North Dakota State on Monday captured its 10th FCS championship, and they won it on a very unlikely play.
The Bison beat the Montana State Bobcats 35-32 at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas. Montana State had scored a touchdown with 1:09 left to make it a 3-point game. The Bobcats tried an onside kick, but North Dakota State recovered it.
NDSU then ran the ball three straight times and forced Montana State to burn their final timeouts. The Bison ended up with a 4th-and-2 at their 40 with 10 seconds left and decided to punt. Montana State went all-out trying to block the punt, which left nobody back to return the kick. The end result was NDSU being able to let the ball continue moving until time expired.
North Dakota State wins the FCS national championship and it ends on a punt pic.twitter.com/Sihr2VqUAM
— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) January 7, 2025
How often do you see a game end on a punt like that? Not very frequently, which makes it a rare occurrence.
Montana State could have put someone back to fair catch the ball and give them one last shot, but they obviously felt like going for the punt block was their best chance of earning a victory. It didn’t work out for them in this case. NDSU has now won 10 titles in the last 14 seasons.
