The No. 1-ranked North Dakota State University (NDSU) football team returns home this week when the Bison (9-1, 6-0 MVFC) host the 14th-ranked Missouri State Bears (8-2, 6-0 MVFC) in the annual Harvest Bowl game at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, November 16, at the Fargodome (18,700). The winner will take sole possession of first place in the league and clinch at least a share of the Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC) championship.

This is the 49th game in 52 years of the Harvest Bowl, an agriculture recognition program started at NDSU in 1973. The Bison are 44-2-2 in the Harvest Bowl and have won 13 straight including last year’s 34-10 victory over Southern Illinois. This is Missouri State’s second appearance as the Harvest Bowl opponent. The Bears’ only win in Fargo came in the 2009 Harvest Bowl, 21-17.

NDSU has won 12 straight against Missouri State to take a 13-2 lead in the all-time series dating back to 2008. The Bears are 1-6 in Fargo. This is the final scheduled meeting between the two teams. Missouri State is leaving MVFC to begin FBS play in 2025 as a member of Conference USA.

NDSU racked up 534 yards of total offense and forced four turnovers to beat Missouri State 38-10 in Springfield last year. Zach Mathis had six receptions for a career-high 160 yards and two touchdowns, and Cam Miller finished 16 of 20 passing for 256 yards plus one rushing touchdown. The Bison built a 28-7 halftime lead with 351 total yards at intermission. Linebacker Logan Kopp had nine tackles, two of NDSU’s 11 pass breakups, a forced fumble and a recovery, and linebacker Julian Wlodarczyk made a team-high 10 stops.

Tied atop the league standings with 6-0 records, Saturday’s winner between NDSU and Missouri State will claim at least a share of the MiVFC championship. NDSU has won ten MVFC titles with its last coming in 2021. Missouri State has won the league three times, most recently in the spring 2020-21 season in a three-way tie with South Dakota State and North Dakota. The Bears’ other titles came in fall of 1989 and 1990.

This is only the second time two Missouri Valley Football Conference teams with 6-0 league records have met. The first was Nov. 7, 2009, when Southern Illinois beat South Dakota State 34-15 in Brookings to claim the league’s automatic qualifier for the FCS playoffs.

Prior to Saturday’s game, NDSU will introduce at least 23 seniors playing in their final regular-season game with the Bison. Four additional seniors – DT Bryce Friday, C Hayden Johnston, WR/RS RaJa Nelson and S Cole Wisniewski – have an extra year of eligibility available due to the impact of COVID-19 on the 2020-21 season. Nelson and Wisniewski may return in 2025 only if they redshirt in 2024 by playing in four or less regular-season games.

NDSU wide receiver Bryce Lance at Murray State became the first NDSU player since Kole Heckendorf in 2008 to catch three touchdown passes in a single game. That included a career-long 74-yard reception from Cam Miller. Lance is tied for the Missouri Valley Football Conference lead with nine touchdown catches, the most by an NDSU player since Darrius Shepherd’s nine in 2018.

NDSU’s CharMar Brown was named to the initial watch list for the Jerry Rice Award, presented annually to the top freshman player in the FCS. Brown ranks fourth in the Missouri Valley Football Conference with 11 rushing touchdowns and a team-high 798 rushing yards, the most yards by an FCS freshman and third most in Division I this year. Brown is averaging 5.1 yards per carry and has lost only nine yards in 156 attempts. He had three TDs in each of the wins over Towson and Murray State.