r/MountainWest

After over a decade of "when will they finally move up?" it's here — North Dakota State is jumping to FBS and joining the Mountain West. 🦬

In this deep dive I break down the story of the program entering this new chapter:

📌Skill position turnover but a strong O-line that's basically untouched

📌Coach Tim Polasek (26-3 record + a national title in his first two years) steering the ship

📌A young roster overall facing one of the tougher road-heavy MW schedules in Year 1

📌The FargoDome remains a nightmare for opponents, but those road games will define the transition

This is the most fascinating College Football storyline in 2026; can a true FCS dynasty translate its culture, physicality, and success to the FBS championships right away?

It’ll be interesting to see what the terms are.

I saw a post on r/cfb about the total revenue of all FBS programs for the 2025 year (excluding military schools Navy, Air Force, and Army). Which made me wonder how the G6 conferences stack up against each other. So in order from highest average to lowest.

PAC: $73,293,281

PAC/MWC if merged: $67,140,869

American: $65,352,931

MWC: $48,918,743 (avg. without new members: $56,453,990)

C-USA: $41,540,902

Sun Belt: $41,008,367

MAC: $40,400,555

Some interesting things to note:

• C-USA, MAC, and Sun Belt are nearly identical in revenue despite some difference on on-field success and impressions.
• The three new members drag the average down significantly (NDSU will likely jump a bit being in FBS now)
• Utah State surprisingly was the lowest for the PAC and would be the second lowest among the original MWC (roughly $48 million) with Texas State not to far ahead (only more than USU, Wyoming, and SJSU)

I did find a separate source for Air Force, but numbers weren't identical (a little lower in general) to the first source on schools but I figured it would give us a ballpark idea of their revenue. Air Force est: $76 million which would raise the avg for the MWC to $51 million for new $59 million with original and the merger of the PAC/MWC to $68 million, but likely even more if more accurate numbers were available.