The University of Maine football program has added a noteworthy future nonconference game.
The Black Bears announced Monday that they will take on perennial national power North Dakota State in a Football Championship Subdivision contest on Sept. 9, 2023.
UMaine will battle the eight-time FCS national champion Bison at Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome.
UMaine will receive a $250,000 guarantee and the use of three buses according to Tyson McHatten, UMaine’s senior associate director of athletics for external operations and communications.
“We are excited for the opportunity to play North Dakota State in 2023. Playing such a great and storied program is a testament to the direction of Black Bear Nation and an exciting challenge for the future,” UMaine head coach Nick Charlton said.
The Bison have won those eight FCS titles over the last nine seasons and have compiled a 128-8 record in that stretch. North Dakota is the three-time defending champ.
North Dakota State boasts an 8-1 overall record against Colonial Athletic Association opponents, including a 6-1 mark in the FCS playoffs.
Its only loss to a CAA team came in the 2016 national championship game when James Madison beat the Bison 27-17.
North Dakota State topped JMU in the 2019 and 2017 title games, 28-20 and 17-13, respectively.
In 2018, North Dakota State bested Eastern Washington 38-24 in the national championship game after Eastern Washington had beaten UMaine 50-19 in the semifinals. It marks the Black Bears’ only semifinal appearance.
Each program has had a football team for more than 125 years as UMaine fielded its first team in 1892 and North Dakota State began playing football two years later.
UMaine is 1-4 all-time against Missouri Valley Conference teams with the lone win coming over Illinois State in 1987.
This will be the first meeting between Maine and North Dakota State. The two schools were scheduled to play in Fargo on Sept. 15, 2001, but the game was canceled in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon.
No season was held last fall, although many teams, including North Dakota State and UMaine, are playing an abbreviated spring schedule in 2021.