I'm sure Bama would play us but some of those other schools have a host of regional sacrificial lambs they can line up. Sadly you don't get bonus points for beating/playing a tough FCS team. It isn't like those programs need help selling tickets, it is just a no win situation for them.
NDSU to the FBS always. In all ways.
I think it's public knowledge that Arkansas has told us "no way, Jose". They can't be the only ones. It doesn't come down to them being "scared" to play us, it comes down to there being 119 or so other FCS schools that they can play that carry about .01% as much risk as we do. They have no reason to risk playing us, and if a school has a good AD, they won't play us.
Don't get me wrong, I would love to play every team you mentioned. But what is the incentive for them? Those teams you mentioned would rather play a local FCS team that they know they can beat by 30+. In a dream scenario I would love to play an FBS team every season. But the future of scheduling is changing, especially for NDSU.
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