeing the No. 3 overall seed.
North Dakota State, which has won nine national titles in the last 13 years, will be playing in the FCS first round of a fall playoff for the first time since 2010. The Bison will host Drake in the first round.
The Valley landed six teams in the FCS bracket with bubble teams Southern Illinois and Youngstown State making the field with 7-4 marks.
UND released ticket information Sunday afternoon for the playoff matchup.
Season ticket holders will have the option to purchase the same seats for the upcoming playoffs. They can log into their My North Dakota account and pay for them by clicking on the "INVOICE" button. Tickets will be loaded into their account, become visible and available for transfer beginning Wednesday evening. All tickets for season ticket holders are $25.
Season ticket holders have until noon Wednesday to purchase those tickets. Tickets must be purchased by that time, those that go unclaimed will be made available to the general public beginning Wednesday afternoon.
General public tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Monday, Nov 20. These tickets will be available online at www.ticketmaster.com, in person at the REA Ticket Office or the Transystems Box Office at the Alerus Center. Ticket Offices open at 10:00 am.
All adult tickets are priced at $25. Youth, Ages 2 — 12, are priced at $10. All tickets are reserved.
Student tickets will be free of charge and available via their Green and White account starting at 10 a.m. on Monday. All student tickets are General Admission in the lower sections of 211 and 212.
