FCS standout Trent Fraley lands final season at Michigan State

Trent Fraley turned North Dakota State’s factory line for offensive linemen into a ticket to East Lansing. The former Bison center, who won the 2025 Rimington Award as the top center in the Football Championship Subdivision, landed his final college season at Michigan State after a run of championship-level snaps at Fargo’s most successful program.

Michigan State did not need a long sales pitch to see the fit. The Spartans had lost a dozen offensive linemen to the portal and also watched starting center Matt Gulbin run out of eligibility, leaving a clear opening for a veteran who had already handled pressure, traffic and winning. Fraley arrived as that player, a fifth-year college lineman with a national award, a national title and 29 career starts at North Dakota State.

His visit to East Lansing gave the recruitment a little personality, too. Michigan State offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan broke the ice by bench-pressing 225 pounds for reps, a move Fraley later remembered as equal parts amusing and persuasive. The moment fit the larger pitch: Michigan State wanted experience up front, and Fraley wanted one last shot at the highest level available.

That confidence was built in Fargo. Fraley transferred to North Dakota State in 2024 after two seasons at Marshall, where he played in one game as a true freshman in 2022 and appeared in three more on special teams in 2023. At NDSU, he started all 29 games over two seasons, helped the Bison win the 2024 national championship and started all 13 games in 2025, when he earned first-team All-America honors from multiple selectors.

The honors kept stacking. North Dakota State listed Fraley as the 2025 Rimington Award winner and also credited him as the FCS’s most outstanding offensive lineman by both the FCS Athletic Directors Association and Phil Steele. He was a 2024 Missouri Valley Football Conference All-Newcomer Team selection after arriving in Fargo, then a first-team All-MVFC pick in 2025. Michigan State later identified him as an All-America transfer who would be in his fifth year of college football in 2026.

Fraley’s route also says plenty about where the FCS sits in the offensive line pipeline. North Dakota State produced the fourth Bison center to win the Rimington Award, joining Rob Hunt, Joe Lund and Tanner Volson, and the program has more Rimington winners than any other FCS school. For Michigan State, that made Fraley less a project than a proven answer, the kind of lineman who can leave a powerhouse subdivision program and step straight into a Big Ten lineup.