2025 DIVISION I FCS CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – POSTGAME NOTES
No. 1 Montana State vs No. 2 North Dakota State
January 6, 2025 • Frisco, Texas • Toyota Stadium
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– Tim Polasek becomes the third Bison head coach to lead NDSU to a national title, joining Craig Bohl and Matt Entz. All three won it all in their first trip to the title game, with both Entz and Polasek winning in their first year at the helm of the Bison program.
– The Bison move to 10-1all-time in FCS Championship games, all in Frisco. The win over Montana State is the ninth wire-to-wire win of the 10 titles. Of the 11 title-game appearances, NDSU has only ever trailed in 2014 to Illinois State and in 2022 in its loss to South Dakota State.
– Montana State also is the eighth finals’ opponent for NDSU during its 2011-24 playoff runs along with Sam Houston, Towson, Illinois State, Eastern Washington, James Madison, Jacksonville State, and South Dakota State. Sam Houston, James Madison and Jax State have used their success in FCS to vault into FBS programs over the last four seasons.
– NDSU is 51-5 (.911 winning percentage – both FBS records) in 56 NCAA DI playoff contests over 15 seasons and making its 11th trek to the finals since 2011.
– Montana State is 15-13 overall (.536) in NCAA FCS postseason appearances since first making the playoffs and winning the championship in 1984.
– The game was the 15th playing of the FCS Championship Game in Frisco, but the first played at night since the game initially shifted to the Lone Star State in 2010 when Eastern Washington and Delaware played under the lights and the Eagles erased a 19-0 deficit in the fourth quarter to claim its first title.
– With Montana State’s Tommy Mellott finishing with 135 rushing yards and NDSU’s Cam Miller ending with 121, it marks the first time in FCS Championship Game history that dueling quarterbacks have each surpassed the century mark in rushing.
– The signal callers are the first quarterbacks to rush for 100 yards in an FCS Championship game since NDSU’s Trey Lance rushed for 181 yards in 2019 vs James Madison.
– Miller’s 64-yard touchdown run was the longest rush in an FCS championship game since NDSU’s Kobe Johnson had a 76-yard touchdown scamper vs Montana State in the 2021 title game.
– Miller threw for two scores and ran for two more. It was the first time in 2024 and the third time in his career he has thrown and ran for multiple touchdowns in the same game.
– Bryce Lance was the recipient of one of Miller’s touchdowns and finished with 107 yards receiving. It was his second straight game of over 100 yards and fourth of the year. In four games in the FCS Playoffs, Lance hauled in 25 passes for 375 yards and seven touchdowns.
– It was Miller’s second career game of over 100 yards on the ground, and the most since he set a career high with 132 rushing yards vs UIW in the semifinals of the 2022 FCS Playoffs.
– The Bobcats got their first points of the game on a field goal, capping a 17-play drive which used up 11:13 of time. The 11:13 is the longest such drive in any of the 15 FCS Championship games played in Frisco.
– Attendance for today’s game is 18,005. That makes the total turnout for the 2024-25 NCAA FCS Championship 197,477 with the top attendance during the tourney with the South Dakota at Montana State attendance of 20,557 tops during the 2024 semifinals. The 2017-18 NCAA DI overall championship attendance set a NCAA season record for the playoffs at 285,746 (including 19,090 at the NDSU-James Madison finale at Frisco) over 16 games. The January 2016 NDSU-Jacksonville State clash remains as the Toyota Stadium DI championship record at 21,836. The NCAA Division I championship game all- time attendance record is 32,106 for in 1995 for Montana’s 22-20 win over homestanding Marshall in Huntington, W.Va.
– Toyota Stadium now has hosted 23 NCAA FCS championships or FBS bowl tussles (Tropical Smoothie Café and Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl from 2017-19, 21-24) since 2010. In the inaugural 2017 then-DXL FBS Frisco Bowl Louisiana Tech downed SMU 51-10. The most recent FBS tussle here was the 2024 Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl on Dec. 17 as Memphis edged West Virginia 42-37. These bowl hosting roles also include a NCAA-first two bowl games at the same location over a three-day span in December 2021 with the Tropical Smoothie Café and Frisco Football Classic Bowls (the latter to allow two bowl-eligible teams to play after the Hawai’i Bowl was cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns on Oahu).
