Northern Iowa Panthers 19 at North Dakota State Bison 42 (NCAA Football, Missouri Valley) - November 2, 2024

College basketball gets underway on Monday and I found a tripleheader on Day 1 that took me to the Dakotas. Flying on Monday wasn't feasible and Sunday flights are always too expensive, so I decided to fly in to Fargo on Saturday as there was a college football game at Fargodome that I could see. Of course, American Airlines had other plans, as the plane from O'Hare suffered (no joke) a lavatory sensor issue, so the toilets wouldn't flush. After 90 minutes on board without a fix, we had to switch planes, which was quite annoying. I was hopeful of a three-hour delay so that we could get a refund, but to AA's credit, they managed to get me to Fargo just 2 hours and 40 minutes late, landing just as the football game was kicking off.

I was able to get to my hotel next to the stadium and after dropping my bag, ran over. The advantage of being late is that my ticket was only $8, less than 20% of face value. The Fargodome was originally planned to have an inflatable roof, much like the Tacoma Dome, but the plan changed and a typical stadium was developed, though the name remained unchanged. These two photos were taken the next day, which is why the parking lot is empty.

 I found this place to be like a miniature version of Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Capacity here is 18,700 for football, about a quarter of the 70,000 that LOS holds.

The North Dakota State Bison play here and if you follow FCS football, you know they have been the dominant team for the past decade, winning nine titles between 2011-21 as seen on the banner above (James Madison won in 2016, Sam Houston State in 2020, and South Dakota State the past two). But NDSU is strong again this year and ranked #1 in FCS. 

I walked in as the second quarter was getting underway, with visitors Northern Iowa (famous in football for Kurt Warner) driving. The Panthers were 0-4 in conference and 30-point underdogs, so a close game was not expected. It was already 14-3 Bison (they ran back the opening kickoff) but UNI had the ball at the Bison 9, only for Matthew Schecklman to fumble right into the arms of NDSU's Jaylin Crumby, ending the threat.

What I immediately loved about this place was that you could stand in the breezeways every 10 yards or so and the ushers did not ask you to leave. As NDSU started driving the other way, I followed them by moving to the breezeway closest to the line of scrimmage as they marched 13 plays from their own 6, converting three third-down opportunities.

The drive ended with a touchdown pass from Cam Miller to Bryce Lance, who made an incredible catch in the corner (celebration below) that was the #7 play on SportsCenter that night. That made it 21-3 and the rout was on.

During the media timeout, I wandered around and really appreciated what I saw. There are photos of past concerts with attendance figures (capacity increases to 26,700 for center stage concerts).

As well, construction photos show the development of the building over the months as well as some early events.

I watched a bit of the game from the end zone, but the view from here is not as good as from the sidelines, where the front row seats are right next to the benches, providing some of the best views I have ever seen at a football game.

You can see in the photo below just how close those seats are. Look at all the breezeways as well, which make ingress and egress very efficient. This quickly became my favourite stadium for college football for this reason, as well as it being indoors on a rather cold afternoon.

I went up to my seat location in Section 22 for the rest of the second quarter and saw another Bison touchdown right below me that made it 28-3 at the break. There were no penalties in the first half, in fact, the first flag I saw came when the opening kick of the third quarter sailed out of bounds.

I ended up near the top of Section 5 for the third quarter. UNI punted on their first drive and the Bison needed just two plays to score another touchdown to make it 35-3.

But Schecklman (#3 above) finally put together a good drive, connecting with Sergio Morancy on a 32-yard pass play for their first TD of the afternoon. A two-point conversion made it 35-11 and after NDSU failed on a fourth down try, Schecklman again found Morancy in the end zone and again they added two points to make a game of it at 35-19 with 1:42 to go in the third quarter. The Bison did not break though, driving 75 yards over seven plays on their following possession, culminating in an 11-yard run from Barika Kpeenu that pretty much ended what little suspense remained. UNI fumbled on their next possession and NDSU ran out the clock to win 42-19, the 23-point difference meaning that the Panthers covered. 

I spent the final few minutes sitting just a few rows up, right in front of the cheerleaders. The ladies don't have to do pushups after every score, but the guys do, which meant 147 on the day. The photo below was taken after the game as they celebrated.



After the crowd has dispersed, I went up Section 1 to take a picture of the entire stadium. I also found a hard ticket, making it a good afternoon even with the travel problems.

Overall, I really enjoyed my brief time here and think more football stadiums should be like this, with fans right on top of the action. The game only took 2:45 despite several media timeouts, which are shorter than those in games televised by ESPN. 

Notes

At halftime, the band had an interesting performance honouring the various members of the military, forming different shapes for each branch while members of that branch were asked to stand. Below is a boat symbolizing the U.S. Coast Guard.

NDSU played at Colorado to open the season and lost 31-26, suggesting they could compete with some Division I schools. Will be interesting to see if they can regain the title; they beat South Dakota State 13-9 here just a couple of weeks ago and those two could meet again in the playoffs.

Best,

Sean