Two of the most dominant programs in the history of FCS football, a trophy carved from the stone that divides their states, and the best rivalry small-college football has.
Most rivalry trophies are invented. This one is a copy of something real.
When North Dakota State and South Dakota State play for the Dakota Marker, they are playing for a 75-pound replica of the actual quartzite monuments that were planted along the border between the two Dakotas in the 1890s, back when the territory split into two states. The real markers, inscribed “N.D.” on one face and “S.D.” on the other, still trace the line between the two states. The trophy is a scale model of that boundary stone, which is fitting, because this rivalry is a border war in the most literal sense.
The border made real
The Marker was born of a shared loss. In 2004, both schools jumped from Division II up to Division I and the FCS, and in doing so each left behind its oldest in-state rival, North Dakota for the Bison and South Dakota for the Jackrabbits. Suddenly two proud programs needed a new enemy, and they found each other. A student at North Dakota State proposed a trophy modeled on the historic border monuments, it was unveiled in 2004, and the closest-neighbor rivalry of the northern plains was set.
These are the two great land-grant flagships of the Dakotas: the Bison in Fargo, the Jackrabbits in Brookings, separated by a couple hundred miles of interstate and a state line their trophy is literally shaped like. They soon landed together in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, where the winner of the regular-season Marker game keeps the trophy, and playoff meetings, of which there have been many, do not count toward it.
Two dynasties, one trophy
Here is what elevates the Dakota Marker above almost every other rivalry in the sport: both of these teams are champions.
North Dakota State built the greatest dynasty in FCS history, winning 10 national titles between 2011 and 2024, a run that includes a five-peat from 2011 to 2015. And South Dakota State, long the little sibling, finally broke through with back-to-back national championships in the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Between them, these two programs have owned the top of the FCS for well over a decade. That means the Marker game is routinely a top-five showdown, frequently a number-one-versus-number-two collision, and more than once the actual national championship. No other rivalry at this level stacks two juggernauts like this, year after year.
The biggest games
The classics have piled up fast. In 2016, South Dakota State ended a long North Dakota State winning streak in the series on a touchdown in the final seconds, a 19-17 stunner that announced the Jackrabbits were closing the gap. The gap fully closed in the 2022 championship game, when top-seeded South Dakota State beat North Dakota State 45-21 to win the first FCS title in school history, the Jackrabbits’ only postseason victory over the Bison in six playoff meetings.
North Dakota State, naturally, answered. In the 2024 playoffs the Bison beat South Dakota State in a semifinal thriller, punctuated by a spectacular one-handed touchdown catch, and rode it to yet another national championship. In the postseason, where these two have met six times, North Dakota State holds a commanding 5-1 edge, with five of those wins coming in Fargo and each one launching the Bison toward a title.
The Marker itself
For all the playoff drama, the trophy is decided in the regular season, and there North Dakota State leads the Dakota Marker series 12-10, a razor-thin margin that captures how evenly matched these two have been. The Bison currently hold the Marker, having reclaimed it and then defended it with a 38-7 rout in Brookings in 2025, their most lopsided win in the series since 1992. Ten of the twenty-two Markers have gone to Brookings, twelve have stayed in Fargo, and almost none of them have been decided easily.
An uncertain border
And now, like so many great rivalries in this era, the Dakota Marker faces an uncertain future. In 2026, North Dakota State climbed once again, leaving the FCS for the Football Bowl Subdivision and the Mountain West Conference. With the Bison moving up and out of the Missouri Valley, the annual Marker game is no longer guaranteed, and may only happen sporadically, if at all. The best rivalry in FCS is losing one of its two kings to the division above.
The Tale of the Tape
- The rivalry: North Dakota State Bison vs. South Dakota State Jackrabbits, played for the Dakota Marker, the flagship land-grant schools of the two Dakotas
- The trophy: a 75-pound replica of the quartzite monuments that mark the North Dakota and South Dakota border, created in 2004
- Marker series: North Dakota State leads 12-10 (regular-season games only)
- Postseason series: North Dakota State leads 5-1, including five playoff wins in Fargo
- The dynasties: North Dakota State, 10 FCS titles (2011-2024); South Dakota State, back-to-back titles (2022-2023)
- The stunner: South Dakota State’s 45-21 win in the 2022 FCS Championship Game, its first national title
- What’s next: with North Dakota State’s 2026 jump to the FBS and the Mountain West, the annual rivalry is in doubt
The send-off
The Dakota Marker is the rare rivalry that got better as it got older. It started as a consolation prize, two newly promoted schools reaching for something to replace the rivals they had left behind. It became the most loaded matchup in its entire division, a border war between two programs that spent a decade and a half trading national championships.
That is what makes North Dakota State’s move up so bittersweet. The Bison earned their leap to the FBS by being that good for that long, and the team that pushed them hardest along the way was the one across the state line. The border stone will keep marking where North Dakota ends and South Dakota begins. Whether the two best teams in FCS keep playing for a model of it is, for now, an open question.
A rivalry between two champions runs on the players who earn it. Fuel them. Back the Bison and the Jackrabbits on RallyFuel.
