As North Dakota State closes in on finalizing an agreement to play a home and home series with Tennessee State, the reigning FCS champions did attempt to gauge interest in a potential matchup with Jackson State, the school’s athletic director confirmed.
Appearing on The Bluebloods College Football Podcast, NDSU athletic director Matt Larson said the Bison program has previously reached out to Jackson State to determine whether a meeting would be possible.
“We’ve had some conversations with them,” Larson said in response to a question about whether North Dakota State had considered adding Jackson State as a nonconference opponent. “And you know, at this point there wasn’t an interest from their end. And again, every school has different philosophies in terms of scheduling, and sometimes the dates match up. And so as much as I know, fan bases want things to happen and it just doesn’t always match up with when we’re open when they’re open.”
Also read: Tennessee State nearing agreement to play FCS champion North Dakota State
Online conversations between both fan bases have intensified in the offseason amid Jackson State constructing what appears to be an HBCU juggernaut led by Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders.
For many, it would be a dream college football matchup just to see how the Tigers would fare against the clear best FCS program in the country over the last decade.
But for now, that game will not come to fruition, though Larson said he will “keep on trying” to schedule games with high-level schools like Jackson State.
“I think Coach Sanders is building a great program down there and there’s been a lot of hype and publicity,” said Larson. “They had great success last year and so, you know, we like to go out and schedule teams that are really competitive and play at a high level and I think they’re certainly one. Like I said, we’ve reached out but at this point, that’s not a direction they wanted to go in, and I certainly respect that. I mean, we’re gonna keep on trying not just with Jackson State, we’re gonna keep on trying as we look across the country.”
