BROOKINGS – South Dakota State and North Dakota State first met on the football field in 1903 and the Bison won the first game 85-0. Nearly 120 years later the Jackrabbits and Bison will meet in Frisco, Texas on Sunday with the FCS National Championship on the line.

SDSU and NDSU have met 113 times on the gridiron and the series is in favor of the Bison 63-45-5. In 2004 both teams decided to move to Division-I in all of their athletics and that meant each football program would move to the FCS. Since that move the two teams have played for the Dakota Marker trophy in every regular season game and the Bison also hold the advantage in that series 10-9.

The Dakota Marker series has had its fair share of big moments in the past 18 seasons. In 2019, ESPN’s “College Gameday” came to Brookings when SDSU was ranked No. 3 and NDSU was ranked No. 1. The Bison were able to pull out a 23-16 win in front of a sellout crowd at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium on that day. One would think that might be the height of the rivalry and it was up until this year.

This season, the Bison and Jacks were ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, when the two teams met in Fargo on Oct. 15. SDSU came away with a 23-21 comeback victory in that game and that propelled the Jacks to getting the No. 1 overall seed in the FCS Playoffs.

The only thing that could top a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup would be a national championship game. And that’s what we’ll have on Sunday. It seems very fitting that the rivalry that many people believe is the best rivalry in the FCS is finally going to be played in Frisco.

“It’s a really neat storyline,” SDSU head coach John Stiegelmeier said. “I was there [in 2004 when both programs decided to go to Division-I] and it’s kind of unique to think that we literally needed each other at that time and to envision what has happened, I don’t if anybody could really envision it, but it’s a cool scenario right now, this championship.”

SDSU and NDSU have met four times in the FCS Playoffs and all of the meetings came in Fargo. The Bison have won all four of the matchups and won by an average margin of 19.25 points. The closest the Jacks came to beating NDSU in the playoffs came in 2014 when senior running back Zach Zenner and SDSU came up short, losing 27-24.

That loss in 2014 was during a stretch where the Jacks lost eight straight games to the Bison, dating back to 2010. SDSU would snap that losing streak in 2016 when the Jacks traveled up to Fargo in October and Jake Weineke caught a two-yard game-winning touchdown pass with one second left that gave SDSU a 19-17 victory.

That was one of Stiegelmeier’s favorite games in the series and SDSU has now won five of the past nine meetings between the two teams, including the past three games.

That has brought much more fire to the rivalry and has made it where both fanbases circle the date on the calendar that the two teams are scheduled to play at the beginning of the season. But it’s not just the fanbases that it adds more fire to.

Back in October before the regular season meeting, SDSU senior defensive lineman Reece Winkelman said that as much as the Jacks like to treat every game the same, it just means more when SDSU and NDSU meet on the field.

The NDSU players feel the same way. Bison senior offensive lineman Cody Mauch is from Hankinson, N.D., which is 12.3 miles from the South Dakota-North Dakota border. Mauch said it’s a fitting that his final game of his career will be against the Jackrabbits.

“I don’t think you could have written it up any better. The two teams that are supposed to be in Frisco are going to be down there. Obviously, it’s going to be a big game, but it’s going to mean a little bit more because we’re such long time rivals. It definitely seems fitting. It’s two of the best teams going at it and it being [SDSU vs. NDSU] just makes it a little more special,” Mauch said.

There are 30 players from the state of South Dakota on the SDSU roster. Those players know more than anybody what it would mean for the Jacks to beat the rivals up north and bring back SDSU’s first ever national championship trophy in football. One of those players is senior offensive lineman and Sioux Falls native Mason McCormick, who said Sunday’s game means a lot to the state.

“It would mean a lot [to win a national championship], just to the entire state of South Dakota. They’ve been kind of hearing [about] North Dakota State everywhere for the past decade or so. It would mean a to [to the players and the fans] and we’re looking forward to it,” McCormick said.

A national championship is something that SDSU has been chasing since it made the FCS Playoffs for the first time in 2009. The Jacks have now made the playoffs in 11 straight seasons, which is the most consecutive appearances in the FCS behind only one program, NDSU, who has made it 13 straight times. The Bison also have nine FCS titles and the Jacks have zero.

The rivalry has built up to this game on Sunday and although it isn’t the end all be all to the rivalry, it will certainly give one program’s fanbase a lot of bragging rights for years to come. As for McCormick, he wants to think of it as just another game.

“I think this is the game that people have been talking about for a long time and we’re definitely excited about it, but ultimately it’s still the same football field and it’s 11 vs. 11. So, you can’t really overthink it and overhype it,” McCormick said.