Coming off the best season in the program’s NCAA history, excitement surrounds the Minot State University (MSU) football program which will kick off its 100th season on the gridiron on Thursday, August 28, this fall.

Beavers head coach Ian Shields is pleased to announce his team’s 2025 schedule as Minot State will start the fall of 2025 with a non-conference battle on the road against a tough NCAA Division II foe in Emporia State, Kansas, part of a home-and-home series with the Hornets.

Emporia State will make a return trip to Minot to play the Beavers at Herb Parker Stadium to kick-off the 2026 season.

The meeting at Francis G. Welch Stadium in Emporia, Kansas will be the first time MSU has played the Hornets, who finished the 2024 season with a 7-4 record and were fifth in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) with a 5-4 conference mark.

Following the first-ever clash between the Beavers and Hornets, MSU (5-6 overall, 4-6 NSIC) opens league play on the road the following weekend with a big NSIC-opening clash at Minnesota State, Mankato on Saturday, September 6. The Mavericks advanced to the national semifinal game this past season.

After two weeks on the road to start the new campaign, Minot State makes its home debut hosting a Homecoming match-up with Concordia, St. Paul on Saturday, September 13, at Herb Parker Stadium.

The season continues with another road trip for the Beavers who head to Winona State on Saturday, September 20, before MSU returns to the friendly confines of Herb Parker Stadium to host the “Battle of the Beavers” as Bemidji State visits on Saturday, September 27.

MSU opens October with a trip to Minnesota State Moorhead to battle the Dragons on Saturday, October 4, before renewing an in-state rivalry that dates all the way back to the Beavers 2nd season in 1927 as Jamestown visits the Magic City on Saturday, October 11.

The match-up is the first between the Beavers and Jimmies since 2010 and 80th overall as Jamestown makes the leap from the NAIA to NCAA Division II and the NSIC. MSU leads the all-time series 42-34-3.

Following the renewal of that in-state rivalry, the Beavers get a weekend off before returning to the field on Saturday, October 25, to host Sioux Falls.

Then it is rivalry weekend No. 2 to start November as the “Battle of the Big Lake” resumes after a one-year hiatus. This time around, MSU will be on the road as they battle the University of Mary on Saturday, November 1, in the 32nd meeting between the Beavers and Marauders and the 11th meeting in the “Battle of the Big Lake” trophy series, which began in 2013.

MSU leads the head-to-head series 17-14 and has won the “Battle of the Big Lake” trophy 6 of the 10 times it has been awarded.

Following the short trip to the University of Mary, MSU makes its final road trip of the season as the Beavers play at Northern State on Saturday, November 8, then closes the season hosting “Senior Day” on Saturday, November 15, as Minnesota Duluth visits Herb Parker Stadium.