Cheating in Small College Football

[JBB2]

An important story breaking in North Dakota small college football:

Don’t hear much about und2 but when I do it’s always bad. Just when they were going to dominate the FCS too.

Were the und recruits Lakes reported recruited unethically?

Of course it was only one innocent mistake. They self reported so it must be a minor problem

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Following a collaborative process between North Dakota Athletics, the NCAA and the Division I Committee on Infractions (COI), the COl on Friday, June 5, 2026 released a negotiated resolution associated with rules violation by a staff member within the North Dakota football program.

North Dakota, the NCAA and the COl agreed that a current staff member had impermissible
communications with a student-athlete without first obtaining authorization through the notification of transfer process.

Upon discovering the violation, UND immediately self-reported it to the NCAA. (of course they did). UND then worked closely with the NCAA and the COl on a resolution.

As a result of the violation, the COl imposed penalties to include one year of probation from June 5, 2026 to June 4, 2027.

[JBB2]

WHEN DID UND START CHEATING?

It’s hard to say when they started cheating. 2023 or 2024?

Saturday, November 8 2025 Bison W 15-10

Saturday, October 5 2024. Bison W 41-17

The above scores show them really closing the gap between 2024 & 2025. They showed a spark of life in ‘23 too. Before that nothing.

What other rules have they violated?

[JBB2]

und2 suffered the following penalties. There is no suspension from the small college football tournament or other known post-season restrictions.

• One year of probation

• $25,000 fine

• A one-week ban on recruiting communications for the football program during the January 2027 notification-of-transfer window

• A 3% reduction in official paid visits in football during the 2026-27 academic year

• Three one-week bans on football unofficial visits during the 2026-27 academic year

• A one-year show-cause order for Stepps, during which any employing NCAA member school must restrict him from communicating with four-year transfer prospects during the entire January 2027 football notification-of-transfer window.

• One-game suspension for Stepps during the 2026 football season.

Stepps must be the coach getting blamed?

What a terrible shame for the State. I was thinking forfeiting the 23-25 seasons should have been included.

[JBB2]

Irony for the ages, the tale of two programs. One winning and one celebrating a dubious win over their rival:

The und2 football program transitioned into NCAA probation a full month ahead of NDSUs official July 1 transition into FBS.

fitting for a program with that history and fan base:

• they berated NDSUs FCS moves.

• Let the NCC down by frantically joining FCS.

• denigrated NDSUs success by curiously running down the FCS

• insisted for years they were more qualified and attractive to FBS than NDSU

• Upon NDSUs invitation to the FBS MWC, suddenly started bragging about dominating the now great FCS

Then reality hit. They were desperate.

und2 cheated at FCS football!

[JBB2]

It’s the lull before the storm of practice. Filling the void small colleges, both divisions: D2 & FCS, celebrated media days too. Here’s a picture from last weeks MVFC festivities held in Sioux Falls.

I believe this is the und2 group putting their best foot forward after their recent cheating scandal broke wide open. the recruiting violations resulted in probation and other punishments/sanctions.

IMG_4139.jpeg (240.62 KiB) Viewed 2978 times

[JBB2]

At least und2 has a plan

UND-FB-FAN:

Of course. If the ag college of Fargo can be FBS, then THE University of North Dakota should have an FBS football program also. Put the plans in place, get it done. Win a couple FCS nattys in the interim. ndsu can’t run and hide from the state’s flagship university forever … although they’d like to.

In 2004, After a prolonged losing streak, a frustrated und2 quit the series. Competition resumed in 2015. “The Flagship” is now 7-1

When it comes to home games The Flagship FBS BISON can do better. However, Soaking the rubes for $500/ticket would be fun. They have bragged about paying over $300 to see the FCS BISON.

Here’s the Bison record since 2015:

Saturday, September 19 2015
Fargo, N.D.
W34-9. (Typical Sat afternoon in Fargo)

Saturday, September 7 2019
Fargo, N.D.
W38-7. (Oh oh! Step back for the plucky und2 squad)

Saturday, March 20 2020
Fargo, N.D.
W34-13. (Better than last year)

Saturday, October 2 2021
Grand Forks, N.D.
W16-10. (Claiming a “moral victory” they blamed bubba for the loss)

Saturday, November 19 2022
Fargo, N.D.
W42-21. (Typical Sat afternoon in Fargo)

Saturday, October 14 2023
Grand Forks, N.D.
L24-49* (did und2 cheat.?)

Saturday, October 5 2024
Fargo, N.D.
W41-17. (Typical Sat afternoon in Fargo)

2025
Grand Forks, N.D.
W15-10. (Und2 should have beaten Kansas State too, no more moral victories up there, they claim “good loss”)

https://gobison.com/sports/football/opp ... -dakota/18

* During the und2 recruitment cheating scandal.

[JBB2]

There seems to be a lot of cheating at und2, not just football. It doesn’t look like this one was “self-reported”:

Fertility doctor, now chair of UND's OB-GYN department, accused of fraudulently fathering patient's children

A newly filed civil case alleges that without Jean Ann Nelson's knowledge, Dr. Dennis Lutz substituted his own sperm during her fertility procedures at Trinity Health in Minot in the mid-1980s

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Not sure if it’s an honor but und2 has received a request for information and back stories of interest about unique local haunts that might be memorable to visitors.

Und2 fans were chosen because the authors was particularly interested in places his FBS fans would never find themselves.

Greetings from the hot and humid suburbs of Atlanta.

I'm a sports editor and the former beat writer for Georgia Southern. I have always loved college football and have taken up doing a half-satire/half-serious weekly poll on my substack.

Each season I come up with a random item to include in each week's poll and this season I'm going with tailgate food or local establishments that a random visitor to your school would remember if they ever came to town for a game. The vast majority of my poll focuses on FBS and most of my subscribers are in the southeast, so with more FCS than FBS games on the docket this week, I wanted to find a place where my FBS friends would never find themselves.

If you want to pitch a popular food/location at UND, I'm all ears... even better if there's any backstory behind it.

Here's a link to one of last season's posts: https://substack.com/home/post/p-178302341 Not trying to self-promote. It's free for everyone and just wanted to show that I at least back up my weird love of college football with a few thousand words each week. Feel free to leave your suggestions and good luck this season!