North Dakota State Bison

The North Dakota State Bison are the flagship winter sport of a school better known nationally for its dominant FCS football program, but the basketball team has quietly built its own March Madness pedigree. Playing home games in Fargo, NDSU has become the Summit League's most consistent NCAA Tournament participant of the 2010s and 2020s. The Bison play disciplined, defense-first basketball and have developed a reputation for pulling first-round upsets as a double-digit seed.

North Dakota State University was founded in 1890 as North Dakota Agricultural College, and its basketball program transitioned to Division I in 2004, joining the Summit League in 2007. The Bison made history in 2009 by winning the Summit League tournament in their first year of postseason eligibility, becoming the first program to do so since Southwestern Louisiana in 1972. NDSU has since returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2014, 2015, 2019, and 2026, picking up first-round wins over Oklahoma (2014) and North Carolina Central (2019) along the way.