Not even, they'd be a lot like us, only in the sunbelt conference. Occasional upset, other than that, well below average.
Had they ever been able to move past their low level, they may not even have football now. At best, if you hypothetically put them in the Big 8 at the beginning, years of winless seasons and opponents having to travel to ND to play essentially a junior college would have relegated them to the FCS or below decades ago. The years of futility would result in even less local support than they have now and leave them battling Indiana State for the cellar, at best. At least UND has hockey. I have nothing against the Bison, but fundamentally NDSU is third or fourth-class in every aspect of its existence.