Could North Dakota State compete in the FBS

Obviously, the Bison have consistently shown the talent to compete with FBS teams. Even this year, they've beaten the Iowa Hawkeyes, as if to drive the point home that good players want to spend the best years of their lives in Fargo. No, the question isn't "can NDSU beat teams in FBS?" because clearly they can. Can they actually compete?
In your mind's eye, of the Bison playing in FBS, what does that look like? Who is on their regular season schedule? What conference are they playing in? North Dakota State, as much as they are darlings every year because they manhandle Big Ten and Big 12 teams do not belong in the classes of either conference. The Big Ten has strict academic guidelines that the member institutions must meet, and NDSU does not meet them. North Dakota, ironically, is more closely adherent to those guidelines. The Big 12 is in rough shape, and if they can't decide on existing FBS schools to expand with, I can't imagine they would add an FCS team. Sure, North Dakota State might be able to put up a fight if paired with the big boys, the big boys won't want them.
In the Midwest, the go to "small conference" is the MAC, but that doesn't seem like a fit either. The conference is centered around the Great Lakes, and has chafed when trying to add to that. UMASS opted to go independent, for example, and Temple and Marshall have elected to go to the American and Conference USA.
Conference USA is a troubling fit because the part of the USA it covers is the southeastern part. The nearest member school would be Western Kentucky. The Sun Belt is a southern conference and the American is splattered from New England to Florida to Texas, putting the nearest member in Cincinnati.
The only really good conference is the WAC. Wyoming is as close as NDSU is going to get to a natural rival, and the conference aspires to contention. They have a membership base of teams in isolation, from Wyoming to Boise to New Mexico, and they have the budget to support those travel expenditures. The conference is full up, and may ultimately put one of its member teams in the Big 12. That would be the best situation if NDSU ever wanted to make a move up.
I don't think the Mountain West is looking to make that move, even if North Dakota State is. For the time being, I guess the Bison will be left to crush the competition in FCS.