I would argue for a 12-15 year period, Montana was damn near as dominant as ndsu has been the last 12 years. The difference was that the fcs was so much stronger then that no team was going to win 8 straight titles. The division is a mere shell of itself then.
Montana averaged a title game appearance every other year for over a decade. And that was with an fcs that has since lost most of its quality programs. No way in hell ndsu has the kind of run it had if it were playing in the mid 90s to 2010 and had to face the Marshalls, the GSUs, the Apps, the Richmond's, the Nova's etc. just wouldn't happen.